The Social & Emotional Competence Game, developed by Dr. Gary, continues to be our best selling board game.

Children who are able to initiate and maintain relationships, cooperate with others, empathize, and communicate effectively are often happy children and therefore caregivers instinctively focus on teaching social and emotional skills to them. In the past two decades there has been increased focus on directly teaching and reinforcing social and emotional competence. The Social and Emotional Competence Game was designed to give counselors and teachers another tool to teach social and emotional skills. Social and emotional competence refers to the capacity to recognize and manage emotions, solve problems effectively, and establish and maintain relationships with others. It is these skills that serve to protect our children from a host of difficulties including behavior problems, increased emotional distress, academic failure, delinquency, and substance abuse. The Social and Emotional Competence Game is a fun way to teach empathy, communication skills, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, self-management, and responsible decision-making. The Social and Emotional Competence Game is easily integrated into existing programs. It can also be used in individual and small group therapy.

The cards in The Social and Emotional Competence Game are labeled with terms that will be familiar to most children: sharing feelings, getting along, caring, communication, and cooperating. As the game progresses players become increasingly familiar with what these concepts are and the importance and advantages of engaging in these kinds of behaviors. The categories are broadly defined and overlap with each other. For example, Caring can involve such behaviors as being kind, sharing, and expressing a feeling appropriately. Available in Korean.

The Social and Emotional Competence Card Game (Revised) can be used with the Social and Emotional Competence Game or as a stand alone card game.

The goal is to educate players about a specific disorder and provide skills for managing the disorder. There are five decks of cards, one for each disorder: Anxiety, Depression ADHD, Asperger’s, and Bipolar Disorder.

Blank cards are included so that counselors/teachers can write their own questions or comments.

The game includes 5 sets of cards (54 cards in each set), directions, and a bag of chips.

The cards are suitable for children six years and older. Children with weak or emerging reading skills can have the cards read to them.