Giggle Games

January 30, 2017 Deborah Dykstra

Credit for this topic goes to Marlaine Willborn, a retired speech therapist in Winnipeg, who demonstrated the use of ideas from ‘Giggle Time: Establishing a social connection’ by Susan Aud Somers.

Play is how children learn, and most adults want to play with their children. Sometimes we can feel that our children don’t really want to play with us. Many of us may also feel like we have lost the play skills that were once so natural, and need to “relearn” how to do it.

“Giggle Games” are one way to help make interactions with your child a part of your day. A “Giggle Game” is simply an activity you can do with your child with two key ideas:

Your child enjoys playing with you.
There is a predictable and flexible structure of turn taking.

Enjoyment

This will, of course, be different for every child. What sort of sensory experiences does your child seem to enjoy? Maybe it’s silly noises, fast motions, being squeezed, or jumping? Often you’ll find that if you spend some time observing, you are already well aware of what your child likes. Other times it can feel more difficult to identify these things. That’s okay – it simply means you’ll be starting with a little bit more trial and error.

Structure

A Giggle Game needs to be both predictable and flexible. Predictability lets your child build a sense of anticipation and know the role they can play. Flexibility lets you build in elements of surprise and challenge to develop your child’s thinking and keep them from being bored.

Each Giggle Game has:

a beginning (or invitation),
a middle (with the possibility of repetition and variation) and
an end (providing a sense of closure).

It sounds simple, and it is. Here’s one example of those stages fleshed out more fully:

Invitation: Mom holds up a balloon, takes a deep breath, smiles and pauses. Child might respond by looking, reaching, smiling, or saying something like “blow!”

Middle: Mom blows up the balloon, one breath at a time and with expressive facial expressions. With each pause, the child has an opportunity to encourage his mother.

End: Mother lets go of the balloon (or the child takes it), the air whooshes out, and the balloon ends up somewhere in the room. Mom might say, “Whoa!” or “I see it!” The child may go find the balloon and bring it back for another round. If not, the mother may start the process again, waiting for the child’s response.

Variations: Let the air blow on the child’s skin to enjoy the sensation and noise; invite him to help blow; pretend you are out of air; use large or small balloons; let the child choose the balloon; hide the balloons and find them together; tie the balloon off and bat it around…

Invitation: Child is lying on floor. Parent lies down next to child. Child might make eye contact with parent or stop moving his body as a turn. Adult lies next to child on floor, strokes child’s head and loosely covers child’s head with blanket. “Night, night.”

Middle: Child moves under blanket. Movement can be a turn. Adult partially closes eyes, snores with exaggeration, twice. Second snore is very slow. Babbling sound. Soft babble can be a turn.

End: Adult says, “Good morning!” Adult suddenly pulls blanket off child. Child laughs.

Invitation: Child sits on exercise ball. Ball is against a wall and on a mat for safety and stability; adult holds child’s hands. Adult quickly bounces the child on the ball and starts saying a rhyme: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall…”

Middle: Child makes eye contact or smiles, rhyme continues. “Had a…great…big… (adult pauses). Child says, “fall!” Adult suddenly slides the child onto the mat and squeezes him, providing sensory reinforcement.

End: Child laughs. Adult says, “More?” Child says, “More.” Game repeats.

Variations: child could be on pillow or lap. Different nursery rhymes could be adapted to various interesting movements.

These examples, of course, are just a few of many that you can try. Some other possibilities include chase games, peeking games, blowing bubbles, hopscotch, spinning chairs, catch, hiding objects, throwing rocks into puddles, pouring water, or painting. The important thing is to think about things you know your child enjoys and how you can use them to create a shared game.

A Few Guiding Principles

Non-verbal cues

Nonverbal cues are important for both you and your child to communicate what you are doing and to invite responses. The beginning action in the game is important – it provides a way for your child to invite you to play the game! So, especially if your child is primarily nonverbal, you want a nonverbal invitation. Also, it’s very important to WAIT to give your child the opportunity to respond to each invitation or “turn” that you take. This is about your child feeling safe, curious and motivated to engage with you, and learning to be a communicator!

Persistence

Don’t give up too quickly! It may take a few invitations, or a bit of trial and error before your child is ready to join. And while you don’t want to get stuck on the same idea forever, what your child is not in the mood for one day may not necessarily speak to their lack of interest in the activity forever.

Frequency

How often should you try this? Because Giggle Games are simple in nature, parents can give them a chance at various times throughout the day. If you get the reaction you’re hoping for, wonderful! If not, you know that there will be another chance soon enough. Just be ready when you start a game to stay in the moment with your child if they do become engaged! You might even find that they stay interested longer than you do. If so, great! Hang in there and let it play out! A ten minute game is a good goal.

Variations

How quickly? How many? How soon? Because every kid is different, there is no hard and fast rule for that. In general, try not to introduce more than one game at a time. Focus on the cues that your child is giving you. It’s good to introduce a variation when they’re still engaged in the game, but it’s also good to respect their response to the variation. If blowing the balloon’s air onto their face is too much, for example, go back to what you did before, and introduce a different variation a little bit later.

The play routine needs to be ‘same but a little different’ so your child can still anticipate what is coming and connect it with the game you child is familiar with and enjoys. If the variation is too much it might be confusing or your child might lose interest.

Props

Especially early on, the fewer props, the better. Remember, the focus is not on the game or toys themselves, but on you and your child having an enjoyable shared experience.

So with all that information in mind, how do you begin? Pick an activity and try it with your child. Whether your first try is a success or not, you will have begun the process of connecting with your child through the sometimes challenging, but also very rewarding avenue of play.