So my son just turned 5 and loves to play pinball in our game room and now gets excited when he sees a game we don't have out in the wild and always wants to play.
I am wondering though, does anyone have some tips on helping a little kid get better and reduce some frustration?
I have been working on getting him to use the flippers independent from each other, which has been going pretty well.
Keep your eye on the ball and hand eye coordination with flipper buttons. Frustration may lead to walking away and feeling that he just can't do it,part of being a kid and wanting instant gratification. Show him some youtube videos of todd tuckey explaining rules and practice,practice,practice.
Best wishes-Mike
Nothing makes me happier than kids playing pinball. I think the biggest part is getting to understand that monkey flipping gets you nowhere and that you only need to flip when the ball is on the flipper (or independent flipping as you mention). My kids haven't been five in a long time but I think basic strategy is about as far as you'll get at that age. Awesome pics btw.
The biggest thing with my kids learning to play was learning how to get multiball on adams family. Once they understood how to open the bookcase and lock the balls, they loved trying to aim for that goal with the great multiball callout and lightshow as a reward. They also enjoyed shooting for the goal in WCS or making baskets in Space Jam. All of those were pretty easy and obvious goals that they could work on...they struggled much more with games that had a little bit more difficult shots in order to start multiball (for example, none of them really played our getaway much until they got older as they really struggled to hit the orbit shots to lock the balls and start multiball).
With my son I like to take the glass off and drop the ball at different angles into the flippers and then let him flip when he thinks the ball will go in a certain direction. Kids at that age don't always get how different angles will usually react when the ball hits the flipper. Doing this helped my son immensely in figuring out when to flip. As others have said though kids do have limits so the more reps the better he will get. Very cool your son also likes pinball. Very cool games btw! Best of Luck!
My 6 year old loves to plop himself down on a stool. He seems to be getting better the more he plays with his older brother and sister just by watching them or by them giving him tips. He seems to last longer though being able to sit. He kept moving his stool around to all of the games at The Sanctum when I took him the other night.
This is so cool man. My 11 month old son loves to stand on a stool and watch while I play. I can't wait till he's old enough to play. Get yourself a Mario Andretti or other Sys 3 gottleib. They have a minimum ball time and ball saves galore so they're great for kids. It's almost impossible to drain!
Set ball saves to 15 seconds and make some of the settings and extra balls easier. A main goal is for him to get to Multiball. Show him how to start MB and have him start flipping! 
My kids love playing! My four year old is getting a little better. Not hitting the flippers when the ball is in the upper play field. Fun for the whole family! The pic of my daughter on the wide body cracks me up lol!
My oldest really started to get better after watching Pinball 101. Once he learned you can trap and pass, he got much more interested and his game improved. I think he was 7 or 8 when he first watched the video.
My youngest is 4 and she's just starting to get interested in the machines. She's more into "helping" me fix them up, but she's been playing split flipper with me lately. I think I may have to pop in the DVD for her soon.
Quoted from PiperPinball:We created a Disney Cars themed pin for our kids. That got them hooked and the entire neighborhood!
That is awesome. Well done.
In terms of the frustration, I try to just remind my daughters that loosing a ball is a part of the game and that each time we play we're just trying to have fun and get a little better.
I addressed this with this video I made for the Pinball Expo on getting children to play pinball...this is cued up to the start of this 20 minute segment!!
My two year old is more interested in how my pins work than he is in playing. He loves being able to see the playfield up, and is very curious how various mechs work (data east makes this so easy with the pops!)
That being said, he knows how to turn on a game and start one. He even knows how to start a game if the batteries are dead or removed on WBC games. (Pro tip: thumb locks on the coin doors don't mix with a 2 year old!)
7 years old now and still playing almost daily!
He has gotten so much better! It is really cool to watch the progression.
1C1FADD1-22A6-4B30-9348-4BF0158373B9 (resized).jpeg6190B348-5976-45B3-BBCC-E94880F489F6 (resized).jpeg7E7553B6-2A07-4450-972F-B77A23A4EB06 (resized).jpegCC14FB95-897F-49D6-BE8F-4706694B754A (resized).jpeg405D7C0A-86F5-4913-B926-366330FFE5D5 (resized).jpegWanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/kids-and-pinball-1 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Los Angeles, CA
