Rolling Sky helps kids practice and improve the following skills:

Focus

Getting started and then maintaining attention and effort to tasks.

Rolling Sky helps the player sustain attention on short-term tasks by requiring them to pay attention to the obstacles that are right in front of them. Not only does the screen show a strictly limited portion of the path in front of them, but if they try to look too far ahead, they will end up not noticing the obstacle right in front of them. If that happens, they will crash and loose a ball and maybe even a heart too. This game also requires the player to ignore external distractions. If they let their mind wander, thinking about the homework they didn't finish or the party they are going to on Friday, this fast-paced game will send their ball flying right into an obstacle. They will once again loose a ball and maybe even a heart. The only way to be truly successful at this game, and watch as few videos as possible, is to exercise stellar focus and keep the mind where it needs to be: on the ball and the next one or two obstacles heading towards the player.

Self-Control

Managing our actions, feelings, and behaviors.

As mentioned in the previous section, Rolling Sky requires the player to be aware of the next one or two obstacles heading towards their ball. This means that the player has the perfect opportunity to practice the idea of thinking about the future. Granted, it is a very short, immediate future they are contemplating, but it is still an exercise in thinking beyond the immediate moment. If they fail to exercise this thinking skill, choosing instead to only focus on where the ball is at the moment, they will have a shorter reaction time when they notice an obstacle. This will lead to many more crashes and lost balls and hearts.

Even when they do think about the future--watching to see which obstacles are headed their way--they will still have to react quickly and may frequently end up crashing anyway. However, when this happens, the player gets the opportunity to practice another area of self-control: anger and frustration management. After crashing at the same obstacle several times in a row, or even crashing at 10% finished immediately after having crashed at the 50% mark, a player will most certainly feel anger or frustration or both. If they allow their emotions to take over, they will become jumpy and jittery and end up crashing even more. The only way to continue to improve and eventually complete any given level is to stay calm and in control.