As a Year 2 Trainee Educational Psychologist, I am always on the look out for different ways to assess children’s needs and strengths.
When I first meet a child, I always like to play some sort of game to ease them into our work together and to build some sort of rapport. As a professional who often meets a child just once, it is important that I am able to build rapport quickly and can make the child feel as comfortable as possible. One game I picked up in a charity shop recently was a game of Superman snap (for just £1! If you are looking for games, charity shops can be a great place to start).
I chose Snap to primarily see if the child could turn-take and follow rules, but I quickly started to realise that a simple game can tell us a lot about a child’s strength and needs!
Firstly, fine motor skills! I was able to assess if the child could manage holding all of their cards, whether they could flip them over, and the speed in which they could coordinate themselves.
Secondly, processing speed. Snap is a game of speedy reactions and so it revealed a lot about their reaction time and processing speed, which can be really helpful for skills in lessons such as maths.
The game of snap also told me a lot about the child’s emotional regulation. For example, could they handle losing? Equally, could they manage winning? How were they with frustration tolerance? Snap is a highly competitive game so this gave me some good insight into their emotional regulation in daily life.
In terms of visual perception, something we have explored on this blog before, snap is really useful to see if a child can match two identical pictures. If a child is unable to do this or finds it really tricky, it could be a clue that they have some difficulties with visual perception.
Snap can also tell us a lot about a child’s attention and focus. For example, can they sustain attention over the entirety of the game? Even when there are no pairings and it’s getting repetitive? Are they impulsive- shouting snap at the wrong times persistently? All this is very useful for understanding how they may attend and focus in the classroom.
Finally, games like Snap where you can play as a diad or group can tell us a lot about a child’s social and communication skills. As aforementioned, it tells us a lot about their ability to turn-take, but it can also tell us about a child’s ability to empathise with others, and their willingness (or ability) to follow rules. Do they demonstrate good sportsmanship? Or do they struggle with losing and resort to breaking rules?
So, whilst Snap may seem like just a fun game to start a session, it can offer a wealth of information about a child’s cognitive, emotional, and social abilities and can help guide the next steps of assessment.
