My daughter, Alicia, and I had some time to kill. She was almost 5. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and we had nothing much to do. During such times, I often suggested some old-fashioned games for preschoolers and above. I had one game in mind, and I knew before I even said the name my daughter would be excited to play.
The game? No, not X-Men or some other mind-dulling computer game. This was a game with a more gruesome name but much friendlier goal: hangman.
For Toddlers, Games Are Fun and Educational
Remember hangman? It’s one of those anytime, anywhere games. You grab a scrap of paper, a pen or pencil. You draw a crude gallows. Then you think of a word your child probably can figure out, especially with a little help.
For 4- or 5-year-olds just beginning to read or in early language development stages, the word might be pretty simple, such as “cat,” “dog” or, for the more advanced book-lovers, “house.” Then you draw beneath your gallows one line for each letter.
The child begins to guess letters. With each letter that is incorrect, you draw one part of a stick figure: First his head, a circle. Then a line for his torso. Then another line for each leg, and two more for the arms. That adds up to six tries.
Technically, if the guesser doesn’t figure out the word by then, they lose. Of course, when my kids were real young, I always added fingers and toes, and sometimes even facial features to give them ample chance to win the game.
Hangman Promotes Toddler Language Development
The word I chose for Alicia, who knew her alphabet well and already was picking up words, was “hat.”
She already knew the first rule of the game: Go through at least the four major vowels, since every word has at least one vowel. She guessed the “a” right away. Before long, we were on our next word.
This game almost always held my daughter’s attention for as long as I could come up with words. We both had fun, but more important, she was learning all kinds of literacy skills: What vowels were and what role they played in words. How to spell lots of different words. How to guess, and, if wrong, how to guess again, unashamed. (It was even more fun when my daughter was older and we took turns being the guesser).
Travel with a Toddler Inspires Game Playing
I have used this game and a few other old-fashioned ones many times. I stumbled upon Hangman while driving in the car. This was before kids had DVD players and other devices to keep them from getting bored — and, I might add, to keep the family from actually talking to one another.
We had listened to a couple of tapes and still had a long ride. I suddenly remembered hangman, and decided to give it a try. I thought my daughter would object or even refuse to play.
But she instantly loved the challenge and the success that I made sure she experienced, at least at first.
My daughter grew up a great reader, which of course helped her succeed in other subjects. But even today, more than a decade later, she still enjoys a casual game of Hangman while we’re sitting around the kitchen killing time. Of course, this time, I get to be the guesser, and instead of words like “hat,” we’re guessing words like “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Just ki_ _ ing, guys.
Sheryl James is a former EduGuide editor from Brighton, Michigan.