This simple card game targets turn-taking, memory, naming, requesting, and pragmatics skills in a super fun way. Players each draw a hand of three cards, with the remaining cards face down. During each player's turn, they ask an opponent of their choice for an identical card to one of the cards in their own hand. The traditional way to play the game is to use the sentence starter 'Please, do you have', then make the facial expression shown on the card. The element of silliness gets a ton of laughs. When a player collects three of a kind, they lay the set down in front of them. The player with the most card sets collected at the end of the game is the winner.
Looking to target social-emotional cues more directly? We've created an alternate way to play this game by using the picture cards with the most obvious emotional expressions/facial messages (happy, mad, surprised, frightened, etc.). Before playing the game, we review each picture and discuss the facial cues we see and what they tell us about how the person feels or what message they are conveying. As we play the game, one player asks, 'Please, do you have' and creates the facial expression of the card. The other player must say either 'Yes, I have (name of expression).' or 'No, I don't have (name of expression).' The player with the most card sets at the end of the game is the winner. This game is recommended for ages 4+; 2-6 players; It's the perfect travel game as well!
When we opened this game our first thought was Farm Yahtzee! The play is very similar, but it's a much more attainable game for little ones because the dice contain pictures instead of dots. Roll the dice to reveal a chick, pig, cow, horse, goat, or tractor. Players may roll up to three times to try to score the most of one type of animal or go for any of the animal combos listed on the second section of the score sheet. Total up your score at the end of the game to see who wins. Although the design is geared toward younger kids, our entire family loves this game. It's a great way to target naming, categorizing, counting and adding with little ones.
This game is recommended for ages 4+; 2-6 players; It's also another fantastic pocket-size travel game!
This game is recommended for ages 4+; 2-6 players; It's also another fantastic pocket-size travel game!
If you're looking for a game that incorporates movement and brings on a lot of laughs, Cup-A-Cup is it. Play setup begins by placing the cups bottoms up on the playing space. Each cup has either a square, circle, or triangle. The rules are simple: roll the dice, identify the missing shape, and grab the cup. There are different patterns that you'll have to identify, so it's definitely a fast thinking, fast acting game of skill. First to collect three cups wins!
Language and Occupational Therapy Suggestions
We came up with alternate ways to play this game, such as adjusting the difficulty by stacking the cups into same-shape towers or using only three cups at a time to reduce the amount of visual stimuli. We also played by rolling only one die and requiring players to name and grab the shape rolled. We like this as a speech-language and occupational therapy mash-up to target shapes, visual processing, grasping, stacking, and more.
Watch this video explanation and demonstration of the game in action!
We hope these game suggestions help your family relieve stress and allow kids to practice academic and social skills in a fun way! Let's all continue to do our part to stay home and stay healthy.
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Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided by R&R Games. As always, our posts are our own, honest opinions.