The Name Game - Created for a learning disabled child

The Name Game

Created for a learning disabled child

Learning disabled children struggle with learning. What seems simple to other children can be very difficult for a child with a learning disability to grasp.

One such child, named Jasper, was getting very frustrated at not being able to recognize his name. When all the other children in his class could choose their name tag from the chart of name tags, he could not. Not wanting to wait until everyone else chose their name, he would pick one and hope that he had chosen the correct name tag. He was not successful at finding his and grew tired of trying, when he saw that the other children were easily able to recognize their name tag.

To help him with this, I created the J-A-S-P-E-R game. I took a basic wooden block which has six sides. Using a permanent marker, I put one letter of his name on each side of the block. We used all capital letters, since the children were learning uppercase letters first.

Jasper's name was written on a piece of construction paper, like this J A S P E R, leaving some space between each letter. To play the game, Jasper would roll the block as one would roll die and I would reinforce the name of the letter which landed face side up. He would then place a small marker or toy (whatever you happen to have on hand works fine) on the identical letter on his sheet with JASPER printed at the top. At first it took him a while to match the letters, but once he got the hang of it, he would smile broadly at his accomplishment. I used lots of praise. The game would end when each of the letters in his name was covered. He would receive a small reward the first few times we played the game. This doesn't have to be a large reward; I usually used stickers and let him choose the one he wanted.

Before long, Jasper was recognizing his name in print and was able to choose the correct name tag like the other children in his class. Using this simple strategy of playing a game and making it fun by being creative made all the difference in this little boy's life. He succeeded and gained self confidence along the way.