Game Time!

This part of my Holiday Gift Guide focuses on games.  Some of these games make my list each and every year but many are new this year.  I even consulted with one of my favorite speech therapists who made some great suggestions that were included this year.

When looking for games, I try and look for a few things.  The most important thing is that they are motivating games that the kids will enjoy playing.  I also try and find games that will help meet occupational therapy goals, such as improving fine motor or visual motor/perceptual skills.  I love to find games that can be adapted for children of different ages and skill sets.  This year, I have included a bunch of collaborative games....games that kids work as a team in order to accomplish a mission.  I had such fun putting this list together.  Check out my favorite games below!


Burger Mania-because I am a total OT nerd, I am a complete sucker for any game that comes with a pair of chopsticks or tweezers.  I was in Toys "R" Us the other night and stumbled upon Burger Mania and knew it had to be part of game collection at work.  It's only been a couple of days but every single one of the kids I worked with after and my own daughter  can't get enough of this game. The game comes with a working conveyer belt, the ingredients needed to make burgers, tiny plates, tweezers and cards with pictures of different kinds of burgers that need to be made.  Burgers are made by grabbing the ingredients with tweezers!!  Whoever makes the most burgers is the winner.  There are 3-different speed levels so that the conveyer belt moves faster to make it more challenging as the kids master the game.  Great for working on improving fine motor skills such as grasp strength and manipulation skills, improves hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills and works on improving executive functioning skills like focus, attention, organization and motor planning. 
*one of the things I have done to make it easier for some of my younger kids is to have them just make burgers in the order in which you put the ingredients in their storage spots.  They are still working on all of the aforementioned goals, but you are taking away the difficulty of following the game cards.

What Letter Do I Start With-I know a game is good when my daughter doesn't want me to take it to work with me.  I was surprised because she usually doesn't feel that way about educational games!  This game is perfect for emerging readers but will entertain older children as well. The point of the game is simple:  be the first to find an object on the board that starts with the letter on the card flipped over.  Kids have to scan the board, find a matching picture and place their color token on the picture.  The first person to get rid of all 10 of their tokens is the winner.  This is a fast-paced game that works on letter recognition, visual motor and visual perceptual skills, hand-eye coordination, improves fine motor skills and helps with improving focus, attention and organizational skills.
*whenever possible, I like to work on other goals when playing games with the kids.  When playing What Letter Do I Start With with some of my older kids, I will practice handwriting by having them write the name of the object that they found.

Perfection-I've had this game in my closet since I began working as an OT approximately a million years ago ;) and was really bummed when they stopped making the 25-piece game and replaced it with a smaller 9-shape game.  Maybe it was all my complaining, but you can now find the original 25-piece game in stores again and I couldn't be more happy.  For those of you who don't know the game, Perfection is a beat the clock game where you try and match all the shapes before the timer goes off and the board pops up and the shapes go flying.  It's a great game for working on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, improves fine motor skills such as grasping and in-hand manipulation skills and works on improving focus, attention and organizational skills.
*some of the adaptations I make while playing the game is to hide the pieces in putty and have the kids find them; this works on increasing grasp strength.  For some of my kids, the idea of a timer stresses them out so I will start it after they put a certain number of pieces in.

Tumbling  Monkeys-this is another game that continues to make my list year after year because it continues to be a hit with my kids at work.  This game is similar to Kerplunk, but instead of marbles, there are monkeys.  Once you put the tree together (a great fine motor activity!), kids roll the dice and pull out the stick of the same color and see what happens.  While the rules of the game say that the winner is the person with the fewest monkeys I play so they have to rescue as many of them as possible.  This is particularly helpful with the younger kids I work with who don't have the clinical reasoning and understanding quite yet.  In addition to being great for working on developing grasping skills, it also works on improving hand-eye coordination, visual motor and perceptual skills and can work on improving executive functioning skills like focus, attention, organization and planning skills.
*one way I adapt this game is  having the kids use Zoo Sticks to pull the sticks out of the game instead of their fingers.  It's a nice way to sneak in some hand strengthening in while having some fun!

Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab-this is a great game for preschoolers.  Kids can practice sorting and matching skills while building up the strength in their hands using the special grabbers (you know how I feel about games that come with any kind of tweezer/grabbers/etc!).  Gumball Grab comes with a bubble gum machine, 4 game boards, different colored "gumballs", cards and grabbers.  Each card has directions to either add or remove gumballs to their game board.  The first person to fill their gumball machine is the winner.  In addition to working on improving grasp strength and manipulation skills, this game is great for working on improving hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills, motor planning and organizational skills and improved focus and attention.  It also is a nice way to introduce kids to colors and numbers.
*for the really young kids, I remove the cards that have them take gumballs off of their board so they can be more successful and also helps move the game along a little quicker for those kids who have difficulty with focus and attention.

