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Competitive Games Are Often: Many girls shy away from competitive team games, }n favour of individual activities (Sports Council 1993), and some authorities have gone on to question an emphasis upon competitive games for all children. Duda (1994), for example, suggested that teachers aiming to foster greater enjoyment in physical activity ought to focus upon 'task-orientated goals', achieving personal, achievable tasks and working with other children, not just against them, rather than upon 'ego-oriented goals' to do with beating others.
Illness and accidents often affect social adjustment. For example, the child with a heart condition that prevents him from engaging in athletics is doubly handicapped, especially during his preadolescent and adolescent years. Proficiency in sports gives a boy of this age self-esteem and confirms his sense of masculinity. Boys who do not take part in competitive games are often called "sissies."
In the way of practical help, suggest games that could be played at home (e.g. word bingo or a cloze game where children fill in missing words or phrases), explaining the particular value of games to a child with reading problems -namely that they're fun and so don't seem too much like hard work, and also that they have a useful repetitive, reinforcing function. When you recommend a game, try to explain just how it is designed to help. There are booklets and pamphlets available, which give ideas for games that can easily be made and played at home (e.g. Hip Pocket Spelling Games series, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983).
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