As I understand the article, the game primarily teaches how the rules can be used to solve for something and secondarily it teaches the rules. It doesn’t seem to teach at all why the rules are the way they are. That’s actually, IMHO, the biggest issue with the game.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/06/dragonbox/all/ Well, Dragon Box suggests that a five year old can get at least the basic idea, so I’d deeply hope a 9 year old could grasp it more explicitly.
As I understand the article, the game primarily teaches how the rules can be used to solve for something and secondarily it teaches the rules. It doesn’t seem to teach at all why the rules are the way they are. That’s actually, IMHO, the biggest issue with the game.