Thinking Games
Little games that show what the child notices today: do they see the repetition? do they link two words together? do they count and compare?
What it measures
It is not for classifying the child and not for comparing them with their peers — an eight-year-old is the last person who needs a number put on them. The benefit is for the grown-up to see which door this child comes through into the problem, so they explain to the child from it, and play with them at the other door until it becomes familiar. And a mistake here is information for the grown-up, not a judgment on the child.
How to read the result
Array
Before administering
Say to the child: "These are little games for the mind, and they are not a test. Nobody is giving you a grade and nobody is comparing you with anybody. If you make a mistake it is completely fine — take your time and enjoy it." And sit close to the child if they are in the early grades and read the items out to them, and do not correct them while they are playing and do not comment on an answer.
Its limits
An in-house tool with no norming: it has no reference sample and no percentile rank, and fifteen items in one sitting do not describe a child. Their hunger, their sleep, their mood and their eagerness in those minutes all enter into the number, and the form of the game itself is something the child learns by repetition, so their score rises the second time without anything in them having changed. And so it is not used to put the child in a group, and not to nominate them for a program and not to keep them out of one, and it is not written in their record and not said in front of them and not in front of their classmates. It is material for a conversation between a teacher and a parent about which game we play with the child this month, and no more than that.
Its dimensions
- I See the PatternWhen high: Sees the repeat in shapes, numbers and letters, and knows what comes next.
- I Understand the LinkWhen high: Knows what puts words together and what falls outside them, and comes up with the opposite.
- I Count and OrderWhen high: Counts, compares and orders small numbers in their head without hesitating.