When you play with dominoes, the joy of one small movement causing a line of them to fall is mesmerizing. That same principle is applicable to the way some learning challenges impact students. The goal is to help them overcome that challenge and get on the road to learning. However, sometimes students can become overwhelmed by the challenge and begin to compensate for it. This causes them to tax their working memory capacity, which limits how much information they can process. This process can become a vicious cycle, where the compensation skill becomes dominant and eventually impacts learning.

Domino is a small, rectangular block of wood or another material, with one side bearing an arrangement of spots or dots from zero to six (known as a double-six set). The other face is blank or identically patterned; 28 such pieces form a complete domino set. Traditionally, dominoes were played with matching ends. One end of the domino must match an end of another in order to be “played”; this is known as the “domino effect.”

The word domino is thought to have come from a Latin word meaning “falling together” or “fitting together.” The first appearance of the term was in France after 1750, but its origin is unclear. It is possible that it referred to the long, hooded cloak worn by priests over their surplices at carnival season or at masquerades. The cloaks were black and contrasted with the white of the priest’s attire, thus the domino name may have emerged.

For centuries, dominoes were used as tools of learning and education in many parts of the world. In Italy, for example, they were used to teach children addition and subtraction. They were also used as educational aids in the classroom, with students being tasked with knocking over a set of numbers or letters with their fingers before moving on to the next number or letter.

In the United States, dominoes were popular in the late 19th century, especially after the Civil War. They became widely available in stores as toy games, and the game gained popularity among adults as well.

Dominos can be played by two or more players. In the basic game of dominoes, each player chooses a domino from a pile of 28 pieces, and then places it in front of them, facing up. The other player then plays a domino from his or her own set by placing it next to the first. The domino must have an end that matches the number of pips on the end of the previous domino. The first domino to touch a matching end wins the game. In advanced variations of the game, more complex rules are applied to the matching of ends and to the laying down of the dominoes in lines and angular patterns. Other games are based on the blocking of one domino by another, or the taking of points by winning a series of rounds.