Playing with Children: The Training of Tiny Nerds
May 1, 2018 15:01:35 GMT
Brave Sir Robin, Oneiros, and 3 more like this
Post by akelis on May 1, 2018 15:01:35 GMT
In the course of a few days I've had a surprising number of people comment asking about how it is I manage to teach tweens and teens while using gaming through 4th Edition D&D.
A few years ago the charity organization I work for discussed starting a program to use different forms of games to help our students with social, emotional, and high-functioning cognitive difficulties to connect. Since at the times I was seven months pregnant and could barely stand up, the original idea of Pokemon Go as a group was far from appealing. So, I proposed using 4th edition and a pair of pre-made campaigns to run a test group with our high school aged students and two of the bosses for our social services unit. For all but myself this was their first time playing, so I was able to go through how to build a character, how rolling works, and learned where it was helpful to modify things into new house rules that make game play more simple for those who might find it difficult.
I actually both teach this as part of a program for after school and have started working with my husband to run our first campaign for our own children and some of their friends as a test group for working specifically with children on the Autism Spectrum (my oldest is high functioning so I get a test subject in the house).
I have taken an insane amount of what used to be my free time to make spell cards for magic users at our table to use as references. I have spent far too much using the grids on the back of dollar store wrapping paper (buy in bulk at Christmas, it saves you so much money!) into huge campaign landscapes. And I have lost count of the number of times I've gotten strange looks because I have a literal cookie jar full of dice on my desk to hand out to students as a reward for doing well on exams. And yet... I find that teaching this is no different than playing with any new player. My students may have more questions at first, they might have trouble telling a d20 for a d10 at times so others at the table step in and assist. But for all that these kids face, being treated as throw aways, kids who spend their lives in a foster system or state care, are actively living on the street at times, or who have been called stupid so often they write it in papers when asked to describe themselves; not once have any of these kids failed to make it to a game night or said they don't enjoy it.
If anyone has questions about how to modify for age groups, or tools we found that might work with specific issues (note that I cannot disclose about any children's exact conditions) I can offer what I know or have learned works for our group, and I would love to hear from others who have players of younger ages. I learned to play as a preteen and cannot be the only person to have dice and a set of books before they started high school.
A few years ago the charity organization I work for discussed starting a program to use different forms of games to help our students with social, emotional, and high-functioning cognitive difficulties to connect. Since at the times I was seven months pregnant and could barely stand up, the original idea of Pokemon Go as a group was far from appealing. So, I proposed using 4th edition and a pair of pre-made campaigns to run a test group with our high school aged students and two of the bosses for our social services unit. For all but myself this was their first time playing, so I was able to go through how to build a character, how rolling works, and learned where it was helpful to modify things into new house rules that make game play more simple for those who might find it difficult.
I actually both teach this as part of a program for after school and have started working with my husband to run our first campaign for our own children and some of their friends as a test group for working specifically with children on the Autism Spectrum (my oldest is high functioning so I get a test subject in the house).
I have taken an insane amount of what used to be my free time to make spell cards for magic users at our table to use as references. I have spent far too much using the grids on the back of dollar store wrapping paper (buy in bulk at Christmas, it saves you so much money!) into huge campaign landscapes. And I have lost count of the number of times I've gotten strange looks because I have a literal cookie jar full of dice on my desk to hand out to students as a reward for doing well on exams. And yet... I find that teaching this is no different than playing with any new player. My students may have more questions at first, they might have trouble telling a d20 for a d10 at times so others at the table step in and assist. But for all that these kids face, being treated as throw aways, kids who spend their lives in a foster system or state care, are actively living on the street at times, or who have been called stupid so often they write it in papers when asked to describe themselves; not once have any of these kids failed to make it to a game night or said they don't enjoy it.
If anyone has questions about how to modify for age groups, or tools we found that might work with specific issues (note that I cannot disclose about any children's exact conditions) I can offer what I know or have learned works for our group, and I would love to hear from others who have players of younger ages. I learned to play as a preteen and cannot be the only person to have dice and a set of books before they started high school.
