Fink Cards







fink family edition – the cards are colourful and sturdy and come with clear instructions. Questions are varied from 'What was your favourite childhood story book and why?' to 'Is there something you have dreamed of doing for a long time?' Families with Asperger children may need to clarify their own rules about how long each member can talk, whether people can interrupt etc.










fink teenage edition – the cards are colour coded into five sections - 'Sex and Relationships', 'Citizenship,' 'Health and Emotions', drugs and Substances' and 'Education'. They contain statements, statistics, headlines and questions to stimulate debate. Some of the questions were insufficiently clear for the more literal Asperger teen for example 'How does sex change a relationship?'. My son interpreted 'sex' as gender so the question would need re-wording 'How does having sex change a relationship?'









Overall this is a great product and each family could easily design their own questions. I would recommend that they include spare blank cards so that families can tailor questions for their members. I would also recommend that they work with asteen members to produce a pack for children and teenagers with Aspergers. These are especially valuable for our children as they encourage talking and listening and may give our children a bank of questions they can draw on in awkward social situations. Highly recommended.

The second tester said ...

The Family Pack
These cards are cheerful, friendly and simple - an excellent way to bridge the generation gap without letting the adults hog the conversation. I am a language tutor and have translated these for use in my class as a prompt and to stimulate conversational skills. An excellent tool for those learning English as a second language too. We have an autistic teenager, and our family mealtimes can be fraught - these cards have been useful in allowing conversation to take place in "bite-size" controlled elements which my son can cope with and also encourage him to accept other people's input into the conversation. They have given us a lot of laughs too.

The Teenage Pack
What a clever idea! The questions are simple and direct; the topics are thought-provoking, challenging and, most importantly, relevant. There are no right or wrong answers. This is a really good way of raising important and diverse issues without being preachy or heavy handed. My two teenagers enjoyed going through the questions together on their own, too, and comparing views. I think it is so important that teenagers, naturally feeling anxious and isolated, are aware that we parents acknowledge the difficulties they face and are willing to listen (without causing them too much embarrassment). These are brilliant aids for anyone involved with groups of young people - schools, youth clubs, churches - as well as great fun for families with teenagers. We have an autistic teenaged son and these cards got a really good response from him - he finds it difficult to maintain a topic, not of his choosing, for very long but he found this a good way to help focus his thoughts and express his views on a range of subjects.

If you've also had experience of these products, or similar, we'd love to know what you think!

Anna van der Post
July 2009