One of the ways in which we communicate and make friends is by playing games, telling jokes or working cooperatively on a useful project.
For many years I worked with students with differing abilities. Good teachers, aides and therapists adapted situations so that everyone experienced success. And then one day school was over and there wasn't anyone to suggest the next move or how to solve a problem.
The chance to interact with someone outside the usual sphere of a person's life is extremely important.
If you are playing a game, for example Uno in the community room there is a good chance that somebody walking past will say, "Uno! I like that game!" or, "Hey, you could play that yellow six!"
That's a chance for a conversation, an interaction!
Games are fun but they can be confusing. There might be too much to remember. Maybe the rules were not explained in easy steps. Somewhere along the line someone decided that a particular game was "too hard".
But who says that we have to know every step of a game? Perhaps it's enough to just know some basic rules. Even just the names of the pieces like chess in order to be able to watch a game and to not feel left out.
In this blog I will take some popular, commercially available games and break them down into steps so that they can be played at many levels.
I will also do the same thing with different hands-on activities that encourage talking, sharing, logical thinking, giving (not just following) directions, problem solving and new vocabulary use.
If it seems too complicated we'll step back until it isn't.
Welcome to Step Back for Success.
* UNO is the registered trademark 2017 Mattel Games.
