Hide and seek – Child

Children love finding places to hide! They also love treasure hunts where they search for hidden objects.

Did You Know?

Finding games involving people or objects being hidden develop children’s thinking, reasoning and planning skills. Children learn these skills both when hiding and when seeking.

Add language

You could give verbal cues to help find the objects during a treasure hunt or give instructions on how to get to them e.g. “Take 3 big steps forward, turn right, take 2 jumps forward, look to the left”.

Other development

Taking turns to count while the other hides helps learn and practice early number sequences.

Drawing a treasure map with visual clues on where to find the treasure develops skills needed for early reading and maths.

Variations

Playing hide and seek outdoors gives children more opportunity to explore and plan hiding places and to judge risk (within safe boundaries). This develops their thinking and risk assessment skills.

Memory games add an extra dimension to hiding games:

• Start by looking at and talking about a small group of objects or pictures.
• Cover them and take turns to see how many of them you can remember, or
• Cover them, take turns to take one away, look again and work out which one is missing.

Across the ages

All the activities listed on our “Play Ideas” page can be applied across different age groups. Check out hide and seek for babies, toddlers and playgroups.

Activities listed under “child” are suitable for children 3 years and older.  Children of this age enjoy more complex activities where they can develop their skills and use their imagination while playing with friends.