In continuation with our previous articles on Games for Girls and Games for Boys, here is an article on Games for Children with Special Needs.
Here are some games that are not only fun, but they can also teach children with special needs on how to be independent.
Games for Children With Special Needs
Game of Printable Picture Cards: Printable Picture Cards is not a game actually, but an activity which you can teach your child. But, this activity can be turned into a simple game of quiz. But, first you need to teach your kid to study each of the card and remember each of the activities on the card. These cards have been developed by Do2Learn and they are divided into categories of Self Help, Activities, Home & School, Social, Safety, Calendar, etc. Each of these are further sub-divided.
Emotions Color Wheel: Another activity or game that you can play with your children. This is essentially an activity which tries to teach the various human emotions such as anger, fear, happy, surprise, sadness, concern, confusion, etc. This is a very good activity that can also be played as a game to teach your children about various expressions that people make. The makers of this activity are Do2Learn.com.
Drawing: Drawing is a great way to keep your child busy for a long time. Drawing is not only fun, but it also develops fine motor skills. Development of motor skills is essential for your child to go ahead and do all sorts of things on his own. By holding the crayon or brush properly and learning to paint with it improve his motor skills to a great extent. It would be easy to learn writing this way.
Source: Blogimam.com
Veggie Printing Art: Veggie art is a little variation from drawing, but this game involves drawing with vegetables. Vegetables with certain on the inside can form great patterns. For example, vegetables like okra, beans, broccoli, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, etc can be of great help.
Source: Lets Kids Create.blopspot.com
Matching Pairs Game: Matching Pairs is another game that your kids would love to play. The game is very simple and all it needs is 2 images of different things. You can jumble them up and ask your kid to identify the same image from a bunch of images. They’ll definitely love to play this game.
Source: 0to5.com
Painting: The above image takes us to our next activity or game and that is painting. Painting is another activity that kids would love to do any time of the day. Kids love the variation in colors and would spend hours together playing with colors. You could encourage your kids to fill colors for drawings or let them paint with colors themselves. As kids have the habit of putting colors all over their face and clothes, give your kids are using child-safe colors.
Source: diverziti.hu
Guess The Smell: Guess the Smell is a simple game which involves only simple things that are available at home such as 3 or 4 pairs of old socks and some cotton or wool balls. You also need things like coffee, lemon, orange, flower extract oils, etc. Be very careful with the flower extract oils as they are very concentrated and they need to be diluted before kids smell them. Sniffing out concentrated extract oils is not good for children. But, once diluted they are okay. Sprinkle these smells on to the cotton or wool balls and stuff them inside the socks and let your kid guess the object by smelling it.
Source: Puddle Wonderful Learning.blogspot.com
Shapes: There are many things around us that give an idea for kids as to what shape they are, such as a ball, the cap of a bottle, star shape, triangle shape, cylinder shape, etc and many more. You could use these shapes to teach your child about their shapes and ask them about the nearest examples, etc. For this game, you don’t need to buy any fancy things. Instead, you could find or make some of these shapes at home with readily available materials.
Kids playing-with Diff Shapes
Source: Tumble Home Learning .com
Dance: Who doesn’t like music? Put up some trendy music and let your kids groove to the music. If needed show them some dance moves and they’ll try to imitate your moves. Learning some good moves from others is a good stimulant and it is especially good for improving motor skills of your child. At the same time, you’ll see your kids enjoying.
Source: Every Day Family.com
Physical games: You can try various physical games such as running, jumping, throwing, striking, catching, trapping, etc and various other ball games. These games are essential for your kids’ overall health and apart from health, these games also promote good motor skills.
Source: MNN.com
Simon Says: Simon Says is a simple game where children need to follow the instructions of one kid who says, “Simon Says…” followed by an activity like “raise your hand”, “raise your leg”, “dance”, etc. This game helps in improving social skills as a player who does not obey what “Simon Says” will be out of the game.
Source: Pears On Longman.com
Memory Game: Memory game is a simple game which needs a group of at least 7-8 or more kids. That’s when this game becomes interesting. Anyways, here goes the game. One kid from the group says a word like horse or dog and the second kid should come up with something related to what the prior kid has said. But before this, the 2nd kid needs to say horse or dog and then continue. Now, the 3rd kid will have say what the 1st and 2nd kids have said and say another thing related to the above words. And this game continues. Any kid who doesn’t remember the sequence is deemed to be out. This game is good for improving memory in kids.
