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Games and Board Games are not just fun but can be a great tool to help Dyslexic children to learn in a playful way. School is hard enough, so add the fun at home and see how they can joyfully:
Expand their Vocabulary and Writing Skills:
* The Parson’s Cat:
This game expands descriptive vocabulary.
Each person in turn describes the Parson’s cat. It can be random or organised, using verbs or adjectives starting with a, b, c, d.. or all can do until no-one can think of any more.
You can include an attempt to look like the parson’s cat would look when like this and it can be as ludicrous as you want.
E.g. The parson’s cat is an adventurous cat, The parson’s cat is a boisterous cat etc.
You can then move on to verbs and adverbs, e.g. The parson’s cat ate too fast, you might then add a consequence, and was sick. One person might pick the verb, the next might say how and the next what happened then maybe where and why –exploring until the idea is exhausted.
* There is a board game called The Never Ending Story, but it’s hard to find now.
* Scrabble
Play in two teams with modified rules. The aim is to make the highest possible score for the whole game. You can get scrabble books that give all 2 letter words and alphabetic lists of words possible with letter combinations. Allow use of these books and the dictionary to check if a word exists before putting it down.
* Articulate
One of my all-time favorite board games. A word is given to one team member who has to describe it to the rest of the team. You can’t say any part of the word. It’s quite easy to make it up for yourself and design the rules to suit.
* Scattergories
This is a paper and pen game. Pick 6 or 7 categories of your choice: boy’s names, girl’s names etc. Draw a table on a piece of paper with a column for each category. Encourage more unusual words as you’ll get 10 points if nobody else has that word, 5 points if anyone else chose the same. The first person who finishes the list says stop and everyone has to put their pencil down.
Letter: c
Animal crocodile
Girl’s name Cindy
Boy’s name Charles
Town Christchurch
Country Chile
Food chocolate
Famous Person Charles Darwin
Score
* Balderdash
Fantastic board game, but for children above the age of 10.
Improve Maths:
* Sequence: A board game that is easy to learn and teaches ‘sequence’, cards that follow in the right order. Chips are placed on a board in that order. Who can first create two sequences wins.
* Dice games: Writing down the following list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, short sequence (1-5), long sequence (2-6), full house (2 of one and 3 of another number), Poker (4 of a kind), Grande (5 of a kind)…using 5 dice and aiming to fit the list uses multiplication skills
* Phase 10: You must have a bit of time on your hands, but is fun, for adults as well
* Numero: Another favorite of our family…a guessing game where age doesn’t necessarily give you an advantage.
There are many more – please let me know YOUR favorites. I am always looking to add new games to my collection.