Use this Play Together guide to learn how you can help your child turn Sports Champions: Disc Golf play time into a positive learning and relationship-building experience. To learn more about why playing games with your children is so important, check out our Science of Play page.

Talk Before You Play

Take a minute to talk with your child about how the Self-Control, Flexibility, and Planning thinking skills work, and why they are important for success in school and at home.

Set Gameplay Goals

Sports Champions: Disc Golf has multiple gameplay modes which include single player and multiplayer matches, allowing you to play against a computer-controlled opponent, or play against up to three friends, providing a perfect opportunity for a social gaming experience. After looking over the goals below, work with your child to complete each one.

Gameplay Goals:

• Throw par on the first three holes in "The Park."
• Curve a throw around an obstacle.
• Defeat an computer opponent on the "Bronze" difficulty.
• Compete to see who can win the most individual holes..
• Win the Cup and Gold Cup trophies.

Stop and Reflect

• Discuss how becoming frustrated can lead to making mistakes or poor tosses, noting the benefits of remaining composed despite a frustrating performance. Why is it important to take time to calm down, relax, and approach the target with composure? How can doing so make for more accurate throws and help you finish under par?

• What are some everyday situations that require similar Self-Control skills? While working on a difficult homework assignment, trying a new sport or learning a new musical instrument, why is it important to not become discouraged or aggravated?

• Talk about a time when one of your throws do not proceed as originally planned. How did you reassess the situation and adapt your strategy to compensate for the altered circumstances? What happens if you stick to just one disc and one way of throwing?

• Explain the benefits of scoping out and assessing the obstacles on a new and difficult course in the game. Does having a basic strategy for overcoming hazards improve your score?  In Disc Golf it is often extremely helpful to slow down and take the time to visually inspect the terrain, noting likely obstacles and creating a realistic strategy to defeat those obstacles.

• Discuss some ways Planning and Flexibility can be put to good use in real life, like when outlining a writing assignment or book report before sitting down to write. How can this make the task easier? When working on an assignment, your child should not be afraid to adapt or evolve their original ideas or thesis to meet the introduction of new evidence. Planning is an important step in creating effective writing; however, knowing when to adjust and be flexible in order to write more effectively is just as important.

Our Make it Work activities are designed to transform your child’s gameplay to real-world improvements in thinking and academic skills. If you’re just getting started with LearningWorks for Kids, we suggest you try them all to find which are the best for you and your child.

Introduce the Thinking Skills

Read over the pages for Self-Control, Flexibility, and Planning. Then take some time to introduce these skill to your child. Explain to your child that:

• Self-Control is the thinking skill that helps us manage our feeling and behaviors, control our emotions and stop ourselves before we make a mistake.

• Flexibility is the thinking skill that helps us adapt to new situations, learn from mistakes and change what we are doing in order to deal with different challenges.

• Planning is the thinking skill that helps us to develop a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals, and complete tasks by doing things step-by-step.

Self-Control Activity

When you feel angry and frustrated, demonstrate the process of taking a few deep breaths or closing your eyes for a few seconds to “clear your head” before speaking or acting. Children learn a lot about how to express their feelings from their parents, so your example is powerful. Count out loud or use self-instructional techniques before responding to a situation. Realistically describe how you may remain angry but have more control over your reaction. Catch your child when he is angry and coach him to slow his reactivity. Later, notice and praise the choices he makes to employ these strategies.

Flexibility Activity

Learning by trial and error is a key component of video gaming and a necessary skill for all of your child’s academic pursuits. In real-world situations, children are often more reluctant to learn the directions and expectations of a task by making mistakes and trying out something new than they would be in playing a game. Learning how to cook a favorite meal, learning a musical instrument or taking a new route to school are all valuable examples of ways to practice applying trial and error learning in appropriate situations. Make sure to talk about these efforts and experiences in light of the positive and negative aspects of the process.

Planning Activity

Anticipate the future. Demonstrate the need to plan ahead based upon schedules or upcoming events. If the lawn needs to be cut, discuss how your child needs to start the job in time so she can finish before dark or before it rains. Help your child to see parallel situations such as getting homework done before cousins visit or planning to shop for supplies to complete a project before the store closes. Use large, visual calendars for planning. This is particularly helpful for younger children when they can place the calendars in their rooms and decorate them on their own. Use visual cutouts to represent activities. Children may wish to use a digital photo of a baseball to remind them of baseball practice or a violin or another instrument to remind them of music lessons.

Sports Champions: Disc Golf & ADHD

ADHD is often at the source of rambunctious children, who are unable to regulate their hyperactive behavior. Children who struggle with self-control and planning, might find Sports Champions: Disc Golf challenging at first. To succeed in this particular game, children need to become keen planners, and masters of self-control. Sports Champions: Disc Golf stresses the importance of the need for a gameplan, in which children can exhibit no signs of carelessness if they hope to win the match.

How to Use Sports Champions: Disc Golf for Children with ADHD:

• When compared to Sports Champions: Bocce Ball, Disc Golf requires children to more closely govern the manner in which they toss. The throwing motion is more involved, as there is an increased sensitivity and finesse that children must use when playing. It is not a simple matter of flicking the wrist, but a complicated set of angles, spins, and turns. Children must be wary of their movement and body angles at all times, making sure that a quality toss will ensue with each play.

• It is not just the nature of the throws that will require children with ADHD to practice self-control, it is also the obstacles that stand in the way. Obstacles like trees, tables, fences, and uneven ground, necessitate intensified focus and self-control. Children who see a longer field may toss the disc as hard and far as they can. However, without careful examination of the map, and the ability to control the impulse for a hard toss, the disc will most likely wind up out of bounds, or in a tree.

• Along with a mastery of the physical faculties involved in throwing the disc, children should also plan their strategies based on the layout of the course. Children should closely examine the field, making note of marked out of bounds. Children who aim for the hole should be careful not to overthrow the disc off stage. In this case, it is better to "2 put" a hole, instead a taking a risk. Children will only know which strategy is best when they examine the playing field. If children with ADHD want to win, they must understand the importance of planned, and cautious play.