
Quiet game
procedure
​The professional tells the child they are going to play the “quiet game.” They explain the rules as follows: “You are not allowed to talk or make any other noise. You have to look at me and are not allowed to turn your head away unless there is an emergency. Keep this up for as long as you can, and I will stop you if you reach ten minutes. I will give you a reward for every minute you are able to keep going.” The professional then proceeds to run a stopwatch and the activity begins. Once the child ends the game by making noise or looking away, the professional congratulates them and delivers the reward (pieces of candy, small prizes, etc). They then ask the child to explain if the activity was easy or hard for them, and if it was hard, what made it that way.
Reasoning
This is the simplest of the activities but could be made difficult if the child already has a problem sitting still for 5-10 minute periods of time. If this is the case, this activity will be ineffective because there are countless reasons (unrelated to mental disorder) that the child might fail the activity. Once the activity begins, the professional cannot take notes because they need to keep eye contact with the child to ensure they maintain their attention. For obvious reasons, the rules are allowed to be broken in an emergency or if a deserving distraction arises. Once the child either loses or completes the game, the professional awards them with what was promised and questions the difficulty of the activity. When listening to the child’s response, they should pay special attention to any reason the activity may have been difficult. The child may say things like “I just couldn’t do it anymore” or “It was too boring,” and if this is the case, the likelihood of Schizophrenia is lower. However, if they honestly claim they saw something moving in the room, or they heard someone talking to them, the professional should emphasize this in their notes as it could be a tell-tale sign of hallucinations. Even if the child successfully completed the ten minutes, they should tell the professional if they had an intense urge to look away/make noise for any reason, and explain what that reason was. The professional then evaluates whether this is normal behavior for a child of their age and mental development, or is actually unhealthy and resembles Schizophrenia.