Down the Mountain helps kids practice and improve the following skills:

Focus

Getting started and then maintaining attention and effort to tasks.

Because of all the obstacles present in Down the Mountain, it is important that the player stay focused. Focus subskills include ignoring internal as well as external distractions, which are vital to being successful in this game. If the player's mind wanders, they could end up staying on a block too long and triggering a trap. Or they could jump to the wrong block and hit a spike (or be hit by a car). Whatever obstacle is in front of them, the only way to avoid it and continue down the mountain is to stay focused.

Planning

Developing a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals.

This game also provides the chance to practice short-term planning skills. It is important for the player to be looking ahead and evaluating the path that is easiest for them to navigate. They have to have a plan, in other words. However, there is only a limited amount of the mountain seen on the screen at one time, making it a short-term plan: they can only decide which way to go on the next several blocks. Beyond that, they have no idea what is coming. Without making a plan, the player will run into "corners" that have unavoidable obstacles on all sides. If this happens, their trip down the mountain will end and they will have to start back over at the beginning.