This Amazing House: An interactive game to spark imaginations

In my days as a Floortime® Specialist, thinking of interactive group games that sparked all types of imaginations and different individual interests proved to be a challenge. This interactive game captures the interests of individuals, encourages teamwork, motivates visions, and breathes life into communicative intentions and back-and-forth dialog.

Game Description: Teens are presented with an idea of creating their dream rooms to add to "This Amazing House" design. Teens are divided into groups of two or three. Each small group is outfitted with materials to create their basic plan (i.e., poster board, pencils, markers, magazine pictures, glue). They can opt to add other materials (i.e., legos, origami, other colored paper) to their initial design making their plans more visual and concrete. In the second phase, teams can think of decorating ideas, demonstrations, and the best parts of their room and how they might engage others in a game that accentuates the theme of the room. A strong recommendation is to do this in preparation for Halloween. For example, creating a scream room, ghost room, or a sensory yuck room. The choices are unlimited. Other ideas may include a Disney-themed room which can be equipped with costumes, karaoke, or life like enchanted setups. For a video gaming-themed room, they might have materials and toys mimicking the same concepts in video games and role play interactions, matching appropriate maturity/developmental levels.

You can stop there, but why not expand the ideas to make it a reality. Depending on your available time and space, teens can plan their weeks to develop rooms with their available resources and creative solutions. To make these plans even more sophisticated, a scavenger hunt with clues can be devised for the grand prize and finale. In addition, photos can help document their steps and accomplishments.

Teams will glow with their own motivations, highlight their unique ideas, and share them with other teams creating opportunities for acceptance and feelings of being part of the larger community. The best outcome is natural sense of celebrating accomplishments and sharing their strengths with others.