Flashlight Seek & Find Scavenger Hunt
Judy Benz Duncan, Occupational Therapist
Here is a fun and simple to plan activity you can play inside or outside!
Great activity for working on attention, focus, visual scanning, memory, coordination, following directions, sensory processing, interaction and participation skills, and so much more! And don’t forget that it is FUN!
Plan your scavenger hunt items depending on where you will be, and what you may be able to see. There are several options listed that will help you vary the activity and adjust it to your location and needs at any given time. Enjoy!
What you Need:
Flashlights for everybody involved (don’t forget the batteries!)
A Scavenger Hunt List (examples given below)
The Dark! (Turn off lights inside, go outside when the stars are out and the porch light is off); If your child is afraid of the dark, you can play at dusk or with nightlights on.
A comfy place to sit (inside or outside spot – a chair, a sofa, the bed, a blanket, and so on)
What to Do:
Pick one room if in the house, or carefully move from room to room by flashlight (remove all the trip hazards!). Outside watch for any safety hazards, and keep your child in sight!
Give cues and help with directing where to look if they are having trouble
Pick an Option / List and Have a Great Time!
Indoors Hunt Backyard or Campout Hunt
Lamp Door Knob
Book Bug
Pillow Plant or Flower
Red Toy Ball
Shoes Branch on ground
Cup Spider web
Door knob Rock or Stone
Light Switch Flying Bug
Picture on Wall Hole in a Tree
Wiggling Toes Moss (on ground or tree)
What else can you think of? Use some of the ideas from the OPTIONS listed below to add to the fun!
OPTION 1:
Tape pictures of items, colors, shapes to objects and the room walls/doors AND partially hide actual items on shelves, on back of sofa, on window sill – make a list and then read off each one, moving on as your child finds that item.
Yellow Square
Crayon
Car
Dog
Cat
Bird
Alphabet Letter (can use all the letters of their name spread around the room)
Game piece
Hair Brush
If you are using picture cards and / or torn pictures out of a magazine, the variety can be endless!
Let your child help you pick out the items that you will be hiding, to bring initial set up participation, choice, and memory for what they are picking into the game.
OPTION 2:
Use Alphabet Blocks, Foam Alphabet Letters & Numbers, Picture cards of Letters and spread around the room – have your child find each one in order, or randomly find and call out each one as they do
OPTION 3:
Use Picture Cards of Different Colors and/ or Use Crayons of easy to identify color, or use Colored Plastic Easter Eggs and hide around the room – Call out the color to hunt for and have your child find that specific color – it can turn into a sort of Memory Game, as if they spot a Green color while looking for a Red color, you can ask them if they remember where that color was when you call it out.
OPTION 4:
Make your scavenger hunt about sensation!
Have your child find items that are:
Soft
Shiny
Rough
Squishy
Hard
Noisy
Rings
Ticks
Hairy
Smells (good or bad)
And so on ……
OPTION 5:
Get a flashlight and do a Seek & Find in a picture book! Get under the covers, or in a pup-tent! You may want to use a small pen-light for this one so that you can focus in on smaller areas on the pages of a book.
Have fun!
Finding one or two may be all your child can tolerate to start, but with more fun practice, they may work up to finding 10 – 15 – or more items in one play-time!
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