PLAYBOOKS: FOR VARIOUS PLATFORMS

Guitar Hero (Series)

Kids can fulfill their dreams of being rock stars! They will need to think and act quickly to hold successful careers.

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: Simulation
Platform/Console: GH I - Playstation 2; GH II - Playstation 2, Xbox 360; GH III - Playstation 2 + 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, Mac
Number of Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
LWK Recommended Age: 8+
Buy Now From: Amazon.com

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Note taking and copying tasks (sustained attention)
• Maintaining visual attention to teachers, parents, and books (sustained attention)
• Maintaining interest even if they are unable to learn how to do something immediately (task persistence)
• Keeping up with teacher/coach lessons (time management)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

Please be aware that some parents may deem language and situations inappropriate for younger children.

Solutions:

Many free fan-made walkthroughs can be found on the internet. We suggest you look here http://www.gamefaqs.com. From there you can simply search for the corresponding version of Guitar Hero.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Task Persistence:

This game is good for kids who display difficulty with maintaining interest even if they are unable to learn how to do something immediately, because they must:

• Re-motivate themselves after failure, especially as songs increase in difficulty. Some songs can be tricky and as a result they are often difficult to master the first time through. Mastery of the “Guitar Hero” peripherals requires practice just as any typical instrument or musical piece. This type of game is a wonderful exercise for kids who are interested in playing instruments or sports, but lose the attraction when things get difficult. Don’t forget about the practice option for those difficult songs!

Talking points:

• How do you get better at a tricky song?
• How did being persistent help you to get through difficult songs?
• How can being persistent and rehearsing songs help you to think about practicing an activity or lesson such as an instrument or sport?

Making it real:

• Post visible signs of success from children’s sustained effort. This could include pictures of children starting off a baseball season and showing them 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 that children are performing with their musical instruments. Talking to children and getting them to describe the steps that they took to sustain their effort will be important.

• An accurate assessment by you and your children of their skill levels for a particular task is also important for sustaining their effort (determining when your child is ready for the next level of difficulty in Rock Band). It is important to identify tasks that children already display the capacity to complete and then build upon that. For example, children may be able to help with the chore of putting the clean silverware away from the dishwasher. After they have successfully mastered this skill, then perhaps they can be given the task of putting the dishes away, as well. Similarly, assembling a toy or piece of furniture that requires the use of hand tools can help give children some experience in using these tools in other settings. Asking children for an accurate description of their capacities for using tools or having displayed particular skills in the past will be important. This is likely to give then a sense that they will be able to complete the task. Ask your child to describe things that he/she can do “now,” that he/she could not do when he/she was one or two years younger. Areas such as math, sports, and self-care are fertile topics.