More Than a Game: Using Dungeons & Dragons to Build Social and Emotional Capacity
For many neurodivergent children and young people, traditional social skills groups can feel like hard work.
They may involve unfamiliar people, direct questions, worksheets, roleplay exercises or conversations about situations that feel abstract and disconnected from real life. Even when the content is useful, the format can create so much anxiety, self-consciousness or demand that meaningful engagement becomes difficult.
Dungeons & Dragons offers a different way in.
It gives participants a shared purpose, a predictable framework and something genuinely interesting to talk about. Instead of sitting together because adults have decided they need to “work on social skills”, they come together to create characters, explore a story, solve problems and make decisions as a team.
The game is engaging, but the skills being practised are very real.
Why Dungeons & Dragons?
Dungeons & Dragons, commonly known as D&D, is a tabletop role-playing game built around collaborative storytelling.
Each participant creates a character and becomes part of a shared adventure guided by a Dungeon Master. The group might explore an unfamiliar place, investigate a mystery, negotiate with another character or decide how to respond when a carefully made plan suddenly goes wrong.
There is no single correct way to solve these challenges. Players need to exchange ideas, consider different perspectives and work out what they want to do together.
This naturally creates opportunities to practise:
expressing ideas, preferences and boundaries
listening and responding to other people
taking turns within a conversation
negotiating different opinions
sharing decision-making
solving problems collaboratively
recognising emotions and perspectives
coping with uncertainty and unexpected outcomes
managing frustration and disappointment
repairing misunderstandings
developing confidence within a group
building and maintaining connections with peers
These skills are not taught in isolation. They are used because the group needs them to continue the adventure.
Interest is not a distraction from the therapeutic work
Sometimes, interest-based groups are viewed as less meaningful because participants are enjoying themselves.
We see it differently.
A child’s interests can be one of the strongest pathways into learning, connection and participation. When someone is genuinely interested in an activity, they have a reason to remain involved, communicate with others and work through manageable moments of uncertainty.
For many neurodivergent young people, a shared interest also removes some of the ambiguity from social interaction. They do not need to invent small talk or work out why everyone is together. The game provides a clear topic, shared language and common purpose from the beginning.
Interest-based participation can reduce the sense of being observed, assessed or corrected. It allows relationships to form alongside an activity rather than placing immediate pressure on participants to “make friends”.
This is especially important for young people who have experienced rejection, bullying or repeated messages that their natural way of communicating is wrong.
Their interest is not something we need to move past before the real work begins. It is the foundation that makes the work possible.
Social practice that feels natural
A common limitation of traditional social teaching is that participants may learn the expected answer without developing the confidence or flexibility to use it in real interactions.
A young person might be able to identify the “correct” response on a worksheet but find it much harder when a peer disagrees with them, interrupts their plan or interprets a situation differently.
D&D brings these moments into the group naturally.
Players need to decide whether to enter the mysterious cave, speak with the suspicious innkeeper or rescue someone before searching for treasure. One player may want to charge ahead while another wants to investigate carefully. The group must communicate, negotiate and find a way forward.
These are genuine social interactions, but they occur within a supported environment. A facilitator can slow things down, clarify what happened, help someone communicate a need or give the group another opportunity to approach the situation differently.
The learning happens while the skill is actually needed.
A safer way to explore emotions and identity
Role-playing creates a small amount of distance between the participant and the situation.
It can feel safer to explore courage, conflict, disappointment or vulnerability through a fictional character than to immediately discuss a personal experience. A player can experiment with being assertive, asking for help or recovering from a mistake without feeling that everything is directly about them.
Characters can also provide a meaningful way to explore identity.
A young person might create someone who is confident, cautious, loyal, impulsive, protective or completely unlike them. Over time, they can explore how that character approaches relationships, responds to pressure and makes difficult decisions.
This does not mean interpreting every character choice as therapy. It means recognising that imaginative play can give young people room to experiment, reflect and discover different possibilities.
Predictability with room for flexibility
D&D offers an unusual combination of structure and freedom.
The game has rules, character sheets, turn-taking systems and a facilitator who helps hold the story together. This can make interaction feel more predictable than an open-ended social group.
At the same time, the adventure is full of choices. Plans change, dice rolls create unexpected outcomes and other players may suggest completely different solutions.
This creates opportunities to practise flexibility within a framework that still feels contained.
Importantly, participants are not expected to tolerate unlimited uncertainty or distress. A neuroaffirming group considers each person’s communication preferences, regulation needs and level of comfort. Support might include visual information, clearer choices, additional processing time, movement breaks, alternative ways to contribute or advance notice of particular themes.
