PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE INTERNET

Air Fishing

Use your ship to catch futuristic fish of many shapes and sizes while avoiding the giant worm. Players must be ready to change strategy at any time during this game.

Game play alone results in modest improvements in real-world executive skills. Please refer to our Playbook Tutorial, general coaching and comprehensive guides to transfer game skills to sustainable real-life behaviors.

QUICK FACTS

Game Type: Adventure
Platform/Console: Internet
How to Find It: Air Fishing
Other Requirements: Adobe Flash Player
LWK Recommended Age: 5+

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Adapting to a quick or sudden change (flexibility)
  
• Paying attention for an extended period of time (sustained attention)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

Reading ability is only required for the short instructions; other than that no reading ability is required.

How to find it:
http://www.addictinggames.com/airfishing.html

Controls, game basics, and instructions:
The player controls the ship using the arrow keys, catches fish by running into them, and takes damage by touching the evil worm or going too far under the water.

Solutions:

This game is relatively simple and the difficulty increase as time goes on. No walkthroughs exist, nor are they necessary for this game.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Flexibility:

This game is good for kids who need help with adapting to a quick or sudden change, because they must:

• Quickly change the position of their ship based on when and where the evil worm pops out. When the player sees that the evil worm is about to pop out, he/she must quickly put everything else aside and adjust his/her position or risk losing health and shields. You can see in the screenshot that the player was not able to adjust fast enough and ended up running into the worm.

Talking Points:

• When were you able to evade the worm?
• How did being flexible about the position of your ship help you to avoid the worm, thus conserving health and shields?
• How is being flexible about your ship’s position like being able to adapt to a sudden change in your schedule such as an unexpected doctor’s appointment?

Making It Real:

Help children to understand how their inflexibility may prevent them from finding a range of correct solutions to a particular problem. Model a type of inflexible behavior that results in getting stuck and, perhaps, a sense of frustration. For example, keep performing the same incorrect activity on your computer, so that you get stuck. Make a point of saying to the child, “The computer keeps getting stuck.” Many children, who are often more knowledgeable about the computer than their parents, will be able to demonstrate how to fix the problem for you. This opportunity for you to talk how you were stuck using the same strategy and needed help to find a new approach will facilitate discussing inflexible problem solving.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Sustained Attention:

This game is good for kids who display difficulty with paying attention for an extended period of time because they must:

• Continue to play the game in order to get a high score. The core gameplay mechanics of catching fish and avoiding the worm does not change no matter how long you play. This could easily lead to boredom. But as time goes on, more fish come into play and the worm changes positions more frequently. The only way to get a good score is to keep playing even if it does get a little bit repetitive.

Talking Points:

• How much time do you usually spend playing "Air Fishing"?
• How does sticking to the game for an extended period of time help you perform better and get a higher score?
• How is playing "Air Fishing" for an extended period of time like practicing a simple, sometimes tedious task over and over again to get better at it (music scales, throwing a baseball accurately, simple math problems, etc)?

Making It Real:

• Post visible signs of success from children’s sustained effort. This could include pictures of children starting off a baseball season swinging and missing a pitch next to a picture of them smiling on first base after hitting the ball. Similar visual strategies to show that their effort is worthwhile might be seen in improvements on report cards, improved test scores in the same subject, or listening to before and after practice renditions performed on their musical instruments. It is important to talk to children and get them to describe the steps they took to sustain their efforts.

Review by Ben Plummer