If you are looking for a good board game for a child with autism, take a look at our list of the best board games for children with autism. Autism is one of the fastest growing developmental disorders in the world and it affects 1 in 68 children. Since there is no medical treatment for autism, best therapy includes proper education and help. In a proper environment with professional help, children with autism can improve their condition and develop better social and language skills. If you are interested in schools in New York City, take a look at our list of Best NYC Schools for Children with Autism.
One of the more difficult aspects of autism is avoiding social interaction, eye contact, and communication in general. Also, a lot of autistic children may have a very short attention span for some things while they can endlessly repeat certain actions such as, for example, turning the wheels on toys. Restricted and repetitive behavior has been recognized as a core symptom of autism, often displayed from early childhood. This type of behavior often reflects in the atypical way of play behavior where a lot of children with autism don’t seem to differentiate toys from other objects. According to CDC’s guide on symptoms and signs of autism, one of the “red flags” is if a child does not play “pretend” games by 18 months, such as pretending to feed a doll, to be a doctor, etc. Because of such behavior, it is important to find games which will occupy their attention and help in building up their social and cognitive skills.
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Board games are a perfect choice for children with autism. There are a number of things that attract autistic children to play board games. These games have a predictable set of rules and actions are repeated which can motivate children with autism to repeat game play. In this case, repetitive behavior is focused on the game. If you think about the board games, focus is usually on the board and not the people who play. Children learn to wait for their turn and pay attention to other players’ actions without eye contact which they often avoid. Thus, an autistic child can interact with other players and at the same time somewhat stay in their comfort zone. A lot of children with autism are visual learners and board games allow them to use their visual strengths and remember that you will have to give your best to win in this game, since autistic children are very good at remembering visual details. Children who are higher on the autism spectrum often excel at mathematics. Board games involving numbers, patterns or matching geometric shapes can help them practice and enhance their skills.
In order to compile this list of best board games for children with autism, I’ve consulted a couple of sources. Website Autism Teaching Tools deals with different tools used in teaching children with autism. They have lists of recommended books for children with autism, computer games, toys, puzzles and board games as well. They singled out their favorite (and probably most effective) board games. Autism Speaks published a whole section on toys and games for children with autism. Their recommendations include a lengthy list of toy manufacturers who have games and toys designed especially for children with autism. Finally, I have consulted website Simply Fun, which has more than 100 award-winning products and this company works with Play Advisory Council experts, Dr. Toni Linder and Matt Brown. You can read more about these experts on this link. Also, I’ve consulted Reddit and BoardGameGeek and their advice on good games for children with autism. This list of best board games for children with autism is compiled according to most frequently recommended board games according to above-mentioned websites and forums. Also, I’ve added Spell-a-Puzzle on the list after reading recommendation from Susan Sentor, parent of an autistic child. The game is easy and educational at the same time. Let’s take a look at the list of best board games for children with autism:
7. Spell-a-Puzzle
This is a game that contains around 20 small words such as dog, cat, tiger, etc. Words are simple and once you connect the letters you also connect the corresponding picture. For example, when you spell “tiger” you also make a tiger picture. This type of puzzle connects visual and verbal aspects by putting words and images into one. It is a great way for a child to learn to put together letters in order to form a word. Also, children who are not familiar with letters (yet) can learn them by focusing on putting together the image rather than the letters. Successful completion of a task will be very satisfactory for a child with autism. Since the words are usually not very complicated, it will not be too hard to complete the task. Price for this game on Amazon is around $35.00 and Walmart version is $12.60. If your child gets bored after learning these words, you can always make your own spell-a-puzzle game.
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6. Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is apparently very easy to learn and it involves “intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn“. It is a railway-themed board game where players collect various types of cards that they can use to claim railway routes of North America (there are also versions with other countries as well). The longer the routes, the more points players earn.For an autistic child, this game can cause a lot of satisfaction after completing each route. The game itself requires a certain amount of interaction with other players, but it does not require eye contact. You might need to adjust the rules at the beginning, but with time your child will probably play the game without any restrictions. Some parents shared their experience while playing this game with their children and the game was a success. Wallmart price for Ticket to Ride is around $34.99.
5. Chicken Cha Cha Cha
This game is designed for two to four players from four years old onwards. In this game number 5 on our list of best board games for children with autism, chickens are learning to dance (cha cha cha) by completing circuits around the yard. The goal of the game is to move your chicken past other player’s chicken while stealing their “tail feathers” and the player who collects all the tail feathers is a winner. You can read full game rules as well. This game is very fun to play and visually very appealing. It includes matching colors and it is also a memory game. These type of games are usually very appealing to children with autism since they pay a lot of attention to details and often have a very good memory. Walmart price is $35.84.
4. Social Skills: 6 Board Games
This game was recommended on website National Autism Resources. The game is somewhat different from other games on this list of best board games for children with autism. This set of 6 visually stimulating games targets good social skills and behavior. The game includes six sections: Morals, Manners, Empathy, Friendship, Showing Emotions and Managing Emotions. The game has simple directions with questions and after rolling a die, the player answers the questions on that spot and moves forward. This game is very good for children who are higher on the autism spectrum since it involves verbal communication. It is a great game to teach a child to express his/her emotions through a game and at the same time enhance social and verbal interaction. However, the game is not suitable for non-verbal autistic children since verbal communication is the focus of the game. Walmart price for this game is around $31.00.
3. Sequence for Kids
This is another game on our list of best board games for children with autism recommended by Autism Teaching Tools website. It is a visual matching game where players use cards to make runs of four tokens in a row. You can also add unicorn card anywhere on the board to remove your opponent’s chip. At the beginning, this might be a little frustrating for children with autism but this aspect of the game can be added gradually. Besides visual matching, children also learn turn taking and forward thinking because they have to recognize when their opponent is close to winning and interrupt their sequence. Also it helps the child to recognize and plan patterns in advance since four in a row can be made vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Amazon price for this game is $14.86.
2. Candyland
At the second place on our list of best board games for children with autism, we have the game that is suitable for young children because it requires minimal counting skills. It is a racing board game where the players race to find the lost King of Candy Land. Players take turns in removing the cards from the stack and matching, then, moving their marker to the next space of that color. The game is won by a player who first reaches the final square thus reaching the Candy Castle. This game teaches turn taking and it is good that it does not rely on verbal communication which often represents a difficulty for the majority of children with autism spectrum disorder. Instead, it relies on visual recognition. However one of the problems that this game might raise is the fact that the winner is more or less decided by luck rather than logic. Because of this, an autistic child can be frustrated because of his/her inability to control the outcome of the game. You can also read the experience of Susan Senator who started playing this game with her autistic son. Walmart price for this game is around $10.39.
1. Animal upon Animal
Minimum age recommended for this game is 4 years old. It is a stacking game for two or players. Each turn one of the players places one or two animals on the stack and passes one animal to the next player or places it on the table as a new base. If any of the pieces falls down while you are trying to place a new piece, you take two of them back. The winner is the first player who uses all of his/her pieces. The game is supposed to enhance motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Prices for the pocket-size edition of this game are around $14.00 and Walmart price for the full-size edition is around $24.99. Choice of the game will solely depend on your child’s needs since every child responds differently to different games. Anyhow, we hope that this list of the best board games for children with autism helped you to find the one that is perfect for your child. Have fun playing!
