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From: Lisa LaSalle
Date: 08 Oct 2009
Time: 22:17:46 -0500
Remote Name: 69.222.77.73
Hmm, good questions... As a supervisor in a university clinic, I have learned that the game Taboo when it first came out was used a lot by graduate student clinicians, just for a "word game." And then in closely observing those sessions (being separating by a one-way-mirror observation window can be a magical thing) I began to notice that you are forced to slow down so as to monitor yourself adeqately not to say the Taboo word. Catch Phrase is tht opposite. You need to quickly run through all possibilities of answers from your mental lexicon, but of course you also need to listen to and encourage the clue-giver to give you better clues. I have noticed that some clients whether they stutter or cluutter or both are not good at thinking if good clues. There was a fascinating study done by Wingate that people who stutter (nothing has been studied on people who clutter) are not as good as their peers in decoding Slurvian - and now we get into the game known as MadGab...see examples on youtube. So my point is that each of these games and each of the roles in these games tap into a different skill set. I totally get your point that it is human nature to avoid that which we are not good at (e.g., I'd rather play volleyball or ultimate frisbee than basketball or softball due to my skill sets, and so I've noticed I avoid in my own way at outdoor gatherings). I agree that if these word/language-y games are played in a comfortable environment, they can increase a client's comfort with others in non-clinical environments. Whether increasing success at these games has generalization to better overall skills sets in public speaking, etc. remains to be seen. I'm guessing that in the clue-giver role, Taboo helps a speaker slow down and experience the feeling of taking "pregnant pauses" while searching for the right words, Catch-Phrase helps increase the rate of varied and appropriate word finding, and then MadGab helps both the clue-giver and the listener/code-cracker get better at contrastive stress, phonemic and allophonic variations etc - in a word - sound play. This is not a stength for many who clutter, but worth working on in a fun context, nonetheless. (Like I should be willing to shoot some hoops or throw a pitch even if I look or feel out-of-my-element. :~)