The first time I sat down with my son Will to play Scrabble, I asked him to spell the word he wanted to play, but he couldn’t do it. I was confused. He was a fluently open speller who could write poetry and song lyrics. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t spell out a word for the game while viewing letter tiles in front of him. Eventually, I figured out that he needed to go through a scaffolding process to be able to play games, similar to the one he went through to get to open spelling. Apraxia affects every Speller differently. Some will need more motor support to play games while others need more cognitive or ocular motor support. Adjust your modifications and scaffolding to their needs.
Lower Motor Demands & Scaffold Cognitive Demands
I started the process of working towards open gameplay by lowering the cognitive demands to a tight semi-open question level (examples: these are possible words using your tiles, here are places you can play them on the board). From tight-semi we worked towards broad semi-open gameplay level, and then to open. I also supported Will’s motor by having him spell out his move then I could confidently prompt his body to make the move he wanted. This process of body coaching connected his “game-playing” motor to the language center in his brain. I slowly raised game-playing motor demands and faded out motor support as he became more independent. This process is hard because games require a lot of fine motor but as muscle memory develops the movements of drawing cards, dealing cards, playing cards, and manipulating small game pieces generalizes and your Speller will become more and more independent with gameplay. And more importantly, they will become better at making their body move the pieces and cards how and where they want more reliably and independently.
UNO
We started the game-playing process with Uno. It has simple mechanics and strategy and can be played with two or more players. One critical adaptation was using a card holder to lower the motor demand. It is difficult for Spellers to hold a
handful of cards and then choose one with the other hand. A cardholder keeps the cards upright on the table, keeps the cards visible and easy to select from, and keeps hands available for spelling, drawing, and playing cards. After Will spelled on a letter board what card he wanted to play, I body-coached him to pick up and play his chosen card. I body coached him to deal the cards, put the cards in his card holder, pick up cards from the deck, and play cards. As his motor control became more reliable, I was able to stop asking him to spell what card he wanted to play with the letter board. Instead, now, I use a gestural prompt and say “scan, scan” or “keep going” when it’s his turn to play. You can check in after a move to make sure the Speller wanted to play the card they played to monitor motor accuracy.
Scaffolding Suggestions
- Support your Speller’s ocular motor needs by stating the color and number or action of the card played every turn to reduce the eye strain caused from moving eyes back and forth from the discard pile to their cards
○ Later increase the ocular motor challenge by coaching the eyes to the discard pile and then back to the cards in their hand.
- Consider the number of cards in your Speller’s hand from the standpoint of both ocular motor strain and cognitive demand level. Lower the eye strain by reducing the number of cards and position the cards in the same position you would hold a letterboard. Start with a choice between two or three cards to bring the cognitive demand down to a tight semi-open.
○ Add in more cards to increase the cognitive demands.
○ If you have more than 8 (or so) cards in your hand, put a few down to reduce the ocular motor demand. Add them back in on the next turn or later in the game.
- Hold the cards for your speller or use a card holder on the table. If you hold the cards, hold them in the same spot that you hold the letter board
○ Optional Motor Challenge: The Speller can use a card holder to hold their cards in their non-dominant hand and you can body coach them to choose a card with their dominant hand.
- For Spellers who are more reliable on the letterboard than they are with the motor of playing cards, start by having them spell the card they wish to play (preferably in a sentence, to limit spelling the same combination of letters over and over again and potentially creating loops). Then body coach your Speller to pick up that card in the same way you coach them on the letterboard.
- For Spellers whose motor is more reliable than their spelling, have your Speller choose a card directly out of your hand or from the cardholder without spelling it first. If the Speller draws a card they cannot play (makes a motor mistake), support them by coaching their hand to pick up a card that they can play.
When dealing, have your Speller hold half the deck in their hand and body coach them to deal the appropriate number of piles. Reduce the cognitive demand by counting the number of cards for them. Fade out the supports as their motor improves. - You may need to body coach your Speller to deal cards into piles, to deal the cards face down and to place the cards into their card holder facing themselves.
Shuffling cards may be the most difficult motor challenge for Spellers. When starting, you may want to shuffle cards for the Spellers, providing them with a short break between rounds.
Apples To Apples
When he plays Apples to Apples, Will uses a card holder to see all his cards. Will tells me how many cards he wants to choose from. Initially, he chose from three cards, rather than the usual seven. Will spelled out which card he wanted to play and when it was his turn to choose the definition card he spelled out which card he liked best. I body-coached him to draw cards and play cards. As he developed more body control and his spelled answers consistently agreed with his body, I faded out the letter board, and he now plays with only an occasional letterboard check-in. For about six months, I checked in with him about how many cards he wanted to select from, and eventually, he was ready to choose from all seven cards. I continue to sit next to him and prompt “scan, scan” when he is playing as an eye prompt. I will eventually fade that out by seeing if just an initiation prompt is enough for him to play his entire turn. You can occasionally check in after a move to monitor accuracy.
Scaffolding Suggestions
- Adapt your coaching to the needs of your Speller. When playing Apples to Apples, Will needed the modification of choosing from fewer cards than another Speller did.
- Consider the number of cards in their hand or card holder from both an ocular motor stand point and cognitive demand point. You can remove some cards from your Speller’s hand or give them fewer cards to choose from.
- Ask the Speller the number of cards they want to choose from.
- Use a card holder.
- Lay cards down on the table in front of a Speller for them to choose from.
- Shuffle the deck for your speller.
