Game Description:
Suspend Junior is designed for children ages 4-7. There is a “family version that contains heavier pieces, with less color and dice rather than a spinner. To play the game you set up the frame and hang the white anchor piece. Each player takes a turn by spinning the spinner and placing a game piece that matches the color spun onto the hanging structure. The goal is to be the first person to get rid of all your pieces, but one wrong move could send it all falling down! To find this game click here.
Why We Love It:
- Problem solving: This game provides so many opportunities to practice problem solving! Children get the opportunity to explore the cause-and-effect nature of balance; discovering how the size, shape, and placement of game pieces affects the balance of the structure.
- Peer negotiations and game skills: The game is a very easy to set up and learn the basic instructions. Suspend naturally incorporates opportunities to practice turn-taking and handle winning/losing and the disappointment that can accompany a game. The challenge can be easily increased by having children work together to create their own set of rules or a new point system.
- Conversational skills: This game has quickly become a favorite in the clinic to use during small group sessions. Because the game is not overly complex, it’s an easy game to play while working on practicing conversational skills.
- Endless ways to incorporate goals: Another reason SLPs love this game is because it allows us to get creative! Need to work on pronouns? Let’s talk about who turn it is, who has the most sticks left, who is going next? (He is/does, She is/does…..) Need to get in some articulation practice? For every bump and dip in the stick you place try practicing a target sound!
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!
Blog post by Anna Housman, MS, CCC-SLP