Play Board Games
Board games rest on waiting for your turn, following rules you did not invent and bearing the odd loss. That is more demanding than it looks. The pictures below show how the game flows so the turn-taking becomes clear.
♀Play together
Two children sit at a table playing a board game with colorful pieces.
♀Move a piece
A girl leans over a board game moving a game piece with a die beside it.
♀Board game with cards
A girl holds playing cards and smiles at a round board game with a die.
About this visual support
A board game is full of invisible rules. You wait your turn while someone else makes a move, keep in mind what counts, and on top of that bear a dice roll that sometimes lands worse than you hoped. The waiting and the losing can feel heavy, and a fun moment can quickly tip into tears.
Visual support makes the game's invisible parts visible. When the turn order sits on pictures, it becomes clear when it is your own turn and when to wait, which removes much of the friction. A picture showing that the round ends also helps the child grasp that the waiting is not endless.
One concrete tip is to keep a picture for what to do if you lose: say well played, set the pieces up again, maybe play once more. Losing then becomes part of the game rather than its end. In the Routined app you can put the game's steps together and add a calm finish after the last move.