One of the ways that pediatric occupational therapy practitioners help their clients is by using everyday items and toys to support development. Sometimes, OT practitioners go into a setting and support skill achievement with whatever is available in the home or classroom. We love to do this in the environment the individual is in because it’s so meaningful! That’s why I wanted to pull together a few ways to use board games to support learning and development. This is an older blog post (originally written July 27, 2015) and updated July 15, 2024. These are classic games that are found in many home game rooms or therapy game closets, but there are many ways to adapt the games to support learning! Here are ways that we use games in OT…
Learning with Board Games
It can be fun to introduce learning into a summer day or after-dinner evening with the family during Family Time. Pull out board games that you’ve played a thousand times and add a learning component to them for a new twist on the game. A math, literacy, history, or any educational spin can be made to board games to make them appropriate for your child’s age and interests. See how we’ve made modifications to board games:
Learn with Board Games
There are so many ways to learn using board games. Occupational therapy providers love to use games and play as a facilitator to supporting skills. Try some of these ideas for example:
Then there are games that use specific items that are found in the home. Using items like game pieces, paper clips, etc. are easy ways to make a DIY game that supports learning. Try these ideas:
Board Games to Use in Learning Activities
How to Adapt the Guess Who Game
One way we LOVE to use a favorite game is to grab the Guess Who game. The recent versions have doors that open and a card that you slide in to change out the images behind the doors. We have one that has people on one side and pets on the other. The cool thing is that with this version, you can slide the cardboard in and out to change the options. When we play this game, however, I love to change it up even more.
Take the card out of the Guess Who game, and use it as a template to create a new background. I cut a piece of cardstock to fit the game. Then, I slid it into the slot and used a pen or a marker to write letters, words, numbers, etc. into the spaces behind the doors.
We used it to practice letter formation and identifying letters. For example, I ask my student to find the “tail letter” that I’m looking for. They had to first find the tail letters that were on the board and then they had to describe the letters. It’s a great way to work on letter discrimination and to work on visual discrimination skills.
You can change this version to meet any needs that you are working on!
(affiliate link): (affiliate link)game. Write numbers on the paper inside the windows and on the top. Slide the sheets into both boards. 
(affiliate link):
(affiliate link)to specific letters. Players keep the cards that they capture by playing the game with the game boards.
(affiliate link):
(affiliate link):
affiliate link)is played, add the numbers that are played. Depending on the players ages, you can add just two cards together keep adding.
One game that we love to use in learning and building skills in OT is the game Don’t Break the Ice (affiliate link). Here are some ways we like to use this to work on specific areas:
For example, here are creative ways to adapt the game “Don’t Break the Ice” to support various learning objectives:
Self-Regulation- we covered how to use Don’t Break the Ice as a self regulation game in a post that has different ideas for other board games.
- Letter Recognition and Handwriting Practice
Materials Needed: Letter stickers, paper, and writing tools.
How to Play:
- Place letter stickers on each ice block piece.
- As players knock out a block, they identify the letter and then practice writing it on a sheet of paper.
2. Number Formation/ Math Skills
Materials Needed: Number stickers, math problems on cards.
How to Play:
- Put number stickers on the ice blocks.
- As players knock out a block, they write the numbers or solve a math problem that corresponds to the number (e.g., addition, subtraction).
3. Writing and Reading Sight Words
Materials Needed: Sight word stickers or cards.
How to Play:
- Place sight words on each ice block piece.
- When a player knocks out a block, they must read the word aloud and use it in a sentence.
4. Color and Shape Identification
Materials Needed: Color and shape stickers or drawings.
How to Play:
- Put different colors and shapes on each ice block.
- As players knock out a block, they identify the color and shape and can match it to a chart.
5. Handwriting
Materials Needed: Vocabulary word stickers or cards, definition cards.
How to Play:
- Place vocabulary words on the ice blocks.
- When a block is knocked out, the player must provide a definition or use the word in a sentence and then write it for handwriting practice.
6. Social Skills
Materials Needed: Emotion stickers or social scenarios.
How to Play:
- Place stickers showing different emotions or social situations on each ice block.
- When a block is knocked out, the player must describe the emotion or how they would handle the social situation.
7. Writing Prompts
Materials Needed: Stickers with story prompts or characters.
How to Play:
- Place stickers on each block.
- When a block is knocked out, the player writes a word describing the sticker.
8. Fine Motor Skills
Materials Needed: Small manipulatives or objects.
How to Play:
- Attach small manipulatives (e.g., beads, buttons) to the ice blocks.
- Players must carefully knock out a block without dislodging the manipulatives, improving hand-eye coordination.
9. Visual Memory Game
Materials Needed: Pair stickers.
How to Play:
- Place pairs of matching stickers on the ice blocks.
- Players must remember the position of each pair as they play, enhancing memory skills.
There are so many ways to use games in learning activities! This is just the start. Hopefully this helps you think of more ideas to use the games you already have.
This post is part of our month-long series: Learning with Free Materials series, where we share ideas to learn at home using free (or almost free) materials. It’s part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
