Medical Symptom Cards (Deduction Game)

About This Activity

Overview

Medical Symptom Cards is an intermediate-level deduction card game with both intermediate-level vocabulary words and verb conjunctions.

Currently, there is one sets of 18 cards available for this game.

To play this game, participants need to use their verbal skills to deduce which of the character on the cards laid out in front of them matches the character on the "secret card" in their activity partner's possession, by asking a variety of questions about the symptoms being experienced by their partner's character, symptoms onset, and symptoms duration.

These cards can also be used for our Medical Role-Play activity.

Activity Presentation Phase Instructions

Medical Symptoms Example Card

Fruit Preferences
Card for Bess

Medical Symptoms Example Card

Fruit Preferences
Card for Jill

Medical Symptoms Example Card

Fruit Preferences
Card for Will

Download Game Materials

How To Play

Groups: This game is best played in pairs of two participants. One participant in each group will be the asker and the other will be the answerer.

Materials: Two identical sets of the 18 Medical Symptom Cards are needed for each pair of two participants. This means two sets of Set A.

Time / Game Round: 1-3 minutes

The asker should lay out one set of game cards in front of them and the answerer should draw one "secret card" from an identical set of cards. The "secret card" will therefore match one of the 18 cards laid out in front of the asker.
The answerer can look at the "secret card," but they aren't allowed to show it to the asker. The asker can only learn which medical symptoms the character on the "secret card" has by asking verbal questions.
The asker's GOAL is to narrow down which of the 18 cards in front of them matches the "secret card" possessed by the answerer.

The asker treats the answerer as the character named on the answerer's card. The answerer will answer the asker's questions as if he or she is the actual character on the card.
To ensure that the asker must ask at least 2-3 questions before narrowing down the correct secret card, the answerer's answers should be restricted to "yes" and "no."

(This should include "yes, I have" and "no, I haven't" as permitted/encouraged answers.)
To collect information, the asker can use the following sentences/sentence patterns:

"Have you had (a) _________________?"
"Have you been feeling tired?"
"Have you been vomiting?"
"Have you been experiencing symptoms for __________ minutes/hours/days?"
"Did the symptoms begin gradually/suddenly?"
Based on the answerer's 'yes/no' answers, the asker can "eliminate" any cards that logically can't match the "secret card" held by the answerer. The best way to "eliminate" the non-matching cards, is to flip them over face-down. Then the asker can continue to ask more questions to further narrow down the remaining "face-up cards."
Each round of the game continues until the asker has narrowed down the cards in front of them to just one card. They can then ask the answerer, "Are you _________________?" and insert the remaining character's name into the blank.

For more detailed instructions for how to print, prepare, and introduce card-based deduction games like this one, click the blue button below.

How To Play

Printing & Preparation Instructions

Words to Learn Before Playing

The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE playing this game. There is currently only one set of cards for this activity.

Core Vocabulary Words Used in Activity
Card Set A (18 Cards)		body-aches, cold-chills, day, diarrhea, dizziness, ear-ache, fever, gradually, headache, high-temperature, hour, itchy-skin, minute, nausea, nosebleed, pain, rash, reduced-appetite, runny-nose, shortness-of-breath, sneezing, sore-throat, stomache-ache, suddenly, tired, trouble-hearing, vomiting

Words to Learn While Playing

The following words will be used to the play this game (with every available set of cards). However, these words don't need to be pre-taught. These words can and should be learned WHILE playing the game.

Vocabulary Best Learned In Context
Used With All Sets		a, been, begin, did, experiencing, feeling, for, had, have, symptoms, the, you

Sentence Patterns to Use While Playing

The following sentences and sentence patterns are recommended for use while playing this game. The best way to teach these sentences, is to use them in context while introducing the game and demonstrating how to play it.

Standard Sentences and Sentence Patterns

Have you had (a) _________________?

Yes, I have. / No, I haven't.

Have you been feeling tired?

Have you been vomiting?

Have you been experiencing symptoms for _________________ minutes?

Have you been experiencing symptoms for _________________ hours?

Have you been experiencing symptoms for _________________ days?

Did the symptoms begin gradually?

Did the symptoms begin suddenly?

Yes, they did. / No, they didn't.

Vocabulary Icons

The following icons are used to represent vocabulary words on the included set of 18 Medical Symptom Cards. You'll need to teach your students the meaning of each icon before they'll be able to successfully participate in this activity.

Note: This is a good opportunity for English language learners to be exposed to grammar rule about the articles a/an being used to preceed singular nouns, but not plural/uncountable nouns.