HIGHLIGHTS

The games in this kit are basically a collection of mutual storytelling derivative games as described in The Psychotherapeutic Techniques of Richard A. Gardner. However, the collection is much more than that. It includes a more elaborate and effective version of the Pick-a-Face Game, now called The Bag of Faces, which contains 36 picture cards depicting color photographs of children’s faces representing a variety of ethnic groups; the Bag of Toys; and Bag of Words. Last, there is a new grab bag, The Bag of Acts, from which the cards selected instruct the child to perform an act, which then serves as a point of departure for psychotherapeutic interchanges.

The kit does not simply consist of four grab bags. Rather, all these instruments are incorporated into the appealing board game format that proved so successful in Dr. Gardner’s classic The Talking, Feeling, and Doing Game. In this format each player moves a pawn along a curved path from Start to Finish, landing on spaces that instruct the player to select an item from one of each of the four grab bags. The child’s statements and stories about the selected items serve as points of departure for a variety of psychotherapeutic interchanges. In addition, there is a spin landing which enables the player to either gain or lose chips from the bank of reward chips.

The combination of mildly competitive board game play, the excitement of pulling unknown items from grab bags, and the prospect of a prize for accumulating the most reward chips ensures the cooperation and involvement of the vast majority of children, even the most inhibited and resistant. These factors increase formidably the likelihood of the child’s providing meaningful responses to serve as points of departure for psychotherapeutic interchanges.