Use this PlayTogether guide to learn how you can help your child turn Type:Rider 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 Flexibility and Self-Control thinking skills work, and why they are important for success in school and at home.

Set Gameplay Goals

Type:Rider is a single-player game, but it's easy to play with other people if you take turns between levels. Check out the gameplay goals listed below and team up with your child to complete them.

Gameplay Goals:

• Earn three "Collector" achievement by retrieving all six asterisks in a chapter.
• Earn the "Explorer" achievement by finding an ampersand.
• Earn the "A to Z" achievement by collecting all letters.
• Unlock the Clarendon level
• Collect at least one asterisk.

Stop and Reflect

After you’ve played a little bit in Clarendon, take a moment to pause the game and discuss with your child how Type:Rider is exercising your thinking skills.

• Talk about the need for shifting strategies throughout play. Discuss how the changing terrain, rotating letters and unforeseen obstacles require players to change their approach and think creatively to find solutions. Note that the terrain often moves while playing Type:Rider. How do the anti-gravitity pockets switch up the gameplay?

• Connect this process of evaluating a variety of problems and adapting strategies in Type:Rider to real-world contexts. For example, you may utilize an after school program for your child because you aren't home until 6 pm. If the program is unexpectedly unavailable one day, you and your child need a new solution if being home alone is not currently an option. When your child makes a play date at a friend's house until 6 pm, she is thinking on her feet -- using Flexibility skills to adapt to the situation and find a creative solution.

• Ask your child which situations in the game caused frustration. Was any part so hard that it made her angry? Was there any self-talk involved in getting herself to quell the frustration towards what seemed like an impossible feat (like avoiding firing bullets in the Clarendon chapter)? Share some of your own strategies you used in the game to stay calm when an obstacle or puzzle was particularly tough for you. What motivated you to continue?

• Self-Control is about willing yourself to do (or not do) something, because it's in your best interest. You had to use some Self-Control in Type:Rider to help keep cool, stay in the game, and execute steady movements. Think with your child about which situations in life demand the use of Self-Control skills. One example is texting and driving…don't do it! These skills encourage you to avoid the temptation of grabbing the phone when it chimes. It's important your child understand the danger of low self-control in this situation, so be sure to discuss it and also specific ways to resist the temptation (such as turning the phone on silent or to "car mode" while driving).

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

Introduce the Thinking Skills

Read over the pages for Flexibility and Self-Control. Then take some time to introduce these thinking skills to your child.

Explain That:

• 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.

• 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 Activity

Have an upside down day. Transform everything in the house from morning to evening. Have chicken, salad, rice, and vegetables for breakfast and cereal and milk for dinner. Wear pajamas during the day and sleep in jeans and a T-shirt, all the while laughing and practicing being comfortable with this unusual routine. Simple exercises like this may seem odd, but that’s the point; the goal is to get your child to become comfortable with different or unexpected scenarios.

Self-Control Activity

Relax, relax! Sometimes the most important thing that an adult (or child) can do when they are frustrated or angry is to take a break from what they are doing. When talking about relaxing, it is not simply getting away from something, but actually doing something else that will reduce stress for a brief period of time. Know what relaxes your child and be willing to use this tool if you feel that your child will not be able to control himself effectively. Be careful not to use this strategy so that your child avoids the situation that he needs to deal with. For example, if your child is becoming overly frustrated with his math homework, have him take a break to watch SpongeBob, and then return to complete his work. But leaving his math homework to watch television without returning to complete it allows him to avoid learning how to handle his frustration

Reading

Although the use of reading is not required to make progress in Type:Rider, learning about the fonts encountered in the game greatly adds to the overall experience of the game. After completing a series of levels on a particular font, the player can explore that font even deeper by reading about its history and presence in the world. She can take a little break after all the hard work needed to progress and catch up on interesting and enlightening content that references the world and objects she just interacted with. From the first rock paintings, to the letterpress, to the typewriter, and beyond…Type:Rider has a world history of typography to share with players curious enough to explore.