Silly Street-I love finding games that throw in some gross motor activities, especially for the younger kids I work with. I have found that adding movement to games helps improve focus, attention and organizational skills.  There are so many things about this game but it starts with the game set-up: you have to put together a giant 6-piece puzzle! Kids flip over cards with different kinds of directions on them; it can be to find something on the board, do a silly gross motor activity and several other kinds of challenges.  The people who created Silly Street had a goal of helping kids develop a variety of skills including social skills, communication skills, creativity, resilience and confidence.  Additionally, it works on improving fine motor skills, visual motor and perceptual skills, motor planning and organizational skills and focus and attentional skills.  When I used this in my social skills group, I had the kids work in groups of 2 to also work on encouraging teamwork while playing a game.
*I truly love this game but found it hard to follow the "street" on the game board.  I resolved that by taking a thick black Sharpie marker and outlining the street making it easier for the kids to follow.

Animal Act-A Silly Street Character-Builder Game-it's not an unusual thing for me to buy several games by the same game makers because if one is a hit, it's pretty likely the other one will be a hit as well.  Animal Act is from the makers of Silly Street (recommended above) and combines verbal and physical communication and encourages bravery and creativity while playing.  Kids roll the die and draw a card and then given some kind of challenge:  they may need to act, sing, mime to their audience....if the audience guesses correctly, you earn a ticket.  Kids move around the gameboard collecting tickets to fill their playbill.  The first player to fill their playbill is the winner.  In addition to all the aforementioned goals of the game, kids can work on improving motor planning, organizational skills, problem solving and increasing overall body strength.

Dr. Seuss Thing Two and Thing One Whirly Fun Game-who doesn't love Dr. Seuss and all of his characters??  This is a great collaborative game for younger children.  Kids work together to clean up a mess before their mother gets home. The game starts by launching a top into the living room.  Kids take turn picking cards and following the action shown.  The game ends as soon as mother reaches the last space .  If all the furniture is on a spot, the players win.  Great for working on hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills, improves fine motor and manipulation skills and improves focus and attention.  I like that there are also physical challenges mixed in with the cards so kids can work on improving gross motor skills, motor planning and organizational skills. 

Yeti In My Spaghetti-another one of those simple games that quickly become a favorite of mine and the kids.  The game consists of a bowl, a plastic yeti and a bunch of pieces of plastic spaghetti.  Place the spaghetti pieces over the bowl, put the yeti on top and start playing.  The goal of the game:  take a piece of spaghetti off without letting the yeti fall into the bowl.  Great for working on improving grasping and manipulation skills, hand-eye coordination, motor planning and organizational skills and focus and attentional skills.
*I like to throw in a dice so the kids roll the dice and then have to take however many pieces they roll.  I also will have them try and remove the spaghetti pieces using kids chopsticks to work on improving grasp strength while playing.

Getting Ready to Write Gumball Grab-this is a great game for preschoolers.  Kids can practice sorting and matching skills while building up the strength in their hands using the special grabbers (you know how I feel about games that come with any kind of tweezer/grabbers/etc!).  Gumball Grab comes with a bubble gum machine, 4 game boards, different colored "gumballs", cards and grabbers.  Each card has directions to either add or remove gumballs to their game board.  The first person to fill their gumball machine is the winner.  In addition to working on improving grasp strength and manipulation skills, this game is great for working on improving hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills, motor planning and organizational skills and improved focus and attention.  It also is a nice way to introduce kids to colors and numbers.
*for the really young kids, I remove the cards that have them take gumballs off of their board so they can be more successful and also helps move the game along a little quicker for those kids who have difficulty with focus and attention.

Last Letter-another game for the older crowd (suggested age is 8 and older).  In this card game, you have to come up and shout out a word from one of the picture cards that you are holding.  Sounds easy, right?  This is where it gets tricky....the word that you call out must start with the last letter of the word that was previously said.  The first person to get rid of all of their cards wins the game.
*if you are playing this 1:1 in a therapy session, you can add a handwriting challenge to the game and have them write out the words after they should the word out. 

Mole Rats In Space-for my social skills group, I like to find games for the kids to play that will not only be fun but may also encourage them to work together to win a game.  Often times, the kids I work with are so competitive and not good about winning OR losing so finding collaborative games helps develop important social skills.  Peaceable Kingdom has a ton of great these kinds of games to choose from.  In Mole Rats In Space, kids work together to collect equipment and escape the station before you're bitten by a snake or time runs out. Kids flip over cards and have to follow the directions:  they may need to move you or your teammate, move snakes around or add a new snake to the board.  Avoid getting bitten by a snake and having to return to start or even worse.  This game is geared towards older children (7 and older) and could be a great addition to a family game collection.  Great for working on improving focus, attention and organizational skills, motor planning and working as a team to accomplish a goal.

