WE HAVE FUN, LEARN, DISCOVER AND GET TO KNOW BY THE GAME

You can read why the involvement of the game in learning is important in the article below.

The game is an activity that children have been doing the most of all activities since time immemorial. The well-known motto of who plays does not get angry, it can also be very effectively applied to the learning process. If the child experiences positive emotions while learning, the result of the educational activity is significantly more effective. Unfortunately, in professional practice, the use of games and the positive factor of playing are often neglected or even suppressed. By involving games in education and learning, we will support children 's enthusiasm for discovering new things, learning about the meaning of our efforts and a deeper understanding of the context. A game is defined as the activity of one or more people that may not have a specific purpose. In any case, the goal should be joy or relaxation. In a broader sense, it should also educate. The goal of most games is generally to win over an opponent, but this is not the main goal or necessary. The publication focuses mainly on games that develop communication skills. It is intended for both the general public and professionals working with children or adults. Games can be played in schools, clubs, camps, special therapies, at home, on the road or on vacation. The book will be used by teachers, special and social teachers, speech therapists, camp leaders, parents or the children themselves. 

The games presented in the book develop several areas of communication to varying degrees, from vocabulary, articulation, grammatical and pragmatic levels to non-verbal communication, tempo, rhythm or melody. At the same time, games develop skills that are closely related to communication - attention, perception, imagination, the ability to cooperate, empathy, etc. The aim of the publication is to group and describe such games in which verbal communication is used. Some games were selected from professional literature or Internet servers, some are well known and some are author's. Some of these games were originally focused on other areas, such as movement, perception, visual perception and the like. For our purpose, however, these games were modified and supplemented with elements of verbal communication. For easier orientation, the content of the book is divided into four main parts. The first part is for dating games, because they usually start with group activities. The second part contains games aimed at dividing players into groups. The third part contains games that can be played in a minimum number of two players. This part will be used mainly by therapists and parents for individual work with children. The fourth part contains games for a larger group of players. The conclusion of the publication contains appendices with textual and pictorial materials to the presented games.

The target group of readers can be very diverse, both in terms of maturity, intellect, speech development or age. Therefore, the description of individual games does not state the ideal age of the players. Most games can be mastered by preschool children. Even very simple games, mentioned in the publication, can be attractive for adults and have a positive final effect on them. It is primarily up to the game leader to determine whether the selected game can be performed by the group and whether playing the selected game will lead to the desired result. The choice of games needs to be chosen according to the current situation with regard to the relationships in the group, the intellectual limits of the players, various situational factors and the overall mood and atmosphere. The personality of the game leader depends crucially on how fun and dynamic the game will be and whether he can motivate the player in advance for the specific activity required. Motivation for games is given in the chapter itself. Most games do not require any or only a very simple and easily accessible tool. These are, for example, a pencil, paper, scarf, ball, dice, spinning top, stopwatch on a mobile phone, picture memory, string and the like. I wish everyone who uses this book in practice to have a lot of fun. I wish the interested specialists to make these games happy for the children and adults they work with as part of their professional and educational activities.