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Home › Articles › General › Fun and Learning

Fun and Learning

Board Games and Special Needs

By Teri Brown

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Parents of children with special needs will do just about anything to help their children learn and socialize. They search for resources, take them to special classes and even provide them with specific and complicated diets. One often overlooked way to nurture their child, both emotionally, socially and academically, is board games. Often overshadowed by their flashier cousin, the video game, board games have slumped in popularity lately, which, according to Dr. Jack Trammell, director of disability support services at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., is a real shame.

"Twenty years ago, board games were a staple in the special education classroom," Trammell says. "There was an acceptance that they encouraged critical thinking skills, provided task analysis practice (being able to follow a sequence of patterned steps or rules), and taught sportsmanship and social skills. However, board games have been somewhat supplanted technologically by video games and computer-based programs. Video games even electronic versions of traditional games like Scrabble or Monopoly function differently than board games. They involve a different kind of experience with the brain; less tactile perhaps, and also two-dimensional (even with the best VGA graphics)." Though video games and computer games can be very helpful for the special needs child, they shouldn't be the only game a child plays.

Board Games and Socialization
According to Trammell, board games are still used in the special education classroom, in part because they help students learn to interact with peers, and in part because they are tactile and involve task analysis skills. "Many teachers report, however, that the social skills aspect of using board games is often one of the biggest benefits," he says. "Students learn a specific set of expectations about working and playing with peers: taking turns, showing proper respect to the participants, learning the appropriate body language and responses and, in some cases, learning to focus on the enjoyment of the activity rather than having to win or be first to finish."

Playing board games allows for many teachable moments, especially for those social skills that might otherwise be awkward to address. For instance, a child who has difficulty waiting his or her turn must, in a board game situation, follow the rules or the game can't move forward. The childlearns to function as part of a team to a desired end.

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