Source: Mike Henry Photo.com
Tongue Twisters: Try Tongue Twisters for a change. Tongue Twisters are not just a game for smart kids. But, this game can be very much helpful for kids with speech issues. Collect some tongue twisters on the internet and practice them first. Then ask your kid to repeat the tongue twister. Ask your kid to practice the tongue twister. Then, given him another tongue twister the next day. At first, they can find it very difficult, but soon, they’ll catch up to you. This activity can help them to overcome speech related issues.
Source: Feminiya.com
Roll Over: Roll Over is a fun game that your child will like. All you need to do is to pull out your child’s mattress, put one end on the bed and the other end on the floor. Let your child roll down from the top end to the floor. Cushion the landing with pillows. And there you have it, a fun and interesting game that your kids would like to play forever.
Hide and Seek: Hide and Seek has been a popular game played for many generations now. But still there’s some charm in this game as children find this game to be very exciting. In a usual hide and seek game, one kid is chosen to be the ‘it’ and while he counts to 20 or 50 or 100, all the other kids hide and the ‘it’ tries to catch them one by one. A simple game but its so much fun and can be played for hours together.
Source: Spy Tek.co.za
Sardines: Sardines game is totally reverse in process of Hide and Seek. In Sardines, one kid goes out to hide and all the others need to find where he is. If one from the search party finds out where the kid is hiding, he’ll join the kid and will wait until all others join them, leaving just one or two kids to find them all.
Source: Spoonful.com
Statue Race: Statue Race is an interesting game. The game is an improvisation over the regular running race game. The difference in this game is that the one player will close his eyes and start counting from 1 to 10 and during this time, the race begins. On the count of 10, the racers must stop and become statues. Whoever moves is out of the game and is sent back to the beginning. This process continues until most of the players are out and whoever manages to stand still as statue all the way and reaches the finish line is the winner.
Source: School AtoZ.nsw.edu.au
What Time Is It Mr. Wolf?: What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? Is another interesting game where one kid leads all the other kids. The leading kid is the wolf and the followers are sheep. The sheep have a home (a box of line drawn anywhere in the ground). The sheep keep asking the wolf, “what’s the time, Mr. Wolf?” and he answers any time of the day. The moment he says dinner time, he turns back and touches the kids behind. The sheep that successfully run and reach home are safe.
Source: oakhill-kinder.blogspot.com
Here are some apps and games that you might want to try for your kids.
Alpha Attack: Alpha Attack is a game where bombs with letters are being dropped and you need to press the corresponding letters on the keyboard to destroy those bombs. A good way to teach your kids how to identify all the letters in the alphabet.
Count the Sheep: Count the Sheep is a simple game where number of sheep on the screen are to be counted and should be entered in the screen that follows. Count the sheep correctly because there isn’t much time.
Match The Shapes: Match The Shapes is a simple game which teaches your kids about different shapes and identifying them. All you need to do is to single click on the colored shapes and drag them to the gray areas and place them there. This game not only teaches about shapes, but it can also teach about sizes.
Robbie The Robot: Robbie The Robot is an online game that helps autistic children to recognize different human emotions. This game has 3D animations and faces of real persons to show the similarities. Children will learn about different emotions such as happy, sad, angry, surprised, etc.
Ron Gets Dressed: Ron Gets Dressed is another game specifically designed for children with autism. The game is about coping with change. Ron has to dress according to the changing weather conditions. If it is too cold, the Ron needs to wear sweaters or jackets to keep warm, etc.
Florence The Frog: Florence The Frog is a game that helps children with autism to increase their ability in finding routes and listening to directions. In this game, the frog is hungry and it needs to feed of the flies.
Pick A Pumpkin: Pick A Pumpkin is a game which is about making Halloween Jack O’ Lantern Lamps. You can select pumpkins of different sizes and carve out different shapes of eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin. It’s a fun way to spend some time creating the perfect Jack O’ Lantern Pumpkin.
Ten Little Snowman: Ten Little Snowman is a game intended for children with autism to learn counting. The game also helps in creating a Snowman with different styles of hats, scarves, noses, etc.
Lets Count to 100: Lets Count to 100 is another game that teaches children to count till 100. There are numbers 1 to 10 written in words and pointing at each number, the game reads out the number. The rest of the numbers are in 10s ie 10, 20 till 100.
Match Clocks: Match Clocks is a game that teaches time to children with autism. This game contains an analog clock and the options are in digital clocks. By using the digital clocks, the time in the analog clock has to be correctly identified.
