PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE NINTENDO DS

Nintendogs

Kids can buy and care for their own puppies by feeding, grooming, walking, and teaching their dogs tricks.  Players will need to be dedicated to taking care of their puppies if they want to have happy and healthy pets!

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: Nintendo DS
Number of Players: 1 (can be multi-player)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
LWK Recommended Age: 7+
Buy Now From: Amazon.com

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• setting goals, planning activities (planning)
• staying motivated (task persistence)
• working to potential (task persistence)
• completing tasks (task persistence)
• judging the amount of time needed for completing tasks (time management)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

Game type: Simulation
Platform/Console: Nintendo DS
Number of Players: 1 (can be multi-player)
ESRB rating: E (Everyone)
LW recommended age: 7+

“Nintendogs” is a pet simulation game made for the Nintendo DS system. There are several different versions, each of which contains six unique dog breeds for the player to choose from at the beginning. The breed of puppy that the player can purchase at the start of the game depends on the version of “Nintendogs” purchased and include “Dachshund & Friends,” “Lab & Friends,” “Chihuahua & Friends,” “Dalmatian & Friends,” and  “Best Friends”(available only with the DS bundle). Game play is the same for all versions of Nintendogs even if the breeds are different.

It is useful to have at least some basic reading skills when playing this game.

Solutions:
For parents who would like a walkthrough, many great fan-made (and free!) walkthroughs can be found on the internet.  We suggest you look here: www.IGN.com or here: www.Gamefaqs.com.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Planning:

This game is good for kids who struggle with setting goals and planning activities because they must:

• Develop short-term goals. Kids must save money to purchase new puppies, supplies, and new interior designs for the home. Without properly saving money, kids will be unable to care for their puppies, and the pets will become unhappy and run away from time to time (they always return home, of course). 

• Plan out a walk route for their puppies at least once a day. The most successful walks will take dogs to multiple locations of interest such as question marks (presents or other dogs appear randomly when the player reaches a question mark), parks, gyms, and discount stores. The player needs to plan his/her route according to which places need to be visited at that particular time. For example, if a puppy needs to practice for the disc-throwing competition, the player needs to arrange to visit the park at some point during the walk. Puppies can walk only as long as their stamina allows, so planning the walk appropriately is important.

• Decide what tricks they will teach their puppies for the day so they can enter competitions. Puppies can learn only a few tricks each day, and obedience competitions require dogs to perform more and more demanding tricks as they progress.  They also require puppies to perform very specific tricks at each level.  Since competitions can be entered only three times a day, kids need to make sure they plan ahead and choose the tricks they will teach their puppies wisely.

Talking Points:

• Where in the game did you need to set small goals for yourself?

• How did setting goals help you to save money to buy new puppies, supplies, and interior designs?

• How can setting goals like this help you to think about how you can save money to buy something special?

• How can you meet new people and get free items in “Nintendogs”?

• How did planning walks help you to meet new friends, find new items, and discover more places?

• How is planning a walk for your puppy everyday like developing a plan to get something you want?

Making It Real:

• Construct lists of the steps necessary to complete activities. Many children have difficulty in conceptualizing the multiple steps it may take to complete an activity such as completing a book report, making and cleaning up after a meal, creating a “Facebook” or “MySpace” Page, or getting ready for a family vacation.

• Encourage your child to brainstorm and write down possible steps for planning for a school project, birthday party, or for buying gifts for others during the holiday season. Keep a binder of successful plans for future reference.

This Game Can Help Your Kids With Task Persistence:

This game is good for kids who struggle with staying motivated, working to potential, and completing tasks because they must:

• Complete one goal prior to starting another. Kids must succeed in teaching dogs specific tricks before their puppies can successfully clear competitions and move on to the next competition level. 

• Work with their puppies on a regular basis to teach them tricks. Puppies won’t learn a trick on the first try, so practice is the key to success. Puppies also need to rehearse tricks they have already learned so they will do well in obedience competitions. 

• Re-motivate themselves after failure. Sometimes competitions are difficult and if a puppy hasn’t practiced his/her tricks enough they will fail. If this happens, the player will need to start out at a lower level competition the next time he/she enters and work his/her way back up again. 

Talking Points:

• How do you move on to more difficult competitions in “Nintendogs”?

• How did teaching your dog specific tricks help you to clear a competition and move on to the next level?

• How can setting goals like this help you to think about choosing long-term goals such as increasing your rank in Scouts or karate?

• What do you need to do to get your puppies to learn and remember new tricks?

•  How did being persistent help you to practice with your puppy on a regular basis?

• How is practicing tricks with your puppy like developing good work habits through practice, repetition, and effort?

Making It Real:

• Help children experience visible results of sticking to a task and its rewards. For example, a child who is trying to save money to buy a particular toy or game is likely to benefit from a bit of help from his/her parents so that he/she can get it in a faster period. Point out to him/her that it was his/her persistence in sticking to it that resulted in the reward from you.

• Post visible signs of success from a child’s sustained effort. This could include pictures of a child starting off a baseball season and showing him/her swinging and missing a pitch next to a picture of him/her smiling on first base after hitting the ball. Similar visual strategies to show that his/her 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 a child is performing with his/her musical instrument. Talking to the child and getting him/her to describe the steps that he/she took to sustain his/her effort will be important.

This Game Can Help Your Child With Time Managemen/Prioritizationt:

This game is good for kids who struggle with judging the amount of time needed for completing tasks because they must:

• Manage their time wisely during pet competitions because each one has a time limit. If the player does not score the amount of points needed or perform certain tricks within the time limit, the puppy may fail and be forced to start at a lower competition level next time.

Talking Points:

• How do you know how much time you have to finish a competition?

• How did keeping track of time help you and your puppy to complete all of the tricks before the competition ended?

• How can scoring the amount of points needed or performing tricks within a certain time limit help you to think about working fast if there is a deadline?

• How can it help you to work well under pressure?

Making It Real:

• Help children develop an appropriate “sense of urgency.”  For example, inform your child that he/she will not have time to engage in a favorite activity unless he/she completes a task within a time limit.  Then keep to what you have said.  It is important not to overemphasize a sense of urgency, particularly in children who are prone to being anxious or who become overly self-critical when it takes them a long time to complete a task.  Having an appropriate sense of urgency can be helpful for children who delay starting tasks more than for children who appear to be working hard but take an excessively long amount of time to complete tasks.