Talking Foreheads
This Parent-Child Game Takes Imagination
This takes seeing to believe.
And believing to “see” it.
Don’t let the simplicity fool you. This quick activity can really blow your adult mind.
How? Because if you truly suspend disbelief, you’ll be amazed at how your mind can accept a new reality where your child has a mouth in their forehead.
It’s a bit of a tightrope walk for the mind. And your child will be your best teacher when it comes to diving deep into imagination.
This is just one of many activities we’ve created that help adults relearn childlike wonder. For more, see our parent-child activities page!
Activity: Speak face-to-face, upside-down to each other.
Description:
1) Look into each other’s eyes, with one of you upside down
2) Relax. Stare until you’re looking at your partner’s eyes “upside UP.” This will be faster than you think – our brains are trained to see this way!
3) Pull apart slowly until you see their mouth in their forehead! Ack!
Additional Thoughts:
The science behind this activity is based on the “Thatcher Effect”.
We humans, like many other animals, are quickly drawn to eyes even when they’re not really there.
Quickly identifying eyes in our environment alerts us to possible threats; yes, this is an old standby feature of our brains from when we were out in the wild constantly under threat of being eaten by other larger animals.
The first trick in making this work is to see your partner’s eyes as upside “up” even though they’re upside-down. Give yourself the few moments to really see this.
Duration: 2 minutes
Location:
– Anywhere
This is easier when one person can lay down.
Materials:
Imagination (suspend disbelief)
How did you do?
Please let us know how your mini-date went in the comments section below.