Scaffolding Multiplayer Games: Clue
The game Clue was an important step to scaffold playing multiplayer games for Will. When we started playing Clue, I lowered the ocular motor demands by enlarging the paper clue tracker to a full sized sheet of paper and by putting it on a clipboard. I walked him through a coding system for recording clues from revealed cards. I continued to lower motor demands by marking the tracker sheet for him, by body coaching him to show a card to another player (if needed), and Will uses a card holder to keep the cards in his hand always visible.
I lowered the cognitive demands by using the rules that a player always asks the player on his left about the suspects, rather than choosing which player to ask. If the questioned player has one or more of the three cards suspected he shows one card to the player who asked the question and the turn ends, if the questioned player doesn’t have any of the cards the player announces it and the same question is asked to the next player on the left. The same process continues until either a player shows a card or all the questioned players state that they don’t have any of the suspected cards. This rule variant provides more information for each round. I also initially lowered the cognitive demands by talking through different strategies, suggesting items to ask for and what items to
avoid asking for. When a Speller first starts playing the game you might need to lower the number of items in each category by suggesting two or three choices before working up to the Speller choosing from the total available choices in the category.
I learned that I needed to check in, if Will spelled that he wanted to suspect the same items as he did the previous turn as he needed CRP support to move past that. With practice playing Clue became easier. Will stopped needing my suggestions for rooms to visit and items to ask for. Now we play that anyone can suspect anyone else and you don’t announce whether or not you have one of the items. I, as CRP, still mark his sheet for him as body coaching him to mark it would allow all the other players to know what item he marked.
Playing Clue was an important skill development level because it scaffolded the skill of asking different players questions rather than only being able to ask a player next to you. Players have to think about where they should go and what questions they need to ask and in what order. Moving the pieces on the board and rolling the dice also worked on motor skills development.
Settlers Of Catan
Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer building board game with a cooperative trading aspect. Settlers is a good gateway game prior to playing more complicated strategy games.
Motor scaffolding:
- Use a card holder.
- Cup for dice rolling & prompt where to roll the dice on the table (or roll dice into the empty game box top).
- Body coach the Speller to place pieces on the board and to hand cards to the banker.
Cognitive scaffolding:
- Assign a banker.
- Provide some strategy hints about good settlement locations and statistical frequency of die rolls (represented by dots below the number markers)
- Prompt the card exchange to build development cards, roads, cities or settlements.
- Initially suggest 2-3 places to place a settlement, where to build and prompt your Speller to initiate trades.
- Body coach your Speller through every move at least once.
- Check in on the letterboard after a move to confirm that the Speller wanted to do it.
Playing Settlers Of Catan
Before placing his first settlement, Will pokes a resource and the number associated with the resource. He does this three times (as there are 3 adjacent hexes) to identify the intersection point at which he wants to build a settlement. Once he has placed his settlement, Will uses the compass to show what direction he wants the road to go.
When playing additional roads, I temporarily give each settlement/city a number and Spellers can choose a number to select which settlement they wish to upgrade or which settlement/city they wish to build a road from and use the compass to indicate the direction for roads.
Creating a custom board may make complex games easier. Spellers can use the Catan Letterboard to initiate trades with other players or the bank, ask if another player will trade them a specific resource, use resources to build, play a soldier, and move the robber.
You will tell when your Speller becomes open with a particular game because they will make different moves than you have been recommending as a cognitive support. You will start to recognize their personal strategy. It will probably be different than how you would play. Another sign of open play is generalization. Your Speller will require less and less motor and cognitive coaching when playing a novel game. They will more confidently spell out their desired move on their letterboard.
Ticket to Ride
Motor accommodations:
- Use a card holder.
- Prompt the motor for placing trains, drawing cards, picking up cards and moving the point marker piece.
Cognitive scaffolding:
- Have other players leave the room when walking your Speller through potential train routes.
- Initially use the two train route optional rule even when playing a two or three player game to lower anxiety.
- Talk through game strategy.
- Give your Speller two or three options for a train route to choose from initially while working towards them individually deciding their planned route.
General Suggestions For Lowering Motor and Cognitive Demands
When you are functioning as a CRP, start by explaining how to play the game and suggest potential strategies to all players, as you would for any neurotypical game group. Presume competence, especially when Spellers are playing a game with speaking players. Spellers are often deep thinkers and their competitive and collaborative strategies may surprise you.
Suggestions For Lowering Motor Demands
- Use card holders.
- Use a cup to roll dice. Roll the dice in the box lid if the dice tend to roll off the table.
- Enlarge cards or score cards and other gameplay aids.
- Label rooms, cities, settlements to make spelling a choice less laborious.
- Make custom letterboards.
- Use gestural and verbal prompts to help your speller deal, roll dice, play a card, manipulate objects, and move their game pieces.
- Put velcro on a Scrabble or game board to keep pieces in place.
Suggestions For Lowering Cognitive Demands
- Help your player perform every action to make sure they become “open.”
- Coach moves until a Speller can independently choose to make them.
- Lower cognitive demands to tight semi-open level move from there to a broad semi-open level, then on to open.
As your Speller plays more games and increasingly complex games their game playing skills will generalize. Playing new games will become easier. Fine motor skills will dramatically improve. And finally, remember that you are not playing the game. You are the CRP. Let your Speller play the game the way they want to. Like everyone else, some Spellers are competitive and some don’t care who wins.
About The Author
Marjorie Hansen is a Certified S2C Practitioner in the Greater Boston area and mother of a Speller. She enjoys playing games and painting.
One Response
Marjorie – this is brilliant! What a great topic and well-done! When I did a lesson on Sudoku with some not-fully-open spellers I tried to create some simple accommodations so they could do a tiny bit of working a puzzle themselves, but this inspires me to break it down further and see if they’d like to do more with it. (They’re both more open now).