Guess Who?

As we make our way through kids games this month, they will get slightly more complex and grow with age. So while Candyland is one of the easiest games to learn and play, we’ll introduce other games that start incorporating strategy, team play, finer coordination, and different game board configuration.

Next up on the board game roster is Guess Who?.

Name of Game: Guess Who?
Debut: 1979
Age Range: 6 years and up (the Junior version is for ages 3 and up)

Objective: Figure out your opponent’s mystery character before they guess yours

Guess Who? is the gateway game to the world of whodunits and deductive reasoning. While other games in this age group focus more on fine and visual motor skills, this one encourages observation and logic. By asking questions, children use the process of elimination to close character doors and solve the mystery of their opponent’s person

The game was developed by a married couple named Ora and Theo Coster (the same people who created the Pop-Its fidget toys). Although they’ve been in the game and toy industry since 1965, their big break came in 1979 with Guess Who?. Originally released in Dutch under the name “Wie is het?”, Milton Bradley (now Hasbro) saw its international potential and released it in the U.K. market as Guess Who?, eventually reaching the US in 1982 and becoming a household name.

Aside from its simplistic gameplay, what makes this game unique is its character roster. Although the cast has changed over the years and adapted to various themed editions, each person has a set of specific descriptive traits and facial features (hair, eye color, skin tone, clothing accessories, facial expression, etc). The subtle differences help kids pay attention to detail and narrow down their leads during questioning.

Gameplay

Each player takes one board (red or blue), flipping all the doors open to reveal all 24 characters.
Shuffle the mystery card deck with each player picking one card and placing it facing them.
The youngest player starts the game by asking a question about their opponent’s secret person.
The player will flip down doors based on the answer they receive.
When a player thinks they know who their opponent’s character is, they can attempt to guess on their turn and end the game.
If the player guesses wrong, the game is over and the other player wins. If they guess correctly, they win.

Skills Tested

Guess Who? is a fave among speech and occupational therapists because it uses several types of skills.

Executive functions (categorizing/organizing/recalling information and impulse control)
Emotional regulation (frustration tolerance)
Social participation (engaging communication with questions)
Language skills (descriptive vocabulary)
Speech skills (articulation of words when asking questions)
Auditory skills (listening/understanding questions and answering appropriately)

Modifications

Just like Candyland, Guess Who? is simple and allows for many modifications and different ways to play. Give these options a try:

If asking questions is tricky, use statements about the mystery person instead. For example, a player would say, “My person has brown eyes,” and their opponent would eliminate all the characters with blue eyes.
To help with following directions (or if negation is difficult to understand), change the questions/statements to 1-step commands. For instance, instead of saying, “My person does not have white hair,” you might say, “Close the doors on all the people with white hair.”
Incorporate some handwriting. They can jot down the characteristics of the mystery person (very Sherlock Holmes of them) on a note pad or they could write out their questions instead of asking it out loud to address letter sizing, formation, spacing, and grammar.
Make it harder by have players draw two mystery cards with the objective to name both of the opponent’s secret characters.
Limit the number of questions to make it challenging. For example, each player can only ask up to five questions before having to make a guess.
Change the pictures from characters to other subjects, like animals or food items to expand their vocabulary.
Change the pictures to characters from a movie. This can expand the pool of questions based on background knowledge.
Personalize the game by replacing the character pictures with relatives/friends. This is a good tool if you have a larger extended family.
Engage their listening skills and imagination by describing the mystery character in a story, kind of like a beginner’s whodunit. For example, “One morning, I saw this lady with brown hair and wearing a hat run over my azaleas! She seemed really happy about it too. I think she had brown eyes. Do you know who they could be?”