Where's the Cricket? — Eyes-Closed Sound Pointing

A sitting-still guessing game in which the child, eyes closed, points to where a quiet sound came from — left, right, in front, or behind.

  1. Seat the child on a cushion or stool in the middle of the room, away from walls, and ask them to close their eyes (or pull a hat down over them). They are the “night owl” listening for a cricket.
  2. Tiptoe to a spot about 1–2 meters away — to the left, the right, in front, or behind — and make one short, quiet sound: two taps of a spoon on a cup, a jingle of keys, a single clap.
  3. The child points to where the sound came from, keeping their eyes shut, and then opens them to check: “Was I right?”
  4. Change position silently and repeat 8–10 times. Mix the directions up so there is no pattern to guess, and include some “behind” turns — they are the hardest.
  5. Swap roles. Let the child be the cricket while you point, and get one wrong on purpose now and then so they can correct you.

Variation: play Tick-Tock Treasure — hide a ticking kitchen timer or a phone playing quiet music somewhere in the room (under a cushion, in a drawer left slightly open) and let the child hunt for it by ear alone.

Requirements

  • Space: A quiet room with 2–3 meters of clear floor around the child
  • Surface: Any; a cushion, stool, or the floor for the child to sit on
  • Materials: A quiet sound-maker (keys, spoon and cup, small bell, or just your hands); optional ticking timer for the variation
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can take turns as the cricket
  • Supervision: Light — the adult is the play partner

Rationale & Objective

Working out where a sound comes from is called sound localization, and ASHA’s technical report on auditory processing lists it first among the behaviors the central auditory system makes possible. The brain does it by comparing tiny differences in the timing and loudness of a sound at the two ears. Children can turn toward sounds from infancy, but the precision of localization — and especially telling front from behind, where the two-ear cues are identical and the brain must rely on subtle changes made by the outer ear — keeps sharpening through the preschool and early school years (Litovsky, 2015). Localizing matters far beyond the game: it is how a child knows which adult is speaking, turns to a friend calling on the playground, and separates one voice from the noise around it. This game directly rehearses the subdomain’s own benchmark — identifying whether a clapped sound came from the left, the right, or behind — and A. Jean Ayres described this kind of orienting to sound as one of the earliest building blocks of listening.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: turns the whole head or peeks to find the sound; gets left and right correct only when the sound is loud and close; guesses at front versus behind
  • Developing: points to left and right reliably with eyes closed; front and behind are still often mixed up; needs the sound repeated sometimes
  • Proficient: points correctly to left, right, front, and behind for a quiet sound from 2 meters on the first try, without peeking
  • Advanced: points to in-between directions (behind-left, front-right); finds a hidden ticking timer by ear; can still localize with soft music playing in the background

Safety Notes

  • Use closed eyes or a loose hat rather than a tied blindfold, and keep the child seated — moving around a room without sight invites bumps and falls
  • Keep sounds gentle and never make a loud noise close to the child’s ear; no whistles, squeakers, or toy horns near the head
  • Some children dislike having their eyes covered or being approached from behind; let them keep eyes open and simply face a wall, and never startle them for fun
  • A child who consistently mislocates sounds to one side, or who always turns the same ear toward you, should have a hearing test — one-sided hearing loss is easy to miss
  • Frequent ear infections or a heavy cold can temporarily dull hearing; skip the game on those days rather than treat mistakes as a listening problem

Hints

  • Playfulness: give the sound a character — a cricket, a mouse in the kitchen, a pirate burying treasure. Whisper “the mouse is moving…” before each turn to build suspense
  • Sustain interest: change the sound-maker each time you play and let the child choose it. Keep score together as a team (“We found 7 crickets!”) rather than counting misses
  • Common mistake: walking with audible footsteps or rustling clothes, so the child tracks your movement instead of the sound. Move in socks, pause a few seconds, then make the sound
  • Limited space: stay in your seat and hold the sound-maker out at arm’s length to the left, right, above, or behind the child’s head — a very small room works fine
  • Cross-domain: have the child say the direction words (“behind me”, “on my left”) instead of pointing (spatial vocabulary); count the taps as well as pointing (numeracy)
  • Progression: left/right only → add front/behind → quieter sounds from farther away → in-between directions → soft background music → the hidden-timer hunt

Sources

  • ASHA (2005), (Central) Auditory Processing Disorders — Technical Report: sound localization and lateralization listed among central auditory processes
  • Litovsky, R.Y. (2015), “Development of the auditory system,” Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 129 — maturation of spatial hearing in childhood
  • Ayres, A.J. (2005), Sensory Integration and the Child (25th anniversary ed.) — the auditory system and orienting to sound
  • DfES (2007), Letters and Sounds, Phase One, Aspect 1 (general sound discrimination — environmental sounds)
  • Dunn, W. (2014), Sensory Profile 2 — Auditory Processing section