People with autism experience social and communicative differences and have restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and the interventions that have been developed to help social, cognitive, learning, and physical issues, focus on teaching them how to adopt neurotypical behaviors. Yet, these interventions may increase stigma and inhibit authenticity.
Autism affects around 2 percent of the population. Still, games as an intervention can improve outcomes more organically and benefit almost 100% of the population.
The Potential Of Serious Games In People With Autism
Play lets a child engage with emerging cognitive skills. For example, pretend play helps teach concepts like false belief, while structured, turn-taking board games teach sharing and strategy.
While playing a competitive or cooperative game, children with autism practice and develop a range of skills- such as communication, emotional recognition and regulation, sportsmanship, and perspective-taking as each player participates in the game.
While a game feels like an enjoyable, entertaining leisure activity, the players are simultaneously learning how to interact with other players in a group context.
The built-in reward systems that track advancement provide motivation, and researchers working on improving the lives of people with autism often look at games when designing interventions.
Behavioral approaches embedded in games, especially for younger children, increase social responsiveness and improve social behaviors with their peers. Favorite characters behaving optimally incorporated into games can also help inspire and guide children with autism.
Instead of simply teaching socio-communicative skills, some board games already popular with children can be used to target certain emotional competence skills. Research has found that children with higher emotional competencies are more successful at the newer games, confirming that these games tap into social domains.
Card Games: An Easy Way to Start
Card games offer a structured and engaging way for autistic individuals to develop social skills, as they provide clear rules and turn-based interactions that can reduce social anxiety.
They serve as a gentle introduction to social engagement, encouraging eye contact, turn-taking, and basic conversation, all within a familiar and less intimidating environment.
Here are a few examples:
How Games Help Teenagers With Autism
Several studies into how games can help autistic adolescents show that games significantly increase their quality of life. LARP (Live Action Role Playing) games are often featured in games, for example, in games like Dungeons and Dragons.
Teenagers with autism find these games especially engaging as they allow structured social interactions between players specific to the game, promoting an inclusive narrative when players feel accepted within the games’ stories.
Non-verbal social games can also encourage cooperation between players. One study used a robot to play a digitalized version of Simon Says and found that the children spent more time interacting with one another when playing the game with the robot than when playing with each other.
Children with autism also appear more coordinated and engaged in Collaborative Puzzle Games than in more complex interactions.
Learning and playing games are cornerstones of child development. They allow children to form independent relationships with one another.
Because children with autism often have difficulty forming peer relationships and are sometimes excluded from social settings, developing gameplay skills is an essential tool for building the social capital they deploy to engage peers.
Playing games creates opportunities for autistic and neurotypical children to connect in naturally motivating activities. In this way, peers can model socially desirable behaviours, as autistic and neurotypical children forge reciprocal relationships centered on shared interests.
