Cooperative games: a way to modify aggressive and cooperative behaviors in young children.

The team swapped competitive preschool games for cooperative ones.

They watched how play changed during game time and later free-play.

All kids were neurotypical and attended the same preschool classroom.

Cooperative games cut aggression and lifted cooperation right away.

The friendly behavior carried over into free-play after the game ended.

Competitive games did the opposite—more hitting, less sharing.

Brown et al. (1988) got the same carry-over by prompting and praising kids during games.

Wiskow et al. (2019) used the Good Behavior Game and also saw less disruption, showing group games can work in different ways.

Wan et al. (2023) later added behavioral skills training to interactive games for autistic preschoolers and still saw big social gains, so the idea stretches across diagnoses.

Hart et al. (1968) first showed that adult praise must be contingent—random cheers don’t help; Silverman et al. (1994) kept adult input light and let game rules do the work, updating the method.

You can run a cooperative game with almost no prep—no points, no tokens, just shared goals.

Try it during circle or gym time and watch free-play afterwards; you should see less pushing and more helping without extra rewards.