Mother May I? – Seven benefits to the fun and engaging game!
Remember some of those games you played outdoors on warm summer evenings or in your elementary physical education classes? Those games focused on a variety of skills without us, as children, even being aware of it. One great example is Mother May I. Read on to see the variety of skills the simple, fun and engaging game can address.
- Attention: The players must attend to the “mother” and where the other players are in relationship to the mother.
- Manners: The game requires that the child politely state his/her request. “Mother May I take 3 baby steps?” It also requires that the child accept the yes or no politely.
- Following Directions: The child must follow the directions as approved or as the mother changes them.
- Impulse control: The child must control self to follow only the directions given and to wait his/her turn.
- Gross Motor Skills: The child completes a variety of skills to move toward the mother.
- Requesting: The child must formulate a request for the mother.
- Descriptive vocabulary: The child must describe the movement he/she wants to complete.
*Other Games that can work on some of these same skills: Follow the Leader; Simon Says; Red Rover; Freeze Tag
-Teal Simmons, Speech Therapist