Child lies still with eyes closed for 2 minutes and identifies every distinct sound in the house. Then draws a rough floor plan and marks where each sound came from. Fridge hum in the kitchen, bird outside the window, pipes in the bathroom wall. A grounding exercise that feels like detective work. Perfect for a child who needs to stay still but whose mind is restless. Sensory grounding exercises measurably reduce perceived discomfort in children. This is the version that requires only paper and a pencil.

What you need

Paper
Pencil

How to do it

1Close your eyes. Lie very still for two minutes. Your only job is to hear every sound in the house.
2Set a timer. Sit very still yourself. Do not speak.
3When it ends: draw a map of our home. Mark where each sound came from.

Variations

If lying still for two minutes feels impossible: let them count sounds out loud in real time instead of waiting in silence.
How it ends: once the map has five sounds on it, call it finished — 'that's a full map' closes it without more listening.

💡 Parent tip

Do this in the morning when the house has more ambient sound. Fridge, heating, outdoor birds, passing traffic. A very quiet house produces a very short map.

What your child develops

Auditory discrimination — isolating individual sounds in a complex environment is a core listening skill
Mindful grounding — directed sensory attention reduces anxiety and perceived pain without any special equipment
Spatial mapping — translating a sound to a location on a floor plan combines auditory and spatial reasoning