Questions on the game SET--Marie??

Do you have him verbalize what makes a set?

For example, these are all red and these are all yellow; or these all have four sides and these all have five; or these are all a filled shape inside a white shape, and these are all a white inside a black. And so on. Once he can verbalize a description of the logic of a set, then he should be able to see more easily the other members of a group and also develop (gradually) the skill to see more subtle groupings.

I am working on these issues with my son. I had exhausted the realm of my imagination making up logic puzzles.
Nancy posted a wonderful resource for critical thinking, visual perception, writing skills. You can start with a very basic level and work your way up. I think set is pretty difficult. I haven’t tried it with my son yet but it took me a little while to get it.

www.criticalthinking.com

Order the parent catalog for gifted kids. They have a lot of workbooks that address the cognitive level skills. I like the Building Thinking Skills series. We ordered level 2.

We are doing audiblox again and I find their program to be a little light on the logic exercises so I will use these to supplement that program.

My son is doing really well with audiblox. He complains about doing it saying that it hurts his brain. Then we are done he gives me a big hug and says, “Thanks I know this will help me.”

Victoria,

I think he understands the concept of a set. The game just takes it to a higher level that he can’t do right now.

Linda,

Maybe you have a point. I think the problem with SET is it isn’t incremental enough for him. Maybe we ought to work some other way on the underlying skills and then come back to the game.

My son couldn’t do your logic puzzles so I wonder if I ought to start with level 1. He is just horrid at nonverbal reasoning. Interestingly enough, he is better at verbal. I say interesting because he was first identified as speech impaired and is classified as having a language based disability. I think part of it is he doesn’t slow down and think things through at all.

We’re also doing Dale Seymour’s Visual Thinking cards. They have some logic in them but mostly perceptual skills.

Did you see the next step in headstands I posted below?

Beth

I saw the headstand and we tried it last night. He could do it but not for that long just 10 seconds. How long should he be able to do it for?

I wonder if your son needs some more visual perception work. It seems to me that this is a precurssor to some of the figural spatial work. We do quite a bit of this with vision therapy and the work we do with VT seems very similar to critical thinkings visual perceptual skill building books. Visual perception in the catalog includes; visual discrimination,visual figure ground, visual closure, visual form constancy, visual memory, visual sequential memory, visual spatial relationships etc…

In the catalog they call figural-spatial the concrete form and the verbal form the abstract. I think most people have more difficulty with the abstract, yet, like your son, that is my son’s strength.

I think Victoria is right and that I need to help him use his verbal strength to work through the nonverbal problems.

Victoria,

You always have the answer!

Beth,

Sorry I’ve been away so I didn’t see your question. My ds is pretty awesome at Set so while it took two or three rounds to get the concept of the harder game he can certainly do it. I love this game for him because he can often beat me even when I’m really trying to win. (Dh is hopeless at the game.)

I think the characteristic added on in the harder level—shading—is perhaps the most unfamiliar to people, as distinguishing between number, color, and shape are skills people use a lot in the ordinary course of the day.

You could try the following. Reduce the deck to those that show only one shape—say squiggles. Then play the game so that he only has to distinguish number, color, and shading. Then do the same with the other two shapes. Then reduce the deck to just one color so he has to distinguish on the basis of number, shape, and shading. Then try reducing the deck to one number. I think this will help him to get down how to distinguish the shading feature.

Once you graduate back up to the higher level, if he is still having difficulties, you could help him sort the cards. For example, have him sort all the cards that have just one object and try different arrangements for color, shape and shading. If there is no set, have him move on to the next number, then color, shape etc. It’s probably best if you spot at the outset a set of reds, for example, to suggest a color sort, so he can a success with less effort. (Also, sometimes there is no Set, so you might want to err on the side of adding three more cards to get one.)

Thanks Marie, for your ideas. I will try them out. It was too big of a jump for my son and your ideas help make it more incremental.

Think I will also try the nonverbal logic books, Linda recommended.

Does your son like Rush Hour too? That is another good visual-spatial game. My son likes it better than SET—perhaps because it is more incremental so you build up your skill.

Beth

I tried your ideas and after he was very fluent with one shape went back to the whole deck. He balked, saying it was too hard, but soon was able to do it. I don’t think he will ever do this for fun but we’re working our way through the levels of PACE now. I accidently set the timer for 10 minutes the first time and he got 27 points (3 points for a set) and level 10 (his age) was 30 points. He whined about how hard it is but he clearly has made a big leap, thanks to you.

I see growth in the Thinking Cards we’re doing too. I ordered the book Linda recommended as well.

Beth

Beth, I’ve been away again and just saw your post. I think it’s great he clicked in after practicing with just one shape. Clearly, kids enjoy better the games they can do well at easily. I hope he continues to make progress.