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

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has explored whether the humble board game can be more than just family fun. It turns out that structured play might be a powerful, low-cost tool for helping children practice complex skills like waiting, coping with loss, and reading social cues—the very building blocks of emotional regulation.

This is especially critical for children with special needs, for whom challenges with emotional regulation can be a major barrier to classroom participation and forming friendships . Unlike unstructured free play, board games offer clear rules, turn-based interactions, and immediate feedback in a predictable, low-stakes environment. This creates a safe space where children can navigate frustration, practice impulse control, and learn to express their needs appropriately.

What the Research Says: A Decade of Insights

A wide-angle view of the research landscape confirms the potential of game-based interventions. A recent meta-analysis focusing on children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) found that game-based interventions had a significant positive effect on social skills, social behaviors, and cognition. However, the same analysis noted that the effects on anxiety and language expression were small and not statistically significant . This suggests that while games are excellent for practicing social interaction, they shouldn't be viewed as a singular cure for deeper emotional distress.

This idea is reinforced by a study that used board games with 28 autistic individuals. Researchers found that while the games were challenging, they also encouraged personal growth and served as an “alternative vehicle for forging social relationships” . This directly connects to emotional regulation instruction, as managing emotions often happens within these challenging social moments that board games reliably create.

One of the few studies to directly test a board game intervention in schools provides a more nuanced picture. Lok and colleagues worked with children with ASD in general education classrooms in Macau, using a repeated measures design. The results were telling: social communication during the game sessions shot up significantly compared to before and after the intervention. Yet, the occurrence of unprompted, independent board game play behaviors didn't change .

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