Gamification

Games are a core part of early social development. Tabletop role playing games and board games support a wide range of cognitive skills, including planning, inhibition control, and numerical reasoning, while also fostering cooperation, shared attention, and perspective taking through activities such as strategising and bluffing.

Our work focuses on how these forms of play can support social development and wellbeing, particularly for autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people. We are interested not only in the social benefits of gaming, but also in understanding why different people are drawn to tabletop games and how these environments can be designed to be more inclusive, accessible, and meaningful for diverse communities.