of scenarios that make up a cohesive story. Role playing games typically have one person, known as the Game Master (GM), who manages the story. Dice are often used to determine outcomes of actions selected by the player. High rolls usually mean some- thing favorable happens. Lower rolls might mean something less desirable occurs. The characters of role-playing games are usually heroic in nature who go on quests, solve problems or otherwise interact in a fictional world. Characters, each managed by a different player, might work together as a team, known as a party. Parties with shared objectives promote collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. Role playing games allow players to create a shared storytelling experience with open-ended pos- sibilities. The openness of the game provides an opportunity to say whatever you want to say whenever you want to say it how- ever you want to say it which promotes language use. Listen to Shaun Pearson describe how he ran a role playing game session over the summer at a camp for users of AAC by going to https://bit.ly/smalltalks3 and check out this arti- cle from the International Society for Technology in Educa- tion on using role playing games to engage all students by going to https://bit.ly/isterpgs SANDBOX GAMES Certain games have no objective to win. Instead, they are just meant to be a space where players can gather to create togeth- er. Like children playing with sand on the beach (or a sandbox) players construct structures that can be works of art, virtual envi- ronments, buildings or anything the players can imagine! Mine- craft might be the most popular and well-known sandbox game which allows players to design and create in a virtual space mak- ing it ripe with opportunities to use and practice language con- cepts and usage. Although any part of speech can be practiced in a sandbox game, they are particularly useful for practicing spatial prepositions such as over, under, on, in and beside. ADAPTING GAMES TO MEET A PLAYER’S NEEDS Favorite tabletop games can be adapted to target specific vocabulary or learning targets. The games Guess Who and Hed- banz provide an opportunity to incorporate question words, who and what . Zingo , which is an early childhood-oriented BIN- GO game with a few different versions. All these commercially available games can be played as is straight out of the box or can be adapted with targeted vocabulary by overlaying custom im- ages on the game boards. Physical adaptations allow individuals with motor needs to participate and play independently. Plac- ing dice in a clear plastic food container can provide students an alternative way to roll dice which uses larger gross motor movements to roll. Writing numbers on big cardboard boxes is another way to produce an adapted die. Virtual dice apps and websites are available including https://www.online-stopwatch.
com/chance-games/roll-a-dice/full-screen/. If at home and if a voice activated assistant is nearby, people can verbally or with AAC say, “Roll a d6” to roll a virtual die and listen to the results. If playing a card game, some people might enjoy using a card holder of some sort. This could simply be two pieces of wood rubber banded together to form a slit in between their two lon- ger edges or it could be a commercially available card holder. Sites like http://Tarheelgameplay.org provide a large array of games that are switch accessible. The adapted XBox controller allows people an opportunity to interact in games on the Xbox with switches. Switches can be inserted into the ports which can be configured to operate different controller commands. Organizations like AT Makers and AbleGamers help connect in- dividuals with disabilities to fellow gamers who can help make customized adaptations to meet the unique needs of every in- dividual person. Listen to Bill Binko, creator of AT Makers, discuss the Maker Movement by going to https://bit.ly/twtatmakers and Mark Barlet, co-creator of Ablegamers, discuss accessible gaming by going to https://bit.ly/ablegamerstwt. CREATING CUSTOM GAMES One activity that can be particularly fun for children is to create their own games. These games could then be shared and played with friends or family. A simple activity could be to create a game board using a file folder. Students could use a Bingo dab- ber, stamps, stickers or trace circles around a coin to make spots on the game board. A printout of symbols of target words, could be placed intermittently throughout the board. When playing the game, the student could roll the dice or spin a spinner to move their marker throughout the board. When they get to a symbol of a word, they could be asked to use it in a sentence using AAC. Software for creating custom clipart based game resources, such as LessonPix, provides a variety of templates for playing cards, dominos, BINGO and traditional board games that allow
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