games that teach kids social cues

 "Silly"

It is so important for all of us to understand and recognize social cues, gestures, voice tone and pitch. Having social intelligence at an early age can even help us with our own emotions as well as being empathetic towards others. I like the game of charades because I keep going until someone gets the right answer...but we play it with the older kids with pantomiming emotions.

How to Play Emotion Charades:
Materials: A bag and strips of paper with a list of emotions on them. Teach kids about words like, "Flabbergasted", "Intrigued", even "Overwhelmed". Okay, so they are big words but you would we love to add to our social vocabulary aside from words like sad, happy, and mad.
The Procedure: Allow kids to pull  a word out of the bag, read them and act it out....we even let the one pantomiming talk and give clues to display the emotion, too (without saying the actual word, of course).
Kids learn really quickly!

For Young Kids:
In order to adapt this game we do the same thing but show them emotion cards to imitate. If you, or someone you know draws fairly well you can make them yourself!