19 Feb grabbin’ dragons
GRABBIN’ DRAGONS
GRABBIN' DRAGONS
Tonina Llull
Although the game does not fully meet expectations for engagement, the versatility and durability for therapists is excellent! The basic bones of the game facilitate bilateral coordination, fine motor skills, impulse control, distal and proximal stability/control, and goal directed behavior.
Meets Expectations
Durability
Versatility
Engagement
The Essentials
I love most classic games for their inherent therapeutic value. Out of curiosity, I tried this game and it did meet my therapeutic expectation. The goal of the game is to attain the most “magical rings” using the dragon tongue and then drawing it’s neck back, in a cool acrobatic, motion by pulling the tail mechanism.
The resistance provided when drawing the tail out and the control required to release the neck carefully to collect more rings is a good way to facilitate increasing concentric and eccentric control and feedback processing and adaptive response; the action required to pull the tail facilitates upper extremity bilateral coordination and control at midline; the impulse control required to move slowly to collect and drop the rings into the target area is significant and another skill that can be targeted with this game/tool.
Once game play begins, the kids race to attain the rings (one at a time), pull their dragon’s neck back so that the rings drop into the well built-in to the dragons back, and continue this until they collect all of their rings – whoever collects them first wins! Players can try to knock the rings off of their opponents’ dragon tongues, using their dragon’s neck movements.
Fun Factor
If played strictly as intended this game is interesting for the average 3-4 year olds or for older kids who enjoy repetitive, low energy types of games. As the kids get older, the level of engagement starts to falter significantly – it is just too repetitive without enough visual or auditory stimulus built-in to the game, once they are no longer fascinated with the “neck bendin” action. For children working on the skills this game’s pieces can facilitate, therapists are able to engage their school aged patients effectively for the short intervals required in therapy and by augmenting the game objectives and building in positive feedback.
The panel of experts and I support the use of this game to specifically target the skills indicated earlier.
Set-Up and Clean-Up
The ability to set-up, clean- up, and store this game is easy if you provide a ziplock bag for the “magic rings”. The durability of the actual dragon is excellent for the repeated use they endure in the clinical setting.
The IF-THEN’S and the BUT’S
Although the game does not fully meet the expectations for engagement, the versatility and durability for therapists is excellent! The basic bones of the game facilitate bilateral coordination, fine motor skills, impulse control, distal and proximal stability/control, and goal directed behavior. The packaging does indicate: WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD – Small parts. Not for children under 3 years.
HOW TO AUGMENT THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT
Depending on the toy or game, as therapists and educators, it is typical that we vary the way we use the game and its components to facilitate underlying skills that may be required to play the game for children who are differently abled. We can increase general learning and target specific learning areas, further enhance creativity and imagination, foster problem solving and memory, target additional physical (gross and fine motor) skills, social skills, communication; and foster sensory processing and modulation.
Through activity analysis, we learn how to maximize the use of the toys and games we use with our clients/students/patients. Here you will find some suggestions that may help you maximize the versatility in every product.
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