Role-playing Resources
These resources will help you to practice and implement Role-playing with your child.
Feel free to rewatch the Role-playing video as many times as you need to, and come back to this page often for resources as you and your child grow and advance with this skill.
Research articles about Role-Playing
Research has shown that Role-playing is vital in helping prepare children for the future and situations they may encounter. Studies have shown that practice (Role-playing) is the best way to learn a new skill or behavior.
Read more about the study that was in our Role-playing lesson video. This study looked at the long-term effect of learning and practice in ballet dancers and found that the age-old practice that practice makes perfect was true.
Starting Point from Carleton College explains how Role-playing allows a child to see the importance of any information they learn as it gives it context.
Activities & Games
The following Role-playing games and activities can make it fun for your family.
Charades
Charades is a great game to introduce children to Role-playing as it allows them to practice being silly and doing things they aren’t in their comfort zone.
Charades involves acting out words or phrases without using any verbal clues in a given amount of time—usually 30 seconds or a minute depending on the age of the participants and how you plan to award points.
How to accrue points can be done in one of two ways.
Option 1: A point is given for any right answer that is guessed during the set time frame.
Option 2: Each player only gets 1 card per turn.
Instructions to play
1. Download: CHARADE FILE
2. Print out and cut to guidelines.
3. Divide the questions in half and place in two bowls—one for each team.
4. Each team takes turn having one player act out the clues while the rest of the team tries to guess.
5. The player who is acting out is not able to speak, though rules to whether they can make other sounds vary so be sure to set the rules before you starts.
6. Game ends when all the cards have been used.
Reverse Charades
This point of Role-playing is to get children to be comfortable doing things that are asked of them. In Reverse Charades, children have to act out the command from their cards, trying to get as many cards as possible in a set amount of time frame. This game differs from Charades in the fact that they are able to use sounds, movement, etc.
Instructions to play
1. Download: Reverse Charades File
2. Print out and cut to guidelines.
3. Place all the questions in a stack face down.
4. Set a timer for 45 seconds. The players whose turn it is, tries to act out as many cards as possible before the time runs out.
5. Game ends when all the cards are gone.
6. The player with the most cards wins.
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Downloadable Resources and Worksheets
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