The Talking, Thinking, Feeling and Doing Game

This therapy game is played like a standard board game. The child and therapist place their playing pieces on Start, then take turns throwing the dice, and moving their pawn along a path of squares. Depending upon the color of the square on which the piece lands, the player selects a talking card, feeling card, or doing card. The questions and directions in each set of cards include items that are not anxiety provoking - How old are you? - to items that are moderately anxiety provoking - Everyone in the class was laughing at a boy. What had happened? If the child responds they receive a token reward chip. The winner is the player who has accumulated the most chips after the players have reached Finish. The child's responses are generally revealing of those psychological issues that are most important at that time. The engaging game format utilizing token reinforcement enhances the child's interest and elicits spontaneous revelations. The information gained provides diagnostically meaningful insights into the child's psychodynamics and is of therapeutic value because each response can serve as a catalyst for therapeutic interchanges.

Talking, Feeling, and Doing Game was designed to be used only by mental health professionals in their therapeutic work with children. Accordingly, every reasonable attempt is made to limit the sale and distribution of the game to such professionals. Use of the game by parents with their own children is therapeutically contraindicated. Most parents are not trained to provide appropriate therapeutic responses to the cards. And even those who are, are not likely to have the objectivity with their own children that is necessary for optimum utilization of the game. Lastly, such play with parents will compromise the child's use of the game with his or her therapist.