The Game of the Friendly Clowns

My younger brother recently saw a clip from the movie "It" in a TV commercial, and ever since then he's been getting nervous whenever the commercial comes on repeatedly. With the hype surrounding the new series, this character appears so frequently on almost every platform, even YouTube, so I decided to gradually help him understand that it's just a character.

That just as it can be bad, it can also be good.

Skin markers (Black and red)

Cardboard*

Scissors*

My little brother is 3 years old, and he is very perceptive; he is capable of understanding subtle or difficult things. So, to begin the process, I looked for something he would like, an activity, an environment, or an object that would catch his attention.

He loves to draw and color, and he also really likes games, so I decided to combine these activities into a progressive experience.

At first, I only drew the clown's mouth and nose so he could become familiar with its shape. While doing this, he played as if his hand were alive, which helped him understand that he had control over the character.

Then I added the eyes, which gave it more expressiveness. When I did this, he started playing with his fingers as if they were hairs; this was a good sign.

Add details to your liking, but always keep them friendly.

At this point in the process, I noticed that the pen he was using to draw on his little hand was disappearing quickly because he was playing with it quite a bit. He even tried to scare me with his hand, which was also a good sign, as he was taking what he had seen about the clown in the commercials and using it to interact, no longer showing any nervousness, even appearing more cheerful and mischievous.

So I decided to get a skin marker so the clown drawing would last longer.

Now, to continue the gradual adaptation process, I started drawing his mischievous counterpart in the same way. I made him understand that this new clown wasn't bad, but that he was different, that he was a little more mischievous, and he liked that.

I used the same composition but made the features a little more pronounced, like the spiky hair, the mouth with two teeth that make a more mocking smile, and slightly more suspicious and mischievous eyes.

Something that surprised me was that he didn't make the clowns fight, but rather united them by explaining to me that they were brothers like us and should play together.

Up to this point in the process, the response is very satisfactory, since he no longer seems to associate the commercial scenes with the clown and no longer shows fear when watching them.

At this point, he has fun and uses the clowns to entertain himself and play with the people around him.

The next step will be to have an encounter with a person in clown makeup, but before that, I will have to transform the game and give him decision options, so that he goes from controlling the character in his hands to controlling his appearance.