Chrissy Chen, BGCA’s National Director of Youth Development Programs and Innovation, wants your Club to have FUN while learning!
What if you could teach young people a set of skills to set them up for academic success, a lifetime of strong relationships, and overall wellbeing by playing games?
One of the most impactful things Clubs do for young people is help them build essential skills, which are the skills supporting a healthy relationship with self and others, emotion regulation and responsible decision making. Even though these skills help young people navigate heavy emotional challenges and complex social situations, they can be built and practiced through fun and simple games.
The key is intentionality. When you as a youth development professional reinforce the skills youth are building and recognize their progress, games like the ones listed below become even more valuable learning experiences. Here’s a collection of fun games for a variety of ages that build six essential skills.
Impulse Control
Impulse Control enables us to stop ourselves from reacting immediately. This skill helps us take a deep breath instead of yelling when we’re angry, consider saving money for the future instead of buying everything we want immediately, or consider possible consequences before making a risky decision.
- Taboo requires impulse control because of that list of words you’re not allowed to say as you give your team clues. It’s so tempting to use those words, especially when they’re written right in front of you, requiring your brain to exercise impulse control to not shout them out but find other ways to lead your team to the answer.
- Simon Says requires impulse control in that moment when “Simon didn’t say” because as much as you want to keep doing what you hear, you have to stop and consider whether you heard “Simon Says” before each instruction.
Perspective Taking
Perspective Taking is a building block for empathy and an essential component of healthy relationships. This skill help us step outside of ourselves and consider how someone else might be thinking, feeling or experiencing a situation. Perspective taking helps us manage conflict, collaborate effectively, and design solutions for diverse collections of people.
- Who Wrote What? Ask an open-ended question, invite all youth to write their answer on a small slip of paper and toss it in a bowl. Shuffle them up, pass them out, and challenge youth to decide who wrote the answer written on the slip of paper they’re now holding. This game requires youth to interpret each answers through the lens of the people in the room to identify whose perspective it represents.
- First to Worst requires perspective taking when each participant tries to guess how their fellow players would rank a list of five things from first to worst. When youth realize their answers differ from their friends’, they practice considering others’ preferences.
Communication
Communication is critical, and lots of games teach various aspects of communication. We generally recognize that articulating our own thoughts and feelings requires communication skills, but its also helpful to practice listening, making sense of what others are communicating, and responding accordingly.
- Code Names requires the clue giver to choose one word that most effectively connects a series of possible words. As a bonus, the guesser needs to employ perspective taking to think through which clues the clue giver was most likely associating with that clue.
- Chameleon similarly requires youth to listen closely and employ perspective taking as they interpret what each player chooses to communicate. In addition to thoughtfully choosing words, players need to observe verbal and non-verbal cues.
Social Awareness
Social Awareness is an ability to understand and respond to social norms of behavior. If you can read a room and identify that one person is feeling shy and needs someone to talk to or that a host is tired and is ready for everyone to go home, you’re practicing social awareness. Social awareness often requires emotion recognition plus an understanding of social conventions.
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Mafia involve intentional deception and close attention to dynamics. Noticing, for instance that Susana keeps sticking up for Ray, that DJ is quieter than usual, or that Lee keeps making bold accusations might lead you to determine which roles group members are playing. These games can get heated, so you might find yourself with an opportunity to practice conflict resolution as well!
Planning
Planning is the ability to create a process toward accomplishing a goal. Planning often requires time management, prioritization, and strategic thinking. Most popular strategy games require some level of planning.
- Chess famously requires players to think several steps ahead of the move they’re about to make. Depending on how their opponent moves, they may have to shift their plan or hold multiple plans in mind.
- Connect 4 is a much simpler game that still emphasizes planning since players must think not only about the four winning pieces but also the pieces that must stack up underneath the winning line.
- Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride and Gin Rummy require players to make and adjust plans throughout the game. Thinking nimbly about different ways to reach a goal and consutructing a plan around changing circumstances also requires the skill of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility allows someone to shift their thinking from “this ten is going to be part of a set of tens” to “now this ten is going to be part of an 8,9,10 run” and then adjust the plan accordingly. (Both Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride also have versions that are simplified for younger players.)
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together. While most group activities provide opportunities to practice collaborating, youth may need extra support building their collaboration skillset. Assigning roles, reflecting on how each person contributed to a project, and strategic grouping are all ways to help young people learn to collaborate more effectively.
- Pandemic or Outfoxed are collaborative games appropriate for different age groups. In Pandemic, each player assumes a different role, establishing cross functional collaboration.
- Keep-Up Balloon becomes more collaborative when you prompt youth to talk about how they’re going to work together. Where should everyone stand? What should we do when the balloon starts getting away from us?
- Improv is highly collaborative, requiring each person to listen carefully and respond in a way that builds a shared scene. Even simple improv games, like building a story in which each person can only say one word at a time, requires collaboration.
All BGCA programs intentionally build essential social and emotional skills, and key staff practices like community builders, reflections and positive behavior management reinforce them. To learn more, Club staff can check out the Social-Emotional Development Impact Toolkit on BGCA.net. Find even more fun ideas for learning through games here on the ClubX Blog.
What games do your youth love to play at the Club? How do you incorporate FUN into learning? Comment below, on the BGCA Youth Development Facebook page, or email ClubXBlog@bgca.org.
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