The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Learn how tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons can be used for practicing social skills, flexible thinking, and other executive functioning elements. Gamification is on the rise for a reason: it works. It has potential far beyond video game-style methods of reward. Behold the power of nerds. This session will explain the advantages of using tabletop role-playing games to practice and learn social and executive functioning skills. It will name specific skills, elaborate on how these games can be used to practice those skills, and advantages that these games can have over more traditional methods of practice. It will use Dungeons and Dragons as the example game because that is the game I run for my students and it is a well-known gaming system.

For example: Tabletop role-playing games can allow players to experience the consequences of their actions without having to suffer the consequences if they have made poor decisions. Unlike in video games, possible choices in tabletop RPGs are nearly unlimited. Players must determine the best course of action as they would in real life, and their choices will affect the well-being of the characters they play. If a player chooses to have his character insult another character, he will learn that people react negatively to insults, but the player himself will not have to mend a real-life relationship after the insult. Tabletop RPGs also get players to interact with each other, problem-solve, and collaborate in a way that video games can’t.

This session will also give a basic explanation of what tabletop RPGs are, how they work, and how to go about finding people to play them with. It will provide information for those running a game to assist players on the spectrum and give the location of resources, such as online, printable character sheets for players with handwriting difficulties. It will also point out the advantages that Autism can give a player.

Gamification is becoming increasingly popular in education, but most methods of gamification focus on video games. Many of the students I have worked with did not realize how much they enjoyed "unplugged" games until I gave them the opportunity to experience ones that catered to their interests. This session will contribute to the Autism community by expanding and contributing to ways to use people’s interests to make learning more engaging and entertaining.

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