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Every player receives a card that can't be seen by the rest of players.
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Each card has a little story to explain the meaning of the "Forbidden word".
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One person starts by explaining their forbidden word WITHOUT using the bold words from the story. The rest needs to guess the word.
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The person who guesses can collect the card and the one who collects the most cards at the end wins!
How did we get here?
As designers we faced an interesting challenge: find a way to encourage youngsters to overcome a feeling of shame. So they can build a mindset that is more acceptable with making mistakes and not fitting in order to open up about hard events in their lives. We thought: who exposes themselves to shame in a healthy way?
Clowns reframe the existing reality by changing perspectives. Cliniclowns play a very important role in hospitals to help children forget that they are ill. They create a space for sick children to make their own choices again, give them a sense of control and power, and in addition they start believing more in their own capabilities (Langemeijer, 2022). Distraction and changing the vision of reality reduce stress, fear, and worries according to Cliniclowns. A very important working element for clowns to do this is fun by playing together. We talked with Cliniclown Charlotte Langemeijer and she said on the phone to us: “laughing together creates chemicals in a mind which make a person feel connected. Feeling connected makes a person healthier and more resilient and a person rarely steps out of their comfort zone unless they feel seen, safe, and connected to someone.” (Langemeijer, 2022)
We learned from the Cliniclowns that play and imagination can help to overcome shame and feeling more confident. Therefore we created the Forbidden Word Card Game to help children talk more openly about shameful topics in a playful and fun way. Every player gets one card with the word ‘trauma’ for example. As a player you can not show it to the other players, so you are the only one who reads the word and the short story written underneath. One person starts explaining the word on the card without using the bold ‘forbidden’ words from the story. In one minute the other players need to guess which word is written on the card to collect as many cards as possible to win the game.
Shame is an emotion of everyday life that is usually invisible. Since there is shame about shame, it remains taboo. These taboos are related to the social order in our society and play an important part in dealing with others. The connection between shame and social life can be seen as a signal of a threat to the bond and play an important element to our social systems and a feeling of connection. (Scheff, T. J., 2003)
