Game Categories and Social Skill Development
The following table presents various common categories of board games and their applications in developing social skills.
| Type of Game | Examples | Age | Players | Social skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooperative | Hoot Owl Hoot! | 4–8 | 2–4 | Develop turn-taking and teamwork skills |
| Visual Matching | Eye Found It, I Spy | 5–10 | 2–4 | Express observations and enhance visual matching skills |
| Verbal Expression | Roll & Write Word Game | 6+ | 2–6 | Language organization, sentence formation, and vocabulary practice |
| Turn-taking & Regulation | Gumball Grab | 3–6 | 2–4 | Waiting, turn-taking, self-regulation |
| Emotional Modulation | Rubik’s Race | 7+ | 2 | Win-loss coping, self-regulation, and challenge acceptance |
| Social Scenarios | The Social Skills Game, Head Rush | 6–12 | 2–6 | Social reasoning, conversational strategies, and expressing needs |
| Strategy & Competition | Guess Who? Uno | 6+ | 2–4 | Logical reasoning, turn-taking, and responding to others |
| Creative Expression | Dixit, Feelings in a Jar | 7+ | 3-6 | Expressing emotions, understanding stories, and listening to others’ perspectives |
When using these games, teachers should not focus solely on teaching the game rules, but rather treat them as tools for social training, creating an inclusive and interactive environment. The following are five sample instructional designs that integrate teacher-guided strategies with interventions tailored for children with special needs.
Teacher’s Three Layers of Social Facilitation
- Structured Support: Provide visuals, cue cards, and sentence stems
- Peer Coach: Assign supportive peer roles and model pro-social behavior
- Behavioral Modeler: Use expressive tone and facial cues to demonstrate expected responses.
Teaching Strategies and Peer Facilitation
In practical teaching, educators are not only responsible for guiding game rules, but more importantly, for creating a structured, inclusive, and supportive social environment. For children with special needs, teachers serve as behavioral models, rule explainers, and social facilitators who mediate peer interactions.
Below are key strategies for using board games to develop social skills:
1. Structured Guidance Strategies
- Use visual cue boards: e.g., sentence cards like “It’s your turn” or “You can say…”
- Clarify the order of rules: Review turn-taking and attention expectations before starting the game
- Guide language use: “Now you can say, ‘I want to play again.’”
2. Peer Support Involvement
- Assign typically developing children as “social helpers” before the game, such as:
- “If ___ gets stuck, you can gently remind him.”
- “You can help him complete the picture-finding task.”
- Offer positive prompts to peers: “Thank you for reminding him to take turns—great teamwork!”
3. Conflict and Emotion Regulation Strategies
- When disputes or frustration arise, avoid immediate blame and use neutral language:
- “I see both of you really want this card—let’s think of a solution together.”
- Set up a “calm corner” or provide “emotion cards” to allow a child who needs regulation to step away briefly and return once calm.
- Model repair language: “You can say, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it,’ and then we can continue the game.”
4. Empathy and Language Prompting
- “Can you look at his face? He might be feeling a bit sad.”
- “Would you like to wait for him to get ready before we start?”
- “Playing and winning together—that’s our most important goal today!”
5. Teacher’s Communication Style
- Use concise, clear, and repetitive instructions
- Maintain a gentle yet firm tone; avoid blaming language
- Offer specific and timely praise for every positive behavior, such as:
- “You waited for him to finish speaking—what a great role model!”
Through these strategies, teachers can build a “social bridge” during gameplay, helping both typically and atypically developing children understand each other and grow together through shared experiences.
Conclusion and Theoretical Basis
In summary, board games, as a medium for psychological and developmental intervention, are increasingly recognized for their social potential. For children facing social challenges, games offer a “rehearsable reality” where they can safely and repeatedly practice social rules, regulation strategies, and language expression. With support from teachers and peers, these experiences help internalize social competence over time. This represents not only an enrichment of educational tools, but also an innovative integration of psychological intervention methods.
References
Bauminger-Zviely, N. (2013). Social and academic abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development.
Ray, D. (2011). Advanced Play Therapy: Essential Conditions, Knowledge, and Skills for Child Practice.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.
Wolfberg, P. J. (2009). Play and Imagination in Children with Autism.
Explore how five fun tabletop games help neurodiverse children build skills through guided play, peer support, and teacher strategies.
Learn how board games boost social skills in children with special needs through guided play, peer support, and emotional coaching.