Some of you who are our age might have an old Dire Straights song playing in your head now. Enjoy the tune and keep it in mind if your child struggles with getting out when playing games.
One of the biggest challenges that some kids face at recess and on playgrounds is the ability to be “out” in elimination games. For some kids, being out causes angry meltdowns, tears or arguing with other players that delay the game and remove the fun.
We’ve come up with a strategy for kids that we call the “walk of out.” In our social groups, before we play a game that involves getting out, we walk through and practice how that looks. It makes it even more fun when our teens or we ourselves play along too. The “walk of out” is meant to make getting “out” fun by emphasizing the drama. Kids have fun acting as dramatic as possible as they remove themselves from a game. Here is a short video of kids who volunteered to help in demonstrating how we do it (and a great big thank you for their assistance and their parents for permission to share.)
By encouraging this over dramatization, the thing that can cause anger and meltdowns, being eliminated, becomes fun instead!
