Children's Responsibility Games

Game play can teach children the traits of a responsible person such as honesty and fair play.

Children begin to learn responsibility as early as preschool. Through interaction with peers and adults, a child learns that responsibility is a positive trait. Game play enables children of all ages to learn and adopt responsible traits like self-esteem and accountability. Games that involve team skills and teach fair play and turn-taking are ideal for teaching children about helping others, following through and understanding the effect of their actions on others.

Defining Responsibility

Children must first understand what makes a responsible person before beginning to practice responsible behaviors. Interactive game play helps children to understand these qualities. Children can play a game called "What's Their Responsibility?" to begin developing this understanding. Each child takes a turn acting out an action that is done by people in a job he'd like to do. The other children guess which job he is acting out. As each child's charade is guessed, write the job down on the board. Later, discuss the responsible behavior each job requires. For example, a firefighter must be caring and brave.

Team Sports

Self-knowledge and self-respect are traits that are important to responsibility. Team sports use game play to teach these concepts. Playing as a team also encourages self-esteem and empowerment as children work toward accomplishing the team's goals. Children learn accountability as well because each team member is responsible for the team's success or failure. Games like soccer, football or baseball are ideal for building these foundations in children of all ages, but the sports don't have to be part of an organized system.

Board Games

Board games can be used to teach children responsibility in a variety of ways. "The Game of Life" teaches children about financial responsibility, for example. "Angry Animals 2" encourages children to think about how to express and respond to feelings of anger in a healthy and productive way. The game "Sorry" teaches sportsmanship as players move around the board and bump opponents out of their way. Children learn to deal with frustration and winning or losing in a way that is respectful. "Battleship" teaches fair play and honesty. Because the child's opponent can't see where the battleships are placed, it might be tempting for a young child to cheat in this game. Children learn that an honest loss provides a much more positive feeling than a dishonest win.

Video Games

Although parents might prefer to see children outside playing together, playing video games can be a useful activity to teach responsibility. Children can learn responsible behaviors by learning to limit their playing time, and some video games are designed to teach responsible attitudes. For example, pet care games require children to feed, groom and give attention to virtual pets. If the child is negligent or irresponsible, the pet dies and he must begin again. If the child takes care of the pet properly, it grows and learns along with the child. Other games provide older children the opportunity to become a virtual babysitter or simulate adult life.

References

• Momilani Library: Values Education: Responsibility
• TKI Health and Physical Education Sports Studies: Teaching Approaches
• Mayer-Johnson: Angry Animals 2