Last Updated on October 1, 2024 by Editorial Team
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Board games offer a participative way of developing language and numeric literacy in dyslexic children. These are fun manipulatives that teach dyslexic children the skills of strategic thinking, planning, and coordinating mind and body to achieve the learning objectives. By actions of sorting, analyzing, challenging, and helping each other, dyslexic children try to learn and adopt fluency in reading and writing while building social intelligence in the process.
Advantages of using board games for dyslexic children
Board games offer playful methods of developing basic reading, writing, and math skills in dyslexic children. These games help in the following ways:
- This help removes the negative reaction of dyslexic children who have difficulty reading and writing through conventional means.
- These help in providing instructions in a way that students can enjoy and comprehend easily
- These encourage students to involve themselves better and learn through better participation
Listed here are the 10 most popular board games for dyslexics that have changed the learning curve for the better for such children.
1. Think fun Zingo Bingo
Zingo – Bingo with a Zing is a mind-stimulating game beneficial for pre-readers. This game helps develop language and matching skills in early learners of language and reading. By the way of gamification, the students learn to grasp the word-picture recognition concept.
The speedier expelling of the cards from the box helps students enhance memory retention and recall. This game is available for 7 players to play at a time, thus, helping the children to develop the virtue of sociability. The game is certainly quite an effective teaching tool; it also offers the parents an opportunity to bond with the children at home.
2. Disney matching game
All children love cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie, and several others. Using the matching cards dedicated to the cartoon characters, the parents can help dyslexic children build memory and enhance focus.
Teachers can enhance the associative memory of children and develop their minds to establish relationships which can further be utilized in the identification of numbers, words, etc. By flashing cards at a pace, the mind can be stimulated for faster learning and quicker association with images. It is easy to learn and one can start playing within minutes of opening it.
3. Articulate
Articulate is a game where a child describes a word without uttering it. It is a time-pressed game compelling the child to think faster, developing fluency in thinking and speaking words in the process. The teacher can familiarize the student by telling instructions in an easy way.
The whole game can be played in a group. With ample material for 20 to 30 people to play with, it makes a very good classroom activity with the help of which children can develop associative memory and word recognition ability.
4. Balderdash
Balderdash offers a fun-filled and stress-free way of learning commonly used words. It comes with lots of interesting categories like people, movies, words, and initials. The player makes phony definitions to hide the real identity of the word.
This game allows learning words by the way of expressions and also helps improve reading abilities. Since no actual reading is involved, it helps the teacher befriend the child with words in a playful manner. The virtues of association, and word-picture match improve the mental abilities of the child, and so, it is quite popularly used in games sessions in school.
5. Scrabble Junior
Scrabble Junior is a popular board game for dyslexics played worldwide. It is a favorite among kids who are early learners of reading. The game primarily involves word-picture matching. It offers ample practice in identifying words and associating them with pictures to the kids.
In the advanced stage of playing this game, the players try making their own words with the help of arranging letter cards on the board. This game helps develop word-building skills by the way of gamification, strategic thinking, and practice. Scrabble Junior is helpful in building spelling skills. To gain fluency, it can be played in a timed manner too.
6. Labyrinth
The labyrinth game is a team effort. Teachers or parents can play with the kids, or friends can play with each other. The shortest route to finding all the treasures and targets is to be found to win the game.
This game is quite helpful in teaching the concepts of cause and effect to the child. It also helps build the abilities of association and recognition. Since the game is played in a team, it helps the child learn sequencing by the way of taking turns. This board game for dyslexia is suitable for children above 7 years of age.
7. Orchards Toys Match and Spell Game
This Match and Spell Game is an exciting way of developing letter and language recognition skills and memory skills among dyslexic children, besides encouraging discussions to boost their communication skills. It can be played as both single player and multi players game and even contains a double sided board when it is time to extend the challenge from easy to complex. The children get to see pictures on the board and then form words from it, thus developing powerful memory associations.
8. Junior Learning 6 Speaking Board Games
Junior Learning 6 Speaking Board Games for Dyslexia offers an interesting way of learning spelling and words’ sounds. It is used as a teaching tool for developing the concepts of linguistic thinking, questioning, and general language skills.
By the way of using scenario cards, picture puzzles, and board games, the memory retention of spelling is improved. It helps build a vocabulary comprising generally used words. The children can enhance their association skills to get the concept right.
9. Learning resources sum swamp game
Learning Resources Sum Swamp Board game for dyslexia is an effective tool for developing math and number skills in the child. The players are made to perform various mathematical operations on the route from the start to the endpoint of the game.
Children learn counting and operations and by racing with one another get to develop fluency in calculations too. Teachers can encourage kids to befriend math drills with the help of enhancing participation and real involvement in the activity.
10. Junior Learning Social skills Board Game
Children with Dyslexia often suffer from social anxiety. A board game is thus a fun and interactive way of helping them develop social skills to navigate with confidence in their surroundings.
This fantastic board game allows children to identify and use manners, identify qualities of friendship and recognize different emotions. Its colourful and emotive illustrations help in sparking the child’s imagination while it also encourages the development of key speaking and listening skills.
It also includes an answer sheet to help the child with corrections and can be played by 2 to 6 players.
Points to ponder when you choose board games for persons with Dyslexia
1.The partnership in the play:
Dyslexic children sometimes have problems in initiating and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Board games with multi players is thus a fun way to have a few friends over in a situation with reduced social anxiety. Thus, the child can be comfortable with social situations and companions whilst playing the game, which will further boost their self confidence.
2. Boosting the mind:
Dyslexic children always learn best when taught with a multisensory approach, which is a platform that board games provide. You can start with games that require less use of reading and spelling like the Labyrinth and then move your way up to games that emphasise on phonic recognition and words.
Your child gets to know that his multiple senses can make him a winner and that life can provide multiple platforms where you can use your strengths to overcome your weaknesses.
3. Learning is fun
The child also gets to understand that learning need not always be repetitive and monotonous and that learning can be an absolute delight! That sure is a lesson learnt for life. Once the child imbibes the joy of learning in his soul, there is no turning back!
4. A child is a child
Because, ultimately it is all about having fun! And a child needs to bask fully in the small joys of childhood. So, get that board game out of the cardboard and enjoy these precious moments of their childhood with them, which in fact, are memories for life.
In conclusion,
Children with dyslexia are no different from other children when it comes to enjoying board games and playing with friends. It is thus a welcome move to imbibe the process of learning in these board games to avoid added stress on the children. These selected board games are also strategically designed to cater to specific learning processes and their disabilities, so it is like having a psychology cum education expert in the grasp of your two hands!
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,