A pantomime game where the child draws a card and uses only their body to act out the picture — no words, no sounds. Trains ideational praxis: generating a fresh motor plan from scratch, the most cognitively demanding praxis component.
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Make a simple deck of 15–25 picture cards showing things a 5-year-old can act out. Mix categories:
- Animals: elephant, snake, butterfly, kangaroo, monkey, owl
- Daily actions: brushing teeth, eating spaghetti, washing hair, sweeping
- Vehicles: airplane, bicycle, train, helicopter
- Sports / activities: swimming, kicking a ball, climbing, skating
- Weather / nature: rain, wind, tree growing, ocean wave
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Shuffle the deck. The child draws a card and looks at it without showing the adult.
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The child has 30 seconds to become the thing. No talking, no sounds (or allow sounds for the youngest).
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The adult guesses. First wrong guesses are fine — they tell the child the message wasn’t clear yet. After the guess, show the card and discuss: “What did you do that made me think ‘snake’? What could you add next time so I see ’elephant’?”
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Swap roles. The adult acts; the child guesses. Adults should make their own performances goofy and imperfect to model that creative praxis is allowed to be silly.
Variation: no deck — the child invents the thing themselves (“act out something from breakfast”). Two-card mash-ups (“a swimming elephant”). Group charades with 2–4 children where one acts and the others guess.
Requirements
- Space: A 2 × 2 m clear area for movement
- Surface: Floor that allows sit, lie, stand, and crawl moves
- Materials: 15–25 picture cards (homemade with simple drawings; printed clip art; or photo cards from a magazine); a bag or box to draw from
- Participants: 1 adult + 1 child minimum; very engaging in 3–4 person family groups
- Supervision: Light — sit and watch
Rationale & Objective
Ideation — generating an idea of what movement to do — is the earliest and most foundational of Ayres’ three praxis stages (ideation → motor planning → execution). May-Benson & Cermak (2007) identified ideational praxis as a precursor to all other motor planning and developed the Test of Ideational Praxis (TIP) specifically for it. Children who struggle here often show rote, repetitive, or imitation-only play — they cannot generate novel motor ideas. Charades is structurally a pure ideation task: there is no model to copy and no verbal recipe to follow — the motor plan must be constructed from a concept. Spitzer (2003) and Serrada-Tejeda et al. (2024) note that pretend play and pantomime are the everyday correlates of ideational praxis, and that practice in these contexts generalises to novel real-world movement problems (using new tools, navigating new spaces).
Progress Indicators
- Early: looks at the card and freezes; uses sound effects only (no body movement); reverts to one default action regardless of the card
- Developing: performs the most prominent feature (snake = lying down; elephant = arm swinging); single-action only; needs prompting (“how does an elephant walk?”)
- Proficient: combines 2–3 features (snake slithers AND flickers tongue); uses different body levels (low, high); message is readable on first or second guess
- Advanced: performs novel multi-feature acts; mashes up two concepts (“a sleeping butterfly”); spontaneously invents new cards; can act for 30+ seconds without running out of ideas
Safety Notes
- Skip cards involving falls, jumps from height, or impact (no “stunt person,” no “diving from a board”)
- Avoid cards depicting real-world hazards the child should not pretend (knife juggling, fire breathing) — use only safe imagined acts
- Floor moves call for a clean, splinter-free surface
- Stop if a child becomes embarrassed or frustrated — pantomime is exposing for some children, and forced performance damages confidence
- Be careful with cultural or stereotyped depictions; choose universal animals, objects, and actions
Hints
- Playfulness: make the deck together — the child draws and decorates each card. Ownership = engagement. A “charades hat” or “surprise box” the cards live in adds ritual
- Sustain interest: theme nights — Animal Charades Monday, Bedtime Routine Charades Tuesday, Weather Charades Wednesday. Keep a wall chart of which cards have been guessed in under 10 seconds
- Common mistake: pressuring guesses (“come on, what is it?”) makes the child rush. Stay calm and curious — “hmm, I see lots of arms… are you a bird?” — model thinking aloud. Also: never laugh at a performance, only with the child
- Limited space: charades needs only a body’s worth of floor and works on a sofa, in a tent, in a hotel room. Excellent for waiting rooms (“act out something silently”)
- Cross-domain: describe the act afterwards in words (oral language); group cards by category (classification); count guesses (numeracy); add a written word to each card (early literacy); take photos of poses for a family album (visual memory)
- Progression: single-feature easy cards (snake, butterfly) → multi-feature animals (galloping horse) → daily actions (brushing teeth) → weather/nature → mash-ups (“swimming elephant”) → child invents own cards → 30-second free improvisation
Sources
- Ayres, A.J. (1972/2005). *Sensory Integration and the Child*. Western Psychological Services
- May-Benson, T.A. & Cermak, S.A. (2007). "Development of an assessment for ideational praxis." American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61(2), 148–153
- May-Benson, T.A. (2001). "A theoretical model of ideation in praxis." In Smith Roley, S. et al. (Eds.), *Understanding the Nature of Sensory Integration with Diverse Populations*. Therapy Skill Builders
- Spitzer, S.L. (2003). "With and without words: exploring occupation in relation to young children with autism." Journal of Occupational Science, 10(2), 67–79
- Serrada-Tejeda, S. et al. (2024). "Ideational praxis, play, and playfulness: a cross-sectional study." American Journal of Occupational Therapy
- Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) — overall praxis battery
- OT Practice Framework (OTPF-4) — play and praxis
- Head Start ELOF — Approaches to Learning, Creative Arts Expression