by Kathy Eugster
December 2, 2025
The Squiggle Game was created by pediatrician/child psychiatrist D. W. Winnicott around 1960-70 and has been used for many years by child therapists and pediatricians not only for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, but also as a way to build rapport with children. It involves one person drawing a random squiggle, and the other person (or the same person) transforming it into a recognizable picture by adding lines and details.
This game can also be used with parents and children and provides the following benefits:
- Sparks imagination and creativity
- Allows children to share and express ideas and feelings
- Builds connection between parent and child
Instructions
Have available paper and some colored pens or pencils.
Step 1
- Instruct your child to take a piece of paper and draw a squiggle using one of the pens.
- Explain that a squiggle is a random, messy line that curves or loops in any direction. The more unstructured the line, the better. Or it can just be any kind of shape.
- If they want, your child can close their eyes when drawing the squiggle.
Step 2
- Now get your child to look at their squiggle and see if they can see anything. Ask your child, “What can you spot in your squiggle?”
- Your child might even want to turn their paper to look at the squiggle from different directions.
- For example, your child may see some shapes that could become a face, an animal, a fish, a fantastical creature, a flower, a tree, a car, a house, an airplane, or really anything at all.
Step 3
- Now ask your child to turn the shapes into a picture using different colors of pens. Say to your child, “Can you turn your squiggle into something?”
- Let your child add lines and details to the squiggle. For example, your child could draw eyes and a mouth in a circle to make a face, make a house out of a square shape, or turn a wavy line into a snake.
- Let your child be creative and use their imagination to make the shapes into a picture of something.
Step 4
- When your child has finished making their picture, talk about what their squiggle picture is doing.
- For example, if your child made an animal, what is the animal doing? If your child found a flower, who is the flower for? If a truck was created, where is the truck going? If a person was drawn, how is that person feeling?
- This can open up lots of interesting conversations.
Other Options
- You can draw the squiggle for your child and get your child to find the picture in your squiggle.
- You can get your child to draw a squiggle and then you find the picture in your child’s squiggle.
- You can each draw a squiggle and then trade squiggles to draw pictures in each other’s squiggles.
There are several YouTube videos available online if you search for “The Squiggle Game.”
Finally
Parents can use the Squiggle Game to connect with their children through a fun, low-pressure art activity that sparks creativity and conversation.
- The game removes the pressure of a blank page and encourages children to be creative.
- It provides a fun way to talk to your child about their feelings or ideas, similar to how it’s used in play therapy.
- It creates a collaborative and playful activity that helps build a stronger relationship between parent and child.
Happy Doodling!
You may want to consider this:
If you are interested in learning more about parent-child playtime, please see my book, Play Skills for Parents: Connecting With Your Child Through Play.
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Copyright Kathy Eugster, MA, 2025.
Please feel free to pass on this article to anyone you think might find it useful.
Contact me at: keugster@telus.net