Therapeutic Applications of Collabyrinth
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"What excites me about Collabyrinth is that it fosters mutual cooperation and support.
Success in Collabyrinth means that everyone matters equally (not just mom or dad or one sibling over another), even if one person’s needs dominate in the moment..."
Cynthia Cuttings
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
Collabyrinth can be played by clients as young as 14 years old. Players cycle between playing Collabyrinth and working through discussion questions in the Guided Reflection Board (see image below). The game requires players to work together, communicate and create and execute strategies cooperatively.
The game guides players and therapists during play in:
Human Interactions like:
interpersonal skills,
executive function,
emotional control and,
communication skills
Technical Habits like:
working memory,
motor skills,
learning dispositions
After each play session (about 15 minutes), players or players and a therapist work through the relevant guided reflection questions so as to develop a new strategy for the next stage of player development.
As the players improve their interpersonal and technical skills, they advance further into the game. (See board game below)
This video explains how Collabyrinth works.
For a pair of players to make progress through a maze, they must collaborate because each movement of the ball is controlled by both players. All successes are shared successes and there is no such thing as a "good" Collabyrinth player - there are just players who have more skill in adapting to work with others.
The guided reflection is consulted between play sessions.
Players reference guidance based upon how much progress they are able to make (cooperatively) in the game. After a play session, the read and discuss questions and hints.
The pair of players then developes a new strategy for the next play session and the play cycle repeats.
A pdf of the boardgame is here.
What makes Collabyrinth so powerful as a therapy tool is that it's FUN! The game itself has all of the appealing elements of instant feedback, rewards for successful maneuvers, scaffolded challenges, and an analog interface that keeps players away from screens.
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