Math Journey: Math Journey is a game which teaches math to kids. In this game, the small boy is trying to move in a terrain filled with obstacles. Using your math skills, you need to help the boy to cross these obstacles and hurdles. All you need to do is answer some math questions along the way.
Calendar: Calendar game is a simple game that teaches how to identify and use a calendar. The game explains kids about the days and dates in a month in a calendar. One good thing about game is that there is a calendar built into it and it identifies the month, year, day and date at present and starts from there.
Sensory House: Sensory House is an activity based game which teaches kids about the various things that one can find in a home starting with the living room, the lounge room, the kitchen, the rooms upstairs, and various other things at home such as books, photo frames, plants, calendar, etc. By clicking on each of them, you’ll taken to the respective places.
Action Games
Here are some Action Games
Galleon Fight: Galleon Fight is set in medieval period where sail ships were common. You are on a shop with a cannon and you need to destroy enemy ship with your cannons. But be careful, your enemy ship will also have the same number of chances to take you down. The angle of the cannon must be just right for the cannonball to hit the enemy ship.
Rubble Trouble: Rubble Trouble is a game that involves destroying buildings using powerful explosives. You, the player works for building demolition and you need to pile up as much as rubble as possible by bringing down buildings.
Gravity: Gravity is a different game where a planet named Generica has been captured by aliens. You are in command of a space ship from planet Generica and you need to safely take the spaceship through all the missions. You can navigate the spaceship using direction controls.
Cyber Mice: Cyber Mice is another game which is about a bunch of cute little cyber mice. These mice are trapped inside a maze and you need to show them way to come out of the maze and into the cheese. You can use the various things to help the mice to reach the cheese.
Bad Apple: Bad Apple is another game that can build your child’s intuition about fruits. This game is about choosing the good apples from a basket of apples and avoiding bad apples.
Monkey Kick Off: Monkey Kick Off is another different kind of game. Here’s a monkey who’s playing with a coconut. The monkey will kick the coconut and how far the coconut goes is the record. You can endlessly play this game to improve your angle and kick.
Cube Buster: Cube Buster is a simple game which involves clicking on squares to eliminate them. These squares will be increasing in number and you need to click on as many squares as you can to eliminate them. Don’t let them get to the roof, else its game over. You can click 3 squares at a time to eliminate them.
Spider Game: Spider Game is an interesting game. This game is about a spider which needs to feed off on as many insects as possible. The spider needs to jump off and catch the insects.
Slime Laboratory: Slime Laboratory is a game about a slime that is trapped in a laboratory and it needs to get out of the laboratory. Help the slime to escape from the lab. The game requires knowledge of physics to win this game.
Turbo Kids: Turbo Kids is a racing game where the player in red participates in a running race and he has to win. You can help the player by jumping over obstacles and valleys.
Dancing Bush: Dancing Bush is a fun game where George W Bush is dancing. You can direct Bush to dance in many different steps and with various effects such as disco lights, disco floor, spot lights, etc.
Dance 2 The Beat: Dance 2 The Beat is a game of dance. You just need to select a character and once the character is on the dance floor, you just need to follow the directions and the character dances to your moves.
Hot Air 2: Hot Air 2 is a game about two balloons. One of the balloon is kidnapped and the other balloon has to rescue it. In order to rescue it balloon has to cross many perilous levels. Help the balloon navigate through difficult terrains.
Raft Wars: Raft wars is a game of defense. The game is about two little brothers defending their treasure against two pirates on rafts. The brothers and the pirates have a equal chances to aim and fire at each other. Help the brothers fight off the pirates.
Snow Tale: Snow Tale is a game about a snow creature which has to survive by killing snow monsters by throwing snow balls at them.
Fruit Smash: Fruit Smash is an arcade game where you need to swap fruits so that same fruits get cancel by 3 or 4 giving you points. The more points you collect, the higher the score will be.
Rocket Pets: Rocket Pets is a game where pets with jet packs are going on adventure trip around the world by flying. Fly along with Rocket Pets on an adventurous journey.
300 Miles to Pigsland: 300 Miles to Pigsland is game where poor little pigs are away from their home. You need to collect as many points (money) to help them reach their home by avoiding obstacles and traps along the way.
Space Heroes Universe: You can create your own space hero, make some new friends and along with your friends take some daring missions across the galaxy in search of Shadowbot and the missing Glows.
