5 Great Board games for Therapeutic Play: ages 4-7
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Once children turn four, their impulse control has improved significantly and they can begin playing more interesting games. They are still working on self-regulation and frustration tolerance, but their understanding of how to take turns as well as cause and effect create new possibilities for games and strategies.
Good games for this age group challenge cognitive flexibility and problem solving. Importantly, they should also include pretend play because imaginary play is highly engaging at this age.
Selecting the right game to target many of these skills can be overwhelming with so many options. Now that they are a bit older, they are able to play some of the classics such as Hi-Ho Cherry-Oh, Connect 4, and Chutes and Ladders. But let’s be honest – there are lots of more interesting options! I’ve compiled a list that targets a variety of skills & subjects and are lots of fun.
Here are five unique picks for the emerging gamer in your life!
Outfoxed! – This is one of my #1 game recommendations and preferred purchases for my friends / family with young kids. You can read my full Outfoxed! review here if you’d like to see a video on how to play or get some ideas of how to use it for math, motor skills, and more. You definitely need this game in your life.
To play, children work together strategically to collect clues, reveal suspects, and examine the clues in the clue decoder (which is always a hit!). Using problem-solving, they eliminate the innocent foxes until only the guilty one remains.
Style: Cooperative
Skills: Fine Motor, Visual-Spatial, Executive Functioning, Social-Emotional
Subject: Math & Science, English Language Arts, Natural World
Race to the Treasure – This wonderful game builds foundational math and visual spatial skills with no reading required! Children work collaboratively to build a path and collect 3 keys on a race to beat the ogre to the treasure. This game encourages kids to plan, sequence, and adapt.
Even the set-up portion of the game offers skill-building opportunities as players roll dice and use a grid to locate the correct square to “hide” the keys. Although it isn’t formally part of the game, I like to incorporate opportunities for movement when playing the game too, such as building our own “path” out of couch pillows, stepping stones, or whatever you have lying around.
Style: Cooperative
Skills: Fine motor, Visual-Spatial, Executive Functioning
Subject: Math & Science, Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Floor is LAVA! – While you can absolutely play this game on your own using pillows, blankets, washcloths, or some old cardboard, this is the better option! The tiles come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. There is a spinner and a set of rules (mom as the lava monster is a house rule for us).
Children learn to adapt to the quickly changing layout and are provided immediate feedback from the environment if their choices were successful. This feedback on motor performance through play builds body awareness, strength, and coordination. Movement through play also provides vestibular and proprioceptive input which supports children with sensory processing differences.
Style: Competitive
Skills: Gross Motor, Visual-Spatial, Executive Functioning, Sensory Integration
Subject: Arts & Music, Fantasy & Science Fiction
Zingo!– This rewarding twist on a BINGO game is so simple, but it is always a hit (even sometimes with older kids). I love that it gets kids working on bilateral coordination, fine motor skills, and early reading all at once.
There are lots of ways you can extend this as children grow to further target the skills you’re working on, such as by copying the words onto lined paper, coloring pictures, or reading books related to the Zingo tiles.
Style: Competitive
Skills: Fine Motor, Visual-Spatial
Subjects: Math & Science, English Language Arts
Don’t Break the Ice – This classic made the list because it is just that good. When I was young, it was played with a wet paper towel and marbles on a rickety plastic structure. These days, it is made out of durable plastic for infinite reuse (and no wet paper towels on your floor or marbles in the baby’s mouth!).
I love that it forces children to delay gratification because they must always rebuild between each round. This quiet repetition teaches resilience, frustration tolerance, and really works on bilateral coordination because fitting the final pieces into the ice board always requires two hands.
Bonus: This game comes in several varieties, such as Frozen or the special multicolored Mammoth edition. In investigating these other options, I found the Frozen one to be kind of flimsy because half of the pieces are cardboard. 🙁 So I don’t think I’d recommend that version, but the Mammoth one looks to be of good quality.
Style: Competitive
Skills: Fine Motor, Executive Functioning, Social-Emotional, Sensory Integration
Subjects: Math & Science, Natural World, Arts & Music (with Mammoth edition)