Tumbling Tower

A great thing about being in Facebook groups for therapists is I am constantly being alerted to new telehealth resources. Earlier this week, someone shared a version of online Jenga (called “Tumbling Tower” for copyright reasons, but we know what we’re here for).

Tumbling Tower is a great therapy game for concentration and self-regulation, and you can incorporate therapeutic questions into the game very easily. This website even lets you request lists of therapy questions for anger, emotional skills, and prompts specifically for younger kids.

It took a couple of tries for me to get comfortable playing the online version of this game. It doesn’t work with a touch screen, and it’s a bit complicated to pull the blocks out with your mouse, but this essentially means you have to engage even more with self-regulation and focus when playing the game. It is a little challenging that you cannot rotate the image (at least I haven’t figured it out), so the tower will begin leaning pretty quickly. But then again, you can play as many times as you want to!

To play this with a client, either you or the client pulls up the game and then you take turns using remote control. If the therapist is screen sharing, you could potentially play this with a group, which would allow you to practice taking turns in a way that gives the therapist more control than in an in-person group.

When I played Tumbling Tower in person, we would stack the blocks after we pulled them out. Unless there’s something I have not figured out yet, you just toss the pieces away with this version.

And as with all telehealth games, there is no clean-up! I’m excited to use this in my sessions.

Update

It looks like the original website I used for online Tumbling Tower has taken the game off of their website – oh no! The good news is other versions have popped up. All involve screen share and remote control to play. Here are ones I tried out and a brief rundown of how they work:

1. Jenga: This site’s gameplay is the closest to the version I originally posted. Keep it simple.
2. Jenga 3D: For this version, you can play the classic game or with colored blocks (where each player is a different color block, and you must pull a block that is your color), or a Cassino version where you spin and have to pull a numbered block based on what number comes up. The twists on the classic game are pretty cool.
3. How Tall Is Too Tall?: This is pretty classic tumbling tower and uses point-and-click movements rather than dragging movements, which makes it great for clients who struggle with motor skills.

Enjoy!