Board Games as Tools for Emotional Growth: What the Latest Research Reveals

This distinction is crucial. A board game might naturally spark more conversation, but it doesn’t automatically teach a child how to wait for a turn or handle losing without support. To build those consistent emotional regulation skills, the intervention must include deliberate teaching strategies like visual prompts, adult modeling, peer demonstrations, and positive reinforcement .

The principles driving success in digital games also offer a valuable blueprint. A comprehensive systematic review found that digital games were the most consistently effective intervention for reducing negative emotional experiences in children and adolescents, particularly for those at risk of anxiety . More recently, a 2025 meta-analysis on "serious games"—games designed for education rather than pure entertainment—confirmed they are being actively used to train emotional regulation strategies in educational programs . While a tablet screen is different from a cardboard board, the core mechanics are the same: a structured challenge with clear feedback loops.

From Fun Activity to Measurable Therapy

For researchers designing a study on board games and emotional regulation in young children with special needs, the path forward is becoming clearer. The evidence suggests that games are not a magic bullet but a highly effective stage for practice. The key is to shift the focus from the board game as a standalone activity to a structured intervention medium.

Instead of claiming a game will broadly reduce a child's anxiety, a more precise and evidence-based study would measure specific, observable behaviors within the game context.

What does this look like in practice?

• Waiting and turn-taking: Can the child wait without grabbing?
• Coping with failure: Can the child accept a loss and stay engaged?
• Expressing frustration appropriately: Does the child use words or gestures instead of physical actions?
• Recovering from setbacks: Can the child rejoin the group after a frustrating moment with minimal prompting?

Drawing from a trauma-informed, game-based social-emotional learning program for older students, researchers can adapt the idea of “practicing coping strategies through play” for a much younger audience . This might involve embedding visual emotion cards, turn-taking cue cards, or scripted alternative phrases to use when a child loses, all within the game's flow.

The Opportunity for New Research

The most consistent finding across all these studies is also a call to action: There is a genuine scarcity of empirical research with validated DOIs that focuses specifically on the intersection of physical board games, young children with special education needs, and emotional regulation .

This gap represents a clear and valuable opportunity. Future research can directly address this by testing whether a well-designed board game intervention—paired with explicit teaching supports—leads to measurable gains in the specific emotional regulation behaviors observed during play. By building on the established promise of game-based interventions and responding to their identified limitations, a new study can make a significant and practical contribution to the field of early childhood special education .

Board games, it turns out, are far more than child's play. They are a microcosm of social life, offering a repeatable trial-by-fire for the emotional skills children need to thrive.

References (APA 7th Edition)

Lok, K. I., Chiang, H.-M., Lin, Y.-H., & Jiang, C. (2022). Trying a board game intervention on children with autism spectrum disorder in Macau: How do they react? International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 70(3), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2022.2095861

Serious games to support emotional regulation strategies in educational intervention programs with children and adolescents: Systematic review and meta-analysis. (2025). Heliyon, 11(4), e42712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e42712