Get a number of pictures of strange faces, such as you often see of a
convention, or take them from magazines. Cut them apart and take five
of these faces and observe them carefully. Make a deliberate effort to
note any peculiarity of these faces or anything about them that will
help you to identify them. Mix the five among the rest, now run through
the entire group of pictures and see if you can, without hesitation,
pick these five from the others. Practice until you can do this. Leave
these five faces out of the group and select five more; observe these
in the same manner. Now mix the last five with the large group and
identify them as you did the first five. Now take the ten and shuffle
them into the large group and identify them the second time. Divide the
ten in the two original groups of five so that you have the first five
and the second five separate. When several children are playing this
game together a score may be kept.
Mental operation becomes habitual and such practice will help the child
form the habit of close observation of faces. The more difficulty he
has in accomplishing this the more it shows his need of just such
mental training. Let a week or so elapse and then go back to this same
group of pictures and try the same exercise again, urge the child to
look away once or twice and to make a real effort to build up his
mind's eye picture.
Have several sets of pictures of faces so that this exercise can be
continued as often as possible.