I wanted to write a blog about Zingo because I literally use it all the time and have achieved increased engagement and response to intervention. My students usually enjoy being interactive and playing activities that involve a positive outcome and I find that Zingo really does it all! I use Zingo for positive reinforcement or to help support language development.
How to Use Zingo
Here are the different ways I use Zingo for support expressive and receptive language development:
He/she – Print out a picture of a girl and boy and put it on the front of the cover. The child then creates sentences with each tile that comes out. For example: He has a cat, she has a fish.
His/Hers – Similar to above, His cat, Her fish. I often will not do this activity with the above activity as it uses the same pictures and I find the child can get confused between the activities.
They/Have – I print off three boys (or girls) across the front cover. The child would then create a sentence with each tile that comes out. For example: They have a cat, They have a fish. *For an extension of this activity I use the conjunction ‘and’ to combine both sentences*.
I have also Zingo as a barrier game for comprehension. I have placed a board between myself and my student and the student needs to ask me if I have the items. For example, “Do you need a cat or a fish?” The student would then need to listen and respond to the question I have asked. I find that this is a highly motivating activity if the child enjoys matching items or understands you can win by getting all of your tiles on your board.
Cons of Zingo
Like all games there are a handful of things to be aware of. Firstly, you can’t alter the outcome of the game, so if a student becomes very upset if they lose a game (and that’s not a current goal you’re targeting) then Zingo might not be for you. Secondly, sometimes the game can take a long time, particularly if you’re doing Activity 4 and not sharing all the tiles. The tile holder can be tricky to move backwards and forwards, but hand over hand support usually does the trick. If the child decides to take the lid off and empty all the tiles out (yes, this has happened), it takes a good couple of minutes to put them all back in.
Overall I absolutely love this game and have used to more times than I can count! Thank-you Zingo for creating a diverse speechie tool!
