Blind Walk

Purpose: Communication requires more than verbal skills to be effective. Listening to what is said and what is implied is critical to good understanding. Communication requires a degree of trust; especially when you are talking about something personal.

Materials:

1. 1 blindfold for every 2 participants

Activity: Have group participants find a partner. Explain to the group the hazards of this activity and stress the importance of being responsible for safety. You may want more than one person to assist with this activity to monitor safety. The activity starts with one of the pair blindfolded. The other person is the leader. The group facilitator or designated person will lead the group around a course of your own design. There should be sufficient obstacles to create a challenge for your age group. The length of the course should not take more than 5 minutes. The group participants should walk in a line with the sighted person keeping the blindfolded person on course and safe. Group participants may talk as much as they want during this part of the activity. After a period of time, have the partners switch roles and continue the walk.

After both partners have had a chance to experience the activity, it is time to increase the challenge. The activity will be repeated, except this time there will be no talking or sounds of any kind allowed during the walk. You can have the group participants switch partners. Give the partners a chance to plan to figure out what kinds of signals they are going to use to tell the blindfolded person they have to turn, step up or down, bend down and walk under something, etc. Since the group participants can’t use sounds, they must develop another communication avenue. Remind the group participants that once they start there are to be no sounds of any kind. Again have them switch roles so both partners experience the activity. During the switch, allow each group time to plan to decide on the same or new signals. Anytime the group gets too spread out on the walk, stop and wait for them to close the line back up. Do not allow them to remove their blindfolds or talk during the stops.

Processing:

1. How did you feel during the first walk when you were the blindfolded person?

2. How did you feel during the first walk when you were the leader?

3. Did you feel safe in the hands of your leader? Why or why not?

4. What kinds of things did your partner do to make you feel safe or scared?

5. Were you able to follow your leader without any problems? Why or why not?

6. As the leader, did you have any problems getting your partner to follow? Why or why not?

7. In the second activity, how did you feel when you were blindfolded?

8. In the second activity, how did you feel as the leader?

Page 2 Blind Walk

9. What signals did you use to guide your partner when you couldn’t talk?

10. How well did these signals work? Did you change them when you switched?

11. Did you as the blindfolded person listen harder when your partner was using his or her voice or when he was using signals? Why?

12. Did you as the leader have to work hard when you were using your voice or when you were using signals? Why?

13. How can this activity help us to improve our communication skills?

14. What kinds of things can we do to improve our communication?

15. What role did trust play in this activity?

16. What roles does trust play in our communication with others?

17. How can we establish trust with others?

18. What kinds of things break down our trust in others?

19. What would we have to do to reestablish trust again?

20. Is this process any different when we deal with our friends as opposed to when we deal with our parents or other significant people in our lives?

Resource: Activities that Teach, Tom Jackson