Peter Shanedling
School Social Worker
February 2004
USA

My name is Peter Shanedling and I am a school social worker in St. Paul, MN. I work with emotional and behavior disturbed children. I wanted to tell you that the game Apples to Apples helped me interview an eight year old student about an injury (possible abuse?).

The student arrived to school with puffy eyes. His mother called and asked if we could find out what happened. This boy is very self conscious, has a low self esteem, and does not like to verbalize his problems.

Recently I purchased Apples to Apples Junior. I played a couple of rounds of the game with him which he enjoyed. Before the game, I cut out six cards (one green and five red= modeling the game). On the green card I wrote Puffy eyes and on the red cards I wrote five possible matches: Allergies, I'm sick, I fell, an adult hurt me, and I put my face in the snow. When he saw the cards I was surprised with his reaction: "cool!" He chose Allergies and I am sick to match the green card. We were all relived that he was not injured and informed his mother to check with a doctor.

So, thank you for making such a creative game. I am excited that it can be used for therapeutic purposes to help children cope with stresses and build self-esteem.

Fondly,
Peter Shanedling

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