According to the creators’ intention, the game is designed to guide players through reflections and reminiscences, to give them plenty to think about and to help family and friends know each other better.
“Tell Me: The Power of Questions” contains 119 questions covering different areas of life. The primary themes are imagination, relationships, physicality and behavior. Questions address different channels of perception and hemispheres of the brain.
You can play with children who are at least five years old and the number of participants is unlimited. Since you can answer questions alone, there is an impetus to self-discovery and study of your own resources.
The rules of the game are simple: Everyone takes a card by turn and reads the questions and answers. If one of the players wants to give his or her answer to the question and none of the participants is against it, then he or she shares his or her thoughts.
Teams of players of all ages can participate and if they feel the same as the player who responds to the question, they show a collective symbolic gesture that they previously agreed to. It is important to accept the similarities and differences between people.
“Now is a special time when closeness and trust can become healing therapeutic tools,” says Ms Royz. “And, at the same time, to be in close contact, we may not have enough strength. Stress makes us lonely. And restoring a safe space of relationships – with different people, as well as with ourselves – is one of our objectives.”
“When we ask open-ended questions, the person next to us will feel our genuine interest in him or her as well as feel that we are ready to invest our time and energy in a relationship. Indeed, open-ended questions encourage us to play and take time to comprehend. The answers to them are more than just ‘yes” or “no’.
“There are lots of card games. In our game, the emphasis is on resourcefulness. All questions and practices are therapeutic. They were carefully chosen to direct the consciousness towards reflection, but not to be traumatic at this time. I really want us to feel the power of sincere questions, and each ‘tell me…’ would make us closer, stronger and more resourceful.”
“This game is already the fifth development by Svitlana Royz for children, teachers and parents, created together with the NGO Smart Education during the war,” said Halyna Tytysh, head of Smart Education NGO. “Like this wonderful novelty, our other projects – “Your Power”, “Power Cards”, “Breath Cards”, “Huggies” – are placed in the public domain. We strive for more warmth, understanding and love between adults and children. The new game “Tell Me: The Power of Questions” is a great tool for that.”
“Tell Me: The Power of Questions” was published online at no charge. Cards can be downloaded at this link, then printed and tested in practice. Smart Education plans to print the game in the near future and distribute it to teachers.
The project was created by:
The game was created with the support of East Europe Foundation and Terre des Hommes.