Supporting students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) requires creativity, flexibility, and a deep understanding of how social-emotional development shapes a student’s ability to learn, connect, and regulate. Many students with FASD can struggle with impulse control, communication, emotional regulation, and social understanding—yet traditional teaching methods may fall short in supporting these critical areas.
One incredibly effective and often overlooked strategy? Games.
Games are a natural, engaging way to teach and reinforce social-emotional skills in a low-pressure setting. When students are playing, they’re practicing real-life skills like turn-taking, patience, communication, and problem-solving—without even realizing it. The chart provided above outlines several well-known games and links each to a specific skill and learning benefit. For educators and FASD instructional coaches, these games can become valuable tools in your toolkit.
Self-Control & Focus: Jenga
Jenga may seem like a simple game, but it’s an excellent way to support self-regulation. Players must wait their turn, stay focused, and carefully manage their movements—all while under pressure. This is a safe and playful way to practice impulse control, which can be especially helpful for students who struggle with acting before thinking.
Teamwork & Collaboration: Team Pictionary, Pandemic
Games like Team Pictionary require students to cooperate, listen, and interpret non-verbal cues, while Pandemic, a cooperative strategy game, encourages shared problem-solving and planning. These games help build a sense of connection and shared responsibility, skills that are foundational to working and learning in a classroom community.
Strategic Thinking & Flexibility: Chess, Scrabble, Ticket to Ride
For students who benefit from structure but need help with cognitive flexibility, strategy games like chess and Scrabble offer clear rules with endless possibilities. These games encourage planning, adapting to changes, and evaluating outcomes—all essential executive functioning skills. Ticket to Ride also promotes goal-setting and strategic decision-making with a fun, map-based design.
Social Communication & Interpretation: Charades, Guess Who?, Dixit
Many students with FASD need support with reading social cues, understanding facial expressions, and interpreting emotions. Games like Charades and Guess Who? provide practice with non-verbal communication and help students explore how people express themselves. Dixit, a visually rich card game, encourages imaginative thinking and emotional interpretation, making it ideal for developing perspective-taking and storytelling skills.
Emotional Expression: Feelings Uno
A twist on a classic card game, Feelings Uno invites students to name and express emotions when playing certain cards. It’s a simple but effective way to integrate emotional literacy into gameplay and opens up opportunities for conversations around how emotions feel, look, and change.
Trust & Social Awareness: The Resistance
This game is perfect for older students or more advanced groups. The Resistance involves collaboration, trust-building, and social deduction. It challenges players to recognize deception and develop insight into group dynamics—useful for teens learning to navigate peer interactions and relationship boundaries.
Life Skills & Patience: Monopoly, The Settlers of Catan
While lengthy, games like Monopoly and Catan introduce key life concepts such as resource management, negotiation, and delayed gratification. With the right support and modification (such as shorter rounds or paired play), these games can be accessible and educational for a range of learners.
Early Skills: Candy Land
Even the simplest games, like Candy Land, have value—especially for younger students. This classic board game teaches turn-taking, rule-following, and the foundation of structured interaction—all skills that students with FASD often need repeated exposure to in order to internalize.
Bringing Games Into Your Practice
Games can be adapted to suit group size, developmental level, and sensory needs. You might introduce a game during a classroom circle, use it in small group instruction, or recommend it to caregivers as part of home-based support. The key is to intentionally match the game to the student’s social-emotional goals, providing scaffolding where needed.
And remember: the goal isn’t to win—it’s to grow.
Play is powerful. For students with FASD, who often learn best through experience, connection, and repetition, games offer a meaningful and enjoyable path to skill development. They foster relationships, confidence, communication, and—perhaps most importantly—joy.