Hey kids, wanna play a card game tonight?!
As I was reading the Chicago Tribune this evening, I came across this article, entitled “Card games are great for families”. I remember growing up enjoying board games and playing “Rummy” with my family. We had an Atari 2600, and an Apple II Plus, but the thrill of playing a non electronic game with the family kept drawing us back to treasure that activity. In today’s world, however, it seems card games have a lot to compete with. Video games which provide constant stimulation and positive reinforcement every ten seconds are the entertainment of choice. I bemoan the fact that electronic video games are such a favorite activity amongst my children, but I am also responsible for that fact. After all, as one who spent hours every weekend on my Atari, how can I preach to them about how these games, while fun, are essentially a potentially dangerously solitary activity? The new social media does successfully draw people together, but the old-fashioned worried mother part of me thinks it is not as beneficial as the skills learned from an old fashioned card or board game. As the author of the article in the Tribune writes, “Card playing around a table is “massively social, intimate and direct,” McNeely says. “It covers all ages, interests and attention spans.”
Within my immediate family (now), we realized early on the importance of such intense and intimate social interaction. Having a child with Asperger’s Syndrome made it apparent to me early on, that board games and old fashioned card games run different for non-neurotypical children. In other words, for those who brain is wired differently and see the world not as others do, board/card games work on important pieces of the “social puzzle”. In fact, these games were recommended to me by my child’s therapists in second grade as a tool for teaching social skills. Everyone needs to learn important skills for civilized social exchange such turn-taking, following the rules (not cheating), and frustration tolerance. The flip-side of this, is that while these games are good for promoting civil behavior, playing them with this goal in mind makes them much more “work” for everyone involved. We do them occasionally, peppered with plenty of video games and movies in between. My children find the video games much more relaxing, and more so than I did when growing up. (This comes as no surprise to me now, as I’ve discovered many of my childhood favorites – spam, the great outdoors, having pets – are unappealing, and sometimes inconvenient to them as well). Perhaps the real problem is that I think children today have way too much ability to create their ideal environment – one which is convenient and comfortable, with frequent positive reinforcement – and my concern is that I’m not sure this produces the endurance and perseverance necessary to bear future hardships. Card games and board games could be one way to help in this area.