Cauldron Quest-another collaborative game by Peaceable Kingdom.  The purpose of this game is to work with your teammates to create a potion to break the spell.  Find the hidden ingredients before the wizard blocks all of the paths and you all win.  Great game for working on improving social skills, problem solving, organizational skills and focus/attentional skills.  Additionally, kids can work on improving fine motor skills such as grasping skills and improves visual motor and visual perceptual skills.  

Crazy Letters-another fun game the whole family could enjoy.  Crazy Letters from MindWare is a fast-paced word game where players try and be the first to figure out what the word on the card is supposed to be.  The word may be written backwards, letters may be flipped upside down or on their side.  There are no extra letters in the word and the letters are in the correct order (not scrambled).  The first person to collect 20 cards is the winner.  There are over 500 cards with a variety of categories; player rolls the dice to determine what category they take. This game is great for working on focus and attention, organizational skills, improves visual motor and visual perceptual skills
*if you are using this therapeutically, you can have the players work on handwriting skills by having them write the words out as they are playing.

It was really hard to not include a dozen more games in this list!  There are just so many great games out there these days.  Does your family have a favorite game?  I would love to hear what games others are playing these days.  If you are looking for a specific kind of game or would like some suggestions for your children, I would be more than happy to help you out.  I am only a click away and love hearing from you all!

It's All About Teamwork

As a therapist, I wear many hats.  I do all the 1:1 private practice stuff at two sensory gyms in NYC (Heads Up and SAGE).  I am a co-founder of the most amazing after school program, The Meeting House, for school age children with social special needs.  And I run smaller social skills groups with a speech therapist I have had the joy of working alongside for years now.  Professionally, I can't think of a luckier therapist than me.

With all of those different hats I wear, the toys, supplies and equipment I need varies from setting to setting so my eyes are ALWAYS open for new and fun things that would be appropriate for each place.  Yesterday, while walking around the UWS trying to kill some time between clients, I found myself in Stoopher and Boots, a super cute kids store that carries not only adorable clothes but also a great selection of toys.  I'm super excited for the new game I picked up and think that many of you will love it as well, especially you parents of multiple children or therapists/educators who tend to see groups of kids.  Stack Up by Peaceable Kingdom is a perfect game for preschoolers.  It is great across the pediatric disciplines as it covers goals for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical therapy and educational goals!  I can't think of many other games in my very large and overstuffed closet that do that.

Stack Up is a cooperative game that focuses on having all the players work towards the same goal as opposed to being first or the winner.  The object of cooperative games is that you focus on working together and not as individuals.  Nobody is made to feel left out or made to feel as though they didn't do a good job.  The point of the game is that in order for you to win, you need to be part of a group and play with your friends, not against them.  Cooperative games have becoming increasingly popular since I began working in schools about 10 years ago.  I love them because I find that for some of the kids on my caseload, they spend so much time working 1:1 with grownups that they lose out on opportunities to play with their peers outside of the classroom and may present with difficulties playing games appropriately.  I am lucky enough to work in an office with other occupational therapists and speech therapists.  If the kids are appropriate for one another, we will put aside some time to play a game together; this is great for all those involved.  For parents who want to encourage their children to play together more peacefully, this game is perfect!  Sometimes parents tell me they have a hard time letting their kids play games together because it leads to so much fighting and upset when somebody loses.  This could be a good solution to the sibling game-playing blues.

In addition to what I already talked about, here are a few more goals that can be worked on while playing Stack Up:

Improve Eye-Hand Coordination-this is a fun way to work on eye-hand coordination without the kids even realizing they are working on it!  My favorite kind of activity...one that can be super fun but help reach some of those occupational goals.  A child requires eye-hand coordination to put the stick in the hole of the block and then they need to carefully look at where the block goes and how to stack it on top of the other without it toppling over.  Sounds easy but when you have kids do it at the same time, it can be quite tricky for them.
Improve Frustration Tolerance-cooperative games are a good way for kids to work on improving their frustration tolerance.  Not just towards an activity, but in regards to working with another child. This is such an important skill for kids to develop but not always an easy one to work on.  Children who have good frustration tolerance will most likely play better with their friends.  

