December 7, 2009

Ever since I had taught my student that I mentor chess, he has become obsessed. I have learned children with Aspergers are very interested in board games. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned through the game of chess. Some life lessons and skills that can be learned through chess are; memory and concentration, tactical and strategic thinking, sportsmanship, setting goals and priorities, viewing obstacles as challenges, learning from mistakes, patience and decision making. All of which can be related back to any types of games and sports. The tricky part is teaching the student how chess relates to all other games and how you can view other games in the same way. As a teacher, I can use this to my benefit when teaching a child with Aspergers. In any type of invasion game you need to understand tactical and strategic strategy. Everyone is on the field like a chess piece, they all move with a purpose. They work together to invade the other team’s territory to try and score a point or a goal. Everyone has a specific job on the field, just like all the specific jobs chess pieces have. There goal is to work on trying to get a checkmate, same as the players on the field. It’s interesting how you can relate a board game theory to a physical game and still teach the same lesson. Teaching a game like chess, which is a cognitive game, is a good tool to teach the cognitive concepts to other types of games.