| ||
|
Almost one in four preschool children in Austria have speech disorders, one in ten gets speech therapy. The new board game “Grimassimix” by Piatnik makes troublesome training of facial muscles real fun. After all, at the Clown School Grimassimix pupils are allowed to pull funny faces without restraints! You have to start young... “The number of children with speech disorders in Austria has risen dramatically within the last few years”, said Herta Strehl, speech therapist herself and co-designer of Grimassimix. According to her, the root of the problem lies within the families: “Family structures have changed. Today we have more and more only children and families less and less communicate with each other. Countless children spend far too much time in front of the TV.” Now the game “Grimassimix” wants to bring families back together and, at the same time, playfully train the movement of children’s tongues and lips. Strehl underlines the importance to train oral fluency and language skills as early as possible: “Often speech and language deficits are not taken seriously. But the earlier we start systematic training, the better the results.” Players attend the Clown School “Grimassimix”, where making faces is subject matter instead of maths and German – to the student’s full delight. Sticking out their tongues and wrinkling their noses; everything’s allowed when players try to imitate the faces on the cards. After all, they are trying to trains their facial muscles, aren’t they? The game comes with a little mirror to control your funny faces. The player, who recognizes most of the faces, wins the game.
“Grimassimix” is the first board game to tackle the topic of speech therapy. The game focuses on the training of facial motor skills and has been developed by a team of four speech therapists with years of professional experience. “The game makes speech therapy more entertaining and puts children into a good mood,” said Strehl. And they happily continue training when back at home. True to the motto: “Mix business with pleasure!” Grimassimix: |
