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A previous counselor at my school purchased (but never used) The Socially Speaking Board Game
Players travel around the board collecting little colored washers to add to their pawn. Here are the types of squares players can land on:
QUESTIONS: Ask another player a “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why”, “how”, “which”, or “what have you” question
SHOWING EMOTIONS: Say “I have peas for tea” while expressing a specified emotion
COMPLIMENT CORNER: Give another player a compliment
SELF EXPRESSION: Complete a sentence about yourself
HOME, SCHOOL, OUT AND ABOUT, or SOCIALLY SPEAKING: given a scenario on a card, show or tell how you wold respond
Here are some examples of these cards:
While in theory there is a ‘winner’ (the first person to collect all the colored rings), I’ve never had students respond to this game competitively.
Skills Tackled:
-What to say and do in common social situations
-Complimenting others
-Asking questions
-Expressing emotion in your face and voice
***I also think this game would be wonderful for socially anxious/shy students.
The Good:
-Almost all cards are both developmentally appropriate and relatable.
-Every aspect of this game targets social skills.
-Very affordable
-Game activities match onto targeted skills (unlike some games)
The Bad:
-Takes a long time to finish the game (though students don’t typically mind ending it before someone has officially won)
-Created in England so there are several words/phrases/spellings that are from across the pond
-There’s no real aspect of “Why should do we these things?”
The Verdict:
One of the best social skills board games out there!
One Response
I have been using this game for many years with a wide range of students. As the reviewer found, winning has never been the main focus of the game for the students although it may have started out that way.
The main value was the discussion within the group of players regarding different ways to address the situations raised in the cards. Latterly, I have been using the game with Asian EFL students so cultural differences have arisen and elicited interesting and valuable ideas and opinions. We often use the question cards for end of class conversations.
I thoroughly recommend The Socially Speaking game.