Board game for teaching players to use connecting habits

Abstract

A board game designed to teach players how to control their behavior to achieve one or more goals. The game includes two play areas, each having a plurality of spaces, and a token for each player. The token moves from space to space in the first play area until the occurrence of a particular event. Some of the spaces in the play areas are associated with a first behavior category and some with a second behavior category, where the theme of the first behavior category is connecting behaviors and the theme of the second behavior category is disconnecting behaviors. Each token is more likely to land on spaces associated with the first behavior category and less likely to land on spaces corresponding to a second behavior category in the second play area than in the first play area.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A board game designed to teach players how to control their behavior to achieve one or more goals, the board game comprising: 
 at least one play area, the play area including a plurality of spaces, wherein a first portion of the plurality of spaces of the play area are associated with a first behavior category and a second portion of the plurality of spaces of the play area are associated with a second behavior category; and    a token, representative of a particular player, for moving from space to space in the at least one play area;    wherein the first behavior category comprises a theme of connecting behaviors and the second behavior category comprises a theme of disconnecting behaviors.    
     
     
         2 . The board game of  claim 1 , wherein when a player's token lands upon a space associated with the first behavior category, an example of a connecting behavior is provided, and wherein when a player's token lands upon a space associated with the second behavior category, an example of a disconnecting behavior is provided.  
     
     
         3 . The board game of  claim 2 , wherein the respective examples are provided on cards drawn by the respective player from a collection of cards associated with the respective theme.  
     
     
         4 . The board game of  claim 2 , wherein the respective examples are provided by the player whose token landed on the respective space.  
     
     
         5 . The board game of  claim 4 , wherein when the player provides an example of a connecting behavior, the player is awarded a number of points, the number of points being determined by another person based on the example provided by the player.  
     
     
         6 . The board game of  claim 4 , further comprising one or more cards entitling the player possessing such a card to decline to provide an example of a connecting or disconnecting behavior when otherwise required by the rules of the game.  
     
     
         7 . The board game of  claim 2 , wherein when an example of a connecting behavior is provided, the respective player is awarded a number of points.  
     
     
         8 . The board game of  claim 7 , wherein the winner of the game is determined based upon the accumulation of points by the players.  
     
     
         9 . The board game of  claim 7 , wherein the number of points awarded the player is predetermined.  
     
     
         10 . The board game of  claim 2 , wherein each example of a connecting behavior that is provided must be of a particular type of connecting behavior, the particular type being selected from a set of connecting behavior types according to the rules of the game.  
     
     
         11 . The board game of  claim 10 , wherein the set of connecting behavior types include at least four of the following: “listening,” “supporting,” “encouraging,” respecting,” “trusting,” “accepting” and “negotiating.” 
     
     
         12 . The board game of  claim 10 , wherein each example of a disconnecting behavior that is provided must be of a particular type of disconnecting behavior, the particular type being selected from a set of disconnecting behavior types according to the rules of the game.  
     
     
         13 . The board game of  claim 12 , wherein the set of disconnecting behavior types include at least four of the following: “criticizing,” “blaming,” “complaining,” “nagging,” “threatening,” “punishing” and “bribing.” 
     
     
         14 . The board game of  claim 10 , further comprising a set of cards associated with the theme of connecting behaviors, each card marked with an indicium corresponding to a particular type of connecting behavior.  
     
     
         15 . The board game of  claim 2 , implemented on a computer.  
     
     
         16 . A board game designed to teach players how to control their behavior to achieve one or more goals, the board game comprising: 
 a first play area having a first plurality of spaces;    a second play area having a second plurality of spaces; and    at least one token, each representative of a particular player, for moving from space to space in the first play area, and upon the occurrence of a particular event during play, for moving from space to space in the second play area;    wherein each token is more likely to land on spaces associated with a first behavior category, the first category comprising a theme of proper behavior patterns, and less likely to land on spaces corresponding to a second behavior category, the second category comprising a theme of improper behavior patterns, in the second play area than in the first play area.    
     
     
         17 . The board game of  claim 16 , wherein the theme of proper behavior patterns comprises a theme of connecting behaviors, and wherein the theme of improper behavior patterns comprises a theme of disconnecting behaviors.  
     
     
         18 . The board game of  claim 17 , wherein each token begins in the first play area, and the preliminary goal of each player is to move his token from the first play area to the second play area.  
     
     
         19 . The board game of  claim 18 , wherein each player must accumulate a predetermined number of points in the first play area in order to move his token to the second play area.  
     
     
         20 . The board game of  claim 19 , wherein each player must accumulate a predetermined number of points in the second play area in order to win the game.  
     
     
         21 . The board game of  claim 18 , wherein the first plurality of spaces includes at least some spaces corresponding to proper behaviors and at least some of the spaces corresponding to improper behaviors, wherein the second plurality of spaces includes at least some spaces corresponding to proper behaviors and at least some of the spaces corresponding to improper behaviors, and wherein the proportion of spaces corresponding to proper behaviors to spaces corresponding to improper behaviors is substantially higher in the second play area than in the first play area.  
     
     
         22 . The board game of  claim 18 , further comprising a first set of textual messages whose content corresponds in theme to improper behaviors and a second set of textual messages whose content corresponds in theme to proper behaviors, the first and second sets of textual messages being used to control play when tokens land on spaces corresponding to improper behaviors and spaces corresponding to proper behaviors, respectively.  
     
     
         23 . The board game of  claim 22 , wherein the first and second sets of textual messages are contained on cards.  
     
     
         24 . The board game of  claim 17 , implemented on a computer.