Improve Color Recognition/Matching Skills-another great aspect about this game is that you can use it for younger children who are still in the early stages of learning their colors.  As you spin the spinner, you land on 1 of 4 colors; you can use this as an opportunity to not only learn colors but to work on matching and sorting colors.  For younger children who aren't quite ready to play the game, you can use the opposite side of the board and have them sort colors onto the right colored square.
Improve Social Skills-I find it is very difficult to teach a child the importance of team work and not always having to be the winner.  So many of the children I work with think that if they win, they are the best.  I love that the concept behind this game, and all cooperative games, is that the way to win is by working together and making decisions as a group, not just on your own.  There are a lot of collaborative games out there but many are geared towards older children and, oftentimes, don't always hold the interest of the kids.  I love that this is easy to understand and even easier to adapt for whatever the group of children are able to handle.  This game is also good for encouraging conversation amongst friends which many of my kids need to work on.
Improve Motor Planning-depending on how you play the game, you can add a physical component to the game.  If you land on a challenge when you spin, you pick up a card with some kind of physical challenge (the whole group should perform this).  For example, my favorite challenge is to do a jumping jack and freeze in a legs open position.  The kids found this to be really funny and we were able to work on a skill that is sometimes hard for them.  Other challenges include standing on one foot, giving a friend a high five and holding it for 5 seconds or making silly faces.  All of these things may sound easy to you but for children with motor planning difficulties, it can be quite challenging and they may avoid trying it.  This game motivates the kids to try it in a really fun way.

I am really excited about trying this game out with the kids signed up for my social skills group in the fall.  I am also anxious to check out a few more of the games that Peaceable Kingdom has created.  The other cooperative games they have on their website look like they will be a lot of fun as well. In addition to more cooperative games, they have regular board games, card games and sticker sets.  I'm impressed not only with the quality of the product but with the thought that has been put into creating the game.  I am sure their other games and products will prove to be equally as wonderful.

Do any of you have cooperative games that you can recommend to me and my readers?  I would love to start the fall with a few new games to use during my sessions at the gym and also for my social skills groups.  Please share your ideas with us all!  While this game is targeted towards the younger kids, I also work with older children both in my private practice and at The Meeting House and would love a few more games for that population.

As always, I love hearing from my readers and am just a click away.  Looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions for other fun and motivating cooperative games.

Question from a Reader

What do you think of magformers? Owen played with some at a store on his birthday so we bought some for Christmas. They are pricy, made in China, and you need to buy multiple sets for them to work best.  Looking for your professional input .  
Julie L.  mother of 4 year old Own

When I decided to start this blog, I had hoped that I would be able to answer specific questions for my readers.  I was excited when a friend of me from high school contacted me with the question above.  I hope that this is just the first of many questions I will be asked.  



I am actually a big fan of Magformers and toys similar to them, such as MagnaTiles.  As Julie points out, they are pricey and in order to maximize your building experience, you should have at least 2-3 sets.  However, they are very well made and if treated well, should last forever.  They are the kind of toy I imagine can be passed onto your children's children and will bring as much enjoyment to them as they did to your own child.  A child can play with them independently or with friends or their grownups.  I have known children to play with them for hours on end, creating stories and adventures which is always so much fun to see in this age of technology.  

Magformers and MagnaTiles are a wonderful toy that allows a child to use their imaginations when building with them.  The sky is the limit when playing with them and can also work on so many occupational therapy goals at the same time.  My favorite kind of toy....one that can help a child achieve their goals but encourage fun, teamwork and creativity. 





Here are just a few of the goals that could be focused on when using these toys.  

*Color, shape and size recognition-great way to practice and generalize skills that you are teaching a child outside of "play"
*Bilateral coordination-encourage a child to use two hands when putting the pieces together
*Work on patterning and sequencing-have a child copy patterns, either colors or shapes.  Fun way to work on a skill that may be more challenging for a child
*Improve attention and ability to focus, decrease frustration tolerance-see how long your child can attend to the task; if it seems like this is proving to be a challenge to them, help them come up with strategies in order to be more successful and to become less frustrated
*Improve visual motor and visual perceptual skills-have your child try and copy designs you give them.  Both MagnaTiles and Magformers (check out their showroom) have great links that can give you and your child a bunch of ideas.  As they get better at completing the designs, increase the challenge
*Improve social skills and ability to work with a friend-often times children have a lot of difficulty giving up "control" when building with these kinds of toys.  Encourage children to work on a creation together and then being able to share that with a group.  You may be required to offer more assistance in the beginning but once the children realize how much better and bigger their designs can be when working together, the more fun they will have and less support will be required.  

While you might be able to find some "deals" on Amazon, I suggest checking out your local toy stores and supporting small businesses when possible.  I have seen them at many of the smaller local toy stores that I like to shop in both in Brooklyn and Manhattan.  

Thank you Julie for your question and hope that I can answer many more in the near future.  Please remember, I am just a click away and love answering questions, talking about toys and learning about toys that you may have discovered as well.