Two Tween-Friendly Games That Blend Fun and Social Growth!

Diana Cortese Author

Playing games is the perfect conduit for kids to learn social skills. These 2 games will get your students both laughing and learning!

Tweens can be a tough group to teach in a way that is both entertaining and meaningful. They want to be able to let their inner kid out but not seem uncool for doing so. Playing games in a group is a highly effective way to give the kids an excuse to be silly and have fun while at the same time, covertly developing and practicing critical social skills.

Double Ditto: 

The beauty of this game is that it’s so easy! Because each round takes a minute at most, it provides lots of practice winning and losing. Low stakes wins and loses are the perfect way to improve good sportsmanship and frustration tolerance.  In Double Ditto, someone picks up card that has a category on it (e.g. “Things you are likely to lose”) and the players have to write down 3 things that fall under that category. The twist in Double Ditto is that you want to have as many of the same answers as the other players as the more you have in common, the more points you get. It forces the players to try to think like each other!

• Prerequisites: Ability to write words or dictate them to a scribe
• Skills Taught: Perspective Taking, Critical Thinking

Telestrations: 

This game can be hilarious. A cross between telephone and Pictionary, players pick a card with a word on it and write and draw that word on an erasable sketch pad. They then pass the pad to the person next to them and that person has to try to figure out what the picture is and then write the word for it and then draw their version of that word on the next page. Needless to say the original word and the ending word and picture almost always take unexpected directions. Kids experience how ideas/pictures change as each person views the picture through their own lens. There are no wrong answers, winner or losers!

• Prerequisites: Basic motor skills for drawing
• Skills Taught: Sense of Humor, Social Flexibility

Tweens can be an unpredictable crew and attention spans for what they are not interested in run short. These games are all played fairly quickly which not only gives them a quick satisfaction, it lets you as the facilitator judge between rounds if you should continue with another round or start something new. It also gives the facilitator multiple opportunities to assess the skills that may be being targeted through the game. Lastly, game playing is a social leisure skill that is important to carry through life. Starting with these fun and easy games will give the typically insecure tween the confidence to join others in the future.

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Categories: board games, social skills, tweens