Customer Reviews

Talicor Totika

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I use this game in counseling sessions with adolscents and adults. The game engages them in the process and the cards provide useful questions to help them explore a variety of topics. I bought all the additional sets of cards available and have found the Teen-Adult set to be the most enjoyable. In addition, the questions are not so "therapeutic" that it would exclude families from playing. The Self-Esteem card deck would be a good conversation starter for talking with your children. I highly recommend this product.

I purchased this game to use with children and their parents or siblings during home-based social work services. It is a great tool. It is much like the "Jenga" game in building a tower and removing individual blocks, but it differs in that there are several optional decks of cards with questions that are asked during each person's turn. The card decks can emphasize things like self esteem and social skills. I've used it with one of my families so far and even the adults had fun. Most important was the way family members were learning from each other about their perspectives and experiences. Of course, the fact that I was there to hear their responses helped me to gain more insight about how to help the family or an individual child. Well worth the money to me. It would also be great just to use with your own family. It opens up conversation and creates lots of opportunities for laughter.

I use this as part of the counseling lesson with 3-5 graders--they are more willing to open up and share feelings and thoughts when they control the color they pick and then can read the question. It isn't something you'd use weekly but use 1-2 times a month for 15 minutes as part of the counseling lesson.

Totika is an okay game; however, I find the cards written in a language that is much to advanced for inner city youth. I've used the game with ages 8-15, and they love the concept of the game, but many of the questions contain vocabulary that they don't understand. I have actually written my own questions on index cards to use with the game.

OK, this is basically the game Jenga using colored blocks. The self-esteem deck of cards is (sorry!) sort of a silly add-on that seems more as a rationalization for how this isn't just Jenga in color. But really folks, it IS just Jenga in color. The self-esteem cards are fuzzy, feel-goods but pretty much a disconnect from the game itself. This is a really fun game on iots own merit that seems mostly interrupted by the card-drawing. I felt better just playing the game and laughing when I knock it over pulling the wrong block out. Hey, but that's just me...

This product was a wonderful tool to use with children who love the game Jenga. I also purchased the additional Talicor cards that had to do with divorce, peer pressure and then created some of my own from my own experience when working with families. The parents and kids love playing this game as it is a great tool to get to know one another.

First of all I liked the idea of using this style of game for counseling and getting people to open up. With that said the game was poorly made if you ask me. The blocks weren't all cut evenly so the tower didn't stack like it should to be fair. I bought two boxes of this game and both had that problem. Also the teens I used this game with got bored of the questions asked very quickly. I had to mix other question cards into the deck to make it fun. After a while I quit using these blocks and just bought the original Jenga game and wrote my own questions on the blocks. The kids enjoyed playing it better that way and I could make up questions that related to specific treatment plans. I just got a black fine point sharpie and wrote two questions on each block - one entertaining and the other serious. Again, good idea in regards to this game but get rid of the boring cards and make the blocks better.

I bought this to use during therapy sessions with my child, adolescent clients. I have gotten positive feedback from all the clients who have used it -- including families. Highly recommended for those working with children. Very reasonably priced - durable. I only wish the box were not so small/tight, as it is a bit timely to try to fit all the blocks back into the box. They all have to be aligned in the same manner as they arrived in the box, or they won't all fit back in.

I am a school counselor and I use this game very frequently. Overall, I have found this to be the single most well received game I use with my students. It is especially great for students who are uncomfortable and afraid to open up. By the end of a round they are usually very involved, laughing and excited/nervous about the blocks falling. They get so involved in the game that they become less resistant to answering questions. I like using this much more then playing with question cards using the typical board game. However, I am not especially impressed with the questions on the cards. They don't seem very effective for building self-esteem, and the elementary students I work with don't understand a lot of them. I tend to replace the cards with other therapeutic cards that I have from other games. Also, although I do like the concept of colorful cards and picking the question that matches the color of the block you removed, I think regular jenga works just as well and can be a quarter of the price.
So, to summarize: If you have money to spend, this is a terrific game for therapy and the colorful blocks definitely add. But if you are tight and need a few of these, regular Jenga works. And, I don't recommend these cards. (It could be the other cards you could buy as add-ons are better, I don't know. I only have the self-esteem ones which I don't recommend.)

I bought this item thinking it would be great to use with kids in therapy. Unfortunately, possibly due to the paint, the pieces of wood stick to each other, making it very difficult to remove even one piece before it all comes crashing down. One kid made the suggestion of using sandpaper on the wooden blocks so they won't stick. I haven't tried that yet, but product has been a therapeutic bust.