Drawing Bugs

I found this activity here while searching on the internet a while back and it has since been one of my favorite communication activities!

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Supplies:
Paper and pen/colored pencils/crayons for each person.

Description:
Tell the patients that they will be drawing a bug for group today.  You will describe the bug, and they will draw what you describe.  Explain that they will not be able to see the bug you are describing, and they they cannot ask questions or talk to each other.  I often repeat each step two times.

Describe the bug:
1. The bug is round.
2. The bug has eight legs, grouped in pairs with four legs on the left and four legs on the right.  In the pairs, one leg is longer than the other.
3. The bug has two eyes on top of the body.
4. The bug has two squiggly antenna.
5. The bug has two pea-pod shaped wings.
6. The bug has a spot next to each wing.
7. The bug has a triangular stinger on the bottom of the body.
8. The bug has two feelers on each foot - one longer than the other, both coming from the same side of the leg.
9. The bug has a round mouth, placed between the two eyes.
10. The bug laid five square eggs, to the left of the stinger.

After everyone is finished, have the patients hold up their bugs for everyone to see.  Note some of the similarities and differences.  Then hold up your bug (drawing can be found HERE).  Discuss the differences.

Processing:
-Why don't all the bugs look like mine? (Interpretation: everyone has a different interpretation, based on his or her experiences.)
-What did you think of first when you were told to draw a bug?  What did you see in your mind?
-What could we have done differently so that your drawings and mine would have looked more alike?
-What would have been the advantages of allowing questions to be asked?
-How many of you wanted questions to be asked?

We also talk about perspectives, ad how perspective affects communication.


Adapted from A Kaleidoscope of Leadership, Minnesota Extension Service.