“A, B, C, D, E, F, G” he says…and then there is a hesitation as he draws an H in the air.

“H”, I tell him.

“OK, Mama, H…H san”, he tells me with the number 3 spoken in Chinese with a giggle.

“Awww….hit and sunk!” I say, which causes him to giggle even more.


This was the conversation at my dining room table last night as I played Battleship with Caleb, my son who has only been home here from China for two weeks. He knows how to count to ten in English, but is teaching me how to count to ten in Mandarin. He struggles, however, with the names of some of the letters in English, so what better way to work on them than through a game? Battleship was given to him as a wonderful gift from a friend to celebrate his adoption. The fact that it is teaching him English is an added bonus of which he is not even aware. He just knows it is fun.

Tonight on the phone, a woman who just found out that we adopted Caleb seemed startled when I told her that he was being home schooled because he needs time to adjust to life in America and life in our family, not to mention learn some English before he is thrown into a classroom where they are discussing the Magna Charta.

“But you need to hire an ESL tutor to work with him!” she declared.

“Why? So I can pay her to play Battleship with him?” was my reply.

When a newly arrived child doesn’t speak English, games are wonderful tools to help them learn. We use Candyland to teach colors and even reinforce numbers, because after all, you might get two purples, not just one. We play Chutes and Ladders to practice counting in English and Caleb learns the meaning of the English words “climb up” and “slide down”.

All too often, parents think learning has to be difficult or arduous to show that your child is actually working. When this didn’t work for Ben, however, who has pretty severe ADHD, I was sold on games for learning after reading How to get your Child off of the Refrigerator and on to Learning. In it, author and mother Carol Barnier offers many ideas for teaching a highly distractible child through games. Who is more distractible than a child who has only lived in your home for a couple of weeks and is easily overstimulated by everything new around him?

Husker-Du and Concentration are matching games that any child loves, and you can teach quite a bit of English vocabulary as you play. Go Fish, Uno and Old Maid are card games that our children love and require some knowledge of simple English words as well. Have a parent or older sibling play as a partner with your new child until he knows enough English to play independently.


If you are trying to overcome language barriers in your home with your newly adopted child, don’t break out the flashcards that will bore your child to tears. Instead, break out the games, and your child will not only enjoy learning, but will be bonding with family members in the process.

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