D&D question for kids with special needs...

[Sullybird89]

Hello!
I've been playing/running D&D myself for years, and I am about to enter the teaching field. I already know that I'm bringing D&D into education sometime soon, but I recently got a short-term job offer as a personal tutor for a teenage boy (15y/o) who has Down syndrome. I have not met him yet, but I know already that he is incredibly into reading fantasy fiction, freaks his mother out by pretending to be immortal fantasy characters, and he is pretty darn verbal.

His mother would like him to work on staying up to date with Algebra in particular over the summer before he starts high school in a new city, so the math/fantasy combo is already scoring points. I would love to incorporate D&D into my "curriculum" and I have two other players who are interested in playing with us.

Does anyone have any experience running a game for players with special needs? Is there anyone out there who has Down syndrome and has played and could let me know what you liked/didn't like? Any thoughts or consideration would be greatly appreciated! I've scoured the internets and have come up completely empty, even after checking academic journal databases... oh well

Please lemme know!!!

 

[Stormonu]

My youngest son is borderline autistic (or "high functioning" as I'm often told). He's only 8 (with the mind of a 5-6 year old), so it's a bit difficult to keep his attention for long. We've used the game to help teach him some math, help with memory and learn to name and differentiate between different miniatures. He really digs playing with the minis and can sometimes astound us with his creativity.

I don't know if my experiences will be very helpful, but I'd be willing to talk further about my experiences if you want me to.

 

[Sullybird89]

I would love to hear more about it! One of my little brothers, now 17, was considered to be on the spectrum, but has since been swapped to a semantic/pragmatic language disorder classification. I got him into playing with my friends and I and it changed his life. Just sitting around a table for a few hours a week talking face-to-face with peers was amazing for him. He loved being loved by the crowd for once... he was a pretty lonely kid growing up. Please share about your son!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First, let me commend you in advance for helping those who often find getting eduacational aid difficult.

Second, my personal instinct is that you should try a more rules-light game like Savage Worlds as opposed to D&D as an intro to gaming for this kid. It's a good system, very flexible, and would let you as the GM really let his imagination get translated into a game.

 

[Umbran]

Second, my personal instinct is that you should try a more rules-light game like Savage Worlds as opposed to D&D as an intro to gaming for this kid.

I tend to agree. Not having met the boy, I couldn't say for sure. Get a measure of him - if even simpler rules would suit him as an intro, you could go with Old School Hack.

 

[Sullybird89]

Awesome advice! I was a little worried about handing him multiple volumes of rules especially since I'm only working with him for about a month. I was planning on getting out my cookbook and doing some SERIOUS homebrewing, but I'm really thrilled to see some pre-fab options out there...

 

[Stormonu]

From my side, we've been playing a variety of games (Savage Worlds, 3E, even the 5E playtest - he played the dwarf ).

I don't bother him much with the rules; when it comes to character creation I ask him some basic questions - what race do you want be? What type of activities do you want to do (fight, cast spells, help others/heal, etc.)? I do all the heavy lifting for designing and advancing the character, though I take into consideration what he wants to do.

When it comes to the game rules, I usually offer him three options for what to do in a given situation and then just let him pick or come up with his own idea (and sometimes he can pull a real whopper out of his hat). More often than not, a great creative ideas just needs to work. For all other times, I tell him his die bonus and the number he needs and let him roll a die. It's basic algebra ( X + 3 ?= 12, where X is the die roll), and he can get pretty excited adding it all up to see if he's succeeded. The hilarity in explaining that no, the number system doesn't go 10, 11, 13, 20 can be entertaining (these days, that usually only happens when he really, really wants the die roll to be successful. I can generally take a hint when this happens - though we do our best to at least make him repeat the sequence properly, and oh, look - we forgot this bonus that's just enough to succeed).

And because both of my sons love "pets" (thanks to Pokemon, Bakugan, Gormidi and the like), I usually throw in some sort of follower/pet into the mix and they love it. Nothing like watching a child's face light up when they sic their Fire Badger on a deserving evil guy. And never underestimate the vengence an 8-year-old can unleash when someone hurts Flashy.

My wife, who has had several years of college towards being a special ed teacher, sometimes DMs the kids when I'm not available. She always tries to bake a "Learning Experience" into the game. The kids always have fun (though sometimes they'll rebel against the railroad just to watch her fume) and whenever she asks me for advice on how to do better, I always just tell her "put together something fun. They'll turn it into their own learning experience - don't try to tell them how to do something; let them do it themselves and figure out if it works. If they fail and you let them know why, they'll remember it ten times better than if you hold their hand through it. And if they succeed, well, they didn't need your help anyways, did they?"

 

[Sullybird89]

As a personal railway "outlaw" myself, I've got to say you phrased that quite effectively! In addition to my little brother that I mentioned before, I also have another littLe brother with actual classified Asperger's. He is hyper-literate and really social! All the local girls love him... He's 11. I think he would love having options right exactly to the point at which he came up with his own options to follow! I do have an older family member with Down syndrome, and she is very into photography, but otherwise I am not particulary familiar with her creative side, though I'm now wishing that I had discussed it with her more. I LOVE playing with spectrum kids, probably because I know how their minds work and love to communicate with them in the world they happen to be in at the moment, I'm just hoping all my spectrum experience will serve me well in a DS arena... I'm very aware that people with different lifestyles can also be so different in how they approach a game or problem!

 

[Sullybird89]

Maybe I'll write my own academic journal article...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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