The Art of Conversation — Game

TAOC (The Art Of Conversation) was first pro­duced in a suc­cess­ful ver­sion for adults. It is an innov­at­ive game(in the broad­est sense of the word) which has been developed to stim­u­late con­ver­sa­tion.
This ‘game’ has no win­ners or losers but has the poten­tial to build self esteem and to enable chil­dren to engage in con­ver­sa­tion with each other and to learn about them­selves and oth­ers in their social or class group.

Children who ‘play the game’ have to abide by the TAOC Manners. They cover ‘talk­ing man­ners’, ‘listen­ing man­ners’ and ‘trust’. These are the ten­ets of good (and cour­teous) listen­ing, group inter­ac­tion and enga­ging in reflect­ive think­ing – skills which each child needs to under­stand and use, to com­mu­nic­ate effect­ively as they travel life’s path.

The rather sturdy boxed set con­tains 100 cards, with two con­ver­sa­tion pro­vok­ing ques­tions on each card. Examples are:

• #17 What do you like to do outdoors,
• #18 When you were little what frightened you?
• #99 Tell us about your pet. Or, tell us about a pet you would like to have?
• #100 Do you believe that chil­dren should have pocket money, and if so, should it be earned?

These cards have a myriad of uses and would be very effect­ive in encour­aging group inter­ac­tion, espe­cially at the begin­ning of the year when chil­dren may be unsure of them­selves and their surroundings.

I think ‘The Art of Conversation’ is an extremely use­ful and valu­able resource.