The goal is to build capacity gradually, not to overwhelm someone in the name of practising resilience.
Building connection without forcing friendship
Friendship cannot be taught through a script or created by placing people in the same room.
It develops through shared experiences, trust, familiarity and the discovery that another person understands something important to us.
Interest-based groups create the conditions in which this can happen. Participants already have something to return to each week and something to share with the group. Running jokes emerge. Characters develop histories together. The group remembers earlier victories, unfortunate dice rolls and spectacularly unsuccessful plans.
This sense of shared history can help participants begin to experience themselves as valued members of a group.
Not every participant will form a close friendship, and that should not be the only measure of success. Feeling safe enough to contribute, being accepted by peers or simply having a place where someone looks forward to your arrival can also be deeply meaningful.
A neuroaffirming approach to social development
At Affirming Care Services, social and emotional capacity building is not about teaching neurodivergent young people to appear more neurotypical.
We are not aiming to train scripted conversations, force eye contact or reward children for hiding discomfort. We do not assume there is only one correct way to communicate, participate or connect.
Through D&D, participants can contribute in different ways. One person may enjoy speaking in character, while another prefers describing what their character does. Some may become energetic storytellers, while others contribute through careful planning, humour, drawing, remembering details or noticing solutions others have missed.
Our role is to help participants better understand themselves and others, communicate authentically, advocate for what they need and develop the confidence to navigate shared experiences.
The goal is greater capacity, autonomy and connection, not greater conformity.
What does the research tell us?
Research into tabletop role-playing games as a therapeutic and social-development tool is still emerging, but the findings are promising.
A 2024 scoping review found growing evidence that tabletop role-playing games may support social functioning, emotional development, identity exploration, wellbeing and other psychological outcomes. The researchers also noted the need for further high-quality studies, so it is important not to present D&D as a guaranteed intervention for every participant. Read the scoping review.
A study involving autistic adults found that participating in a D&D campaign created a structured, interest-based space for meaningful interaction. Participants described feeling more comfortable connecting with like-minded people and reported opportunities to develop confidence and explore aspects of themselves through their characters. Read the study.
Research specifically examining a tabletop role-playing intervention with autistic young people has also reported improvements in areas of social communication, including turn-taking, self-advocacy and responding to peers. The researchers emphasised the value of clear rules, adapted materials and a well-structured environment. Read the study.
This evidence supports what many neurodivergent people have been saying for years: connection is often easier when it develops around a genuine shared interest, within an environment where different communication styles are understood and welcomed.
What makes a therapeutic D&D group different?
Not every D&D game is automatically therapeutic, just as not every group activity builds capacity simply because people attend together.
The difference lies in the purpose, facilitation and support surrounding the game.
In a social and emotional capacity-building group, facilitators identify meaningful goals and intentionally create a safe environment in which participants can practise them. They observe group dynamics, support communication, adjust demands and help participants navigate challenges without taking control of the experience.
Goals may include:
contributing ideas within a group
communicating disagreement respectfully
asking for clarification, support or a break
participating in shared decision-making
coping with changes to a plan
recognising signs of frustration or overwhelm
considering another person’s perspective
recovering after a mistake or misunderstanding
building confidence and a sense of belonging
Progress is not measured by how well someone performs D&D or how outgoing they become. It is considered in relation to their individual goals, their participation, the support they require and the skills they begin to use across different situations.
How can D&D relate to NDIS goals?
When delivered as a structured capacity-building support, an interest-based D&D group may align with NDIS goals involving social communication, emotional regulation, relationships, confidence, independence and community participation.
The NDIS describes Capacity Building supports as supports that help participants develop skills and become more independent. Increased Social and Community Participation funding may support training that helps a participant develop social skills, make friends, build their social network and connect with activities that interest them. Read the NDIS guidance on Capacity Building supports.
Funding suitability still depends on the individual participant’s plan, goals, support needs and available budget. A provider cannot guarantee that a particular group will be payable from every plan.
What matters is that the support has a clear capacity-building purpose. Families should be able to understand which skills are being addressed, how the group relates to the participant’s goals and how engagement and progress will be documented.
More than learning to play
From the outside, a D&D group may look like a group of young people rolling dice and telling stories.
Inside that adventure, they may be learning how it feels to have their idea heard. They may be managing an unexpected change, taking a small social risk, asking for help or discovering that a group wants them there.
Those experiences matter.
Dungeons & Dragons works as a vehicle for social and emotional capacity building because the interaction is purposeful, the interest is genuine and the connection is not forced.
The dragons may be imaginary. The confidence, skills and sense of belonging are not.
