Norma Black set herself a number of objectives in designing the 'game'. She wanted something which would encourage children to improve their self-confidence and recognised that this was a goal in its own right.
It wasn't enough to have the child say s/he wanted to be a football star. Achieving the dream is about achieving lots of little steps on the way there - and, in the course of the journey, the dream (and the destination) may well change.
Self-confidence and self-esteem grow out of these individual, little steps. Maybe the child might, one day, be a football star, but s/he must first of all learn how to kick a ball, how to find coaching, how to find a junior club to play for... how to cope with bruises and disappointments on the way.
Norma Black demonstrated that improving self-esteem and self-confidence involves setting realistic, attainable, intermediate goals. Lots of them. If you are going to write an award winning novel, you have to learn to recognise the letter A. And the letter B. Then words. Then how to put your own words together in a pattern. Etc.
Self-confidence and self-esteem are about achievement. About managing to do something, go somewhere, ask for something. Set little goals. Identify the steps on the way to the major objective (simply crossing a road might be a major objective), then demonstrate success in achieving each of those steps, one by one by one.
Encouraging people to set realistic goals, to find the simplest stepping stones to achieving them, then motivating them to try, try, try - that is fundamental practice in residential care.
And if the resident fails to achieve the goal, set a lesser one. Don't push people into situations where they are destined to fail. Support them, encourage them, enthuse them, and give them opportunities to succeed.
Learning to cope, learning to succeed, learning to overcome even small obstacles is a creative act. If you are to enhance self-confidence and self-esteem, you must encourage people to explore their creative sides.
As a writer, I have to tell you that creativity is not a blinding flash of inspiration, it is a skill which can be learned. When we talk about residential work as a 'learning game', we should be encouraging residents to learn creativity.
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