A research study found that playing D&D (and other TTRPGs) can help children with social and emotional learning. So, I guess we're not all a bunch of introverted nerds, that's just me.
Sitting together in a small group creating a shared (fantasy) world and having to work as a team to overcome obstacles. Having Derek happen to your persona and learning how to deal with it, recover and move on. Watching the same things and worse (and better) happen to others so you can recognize that your emotions are not “special”. Finding out that making room for others to share the or have the spotlight actually makes you feel good. Learning that fighting ( physically or otherwise) to get the rewards feels much better than just having them handed to you without work. Finding that is the hard work that builds your sense of success. Is it really so surprising? I’ll bet that if they looked they would find most long term players are more empathetic, generally feel more satisfied with their lives and carreers and are better able to handle the “ruts in the road” than others.
Sitting together in a small group creating a shared (fantasy) world and having to work as a team to overcome obstacles. Having Derek happen to your persona and learning how to deal with it, recover and move on. Watching the same things and worse (and better) happen to others so you can recognize that your emotions are not “special”. Finding out that making room for others to share the or have the spotlight actually makes you feel good. Learning that fighting ( physically or otherwise) to get the rewards feels much better than just having them handed to you without work. Finding that is the hard work that builds your sense of success. Is it really so surprising? I’ll bet that if they looked they would find most long term players are more empathetic, generally feel more satisfied with their lives and carreers and are better able to handle the “ruts in the road” than others.
Well, that's all well and good until you ask someone to pronounce "drow." Then it gets all tribal and there's no sympathy for the other side. (Note: please don't turn this into such a discussion.)
Sitting together in a small group creating a shared (fantasy) world and having to work as a team to overcome obstacles. Having Derek happen to your persona and learning how to deal with it, recover and move on. Watching the same things and worse (and better) happen to others so you can recognize that your emotions are not “special”. Finding out that making room for others to share the or have the spotlight actually makes you feel good. Learning that fighting ( physically or otherwise) to get the rewards feels much better than just having them handed to you without work. Finding that is the hard work that builds your sense of success. Is it really so surprising? I’ll bet that if they looked they would find most long term players are more empathetic, generally feel more satisfied with their lives and carreers and are better able to handle the “ruts in the road” than others.
Well, that's all well and good until you ask someone to pronounce "drow." Then it gets all tribal and there's no sympathy for the other side. (Note: please don't turn this into such a discussion.)
(Ohhhh my gosh, that would be disappointing.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
⌜╔═════════════The Board══════════════╗⌝
...and started me on my way into my next chapter in life...
The benefits of playing table-top role-playing games have been known for years. Players of table-top role-playing games are more likely to develop an interest in history and literature than the general population, for example.
It pays to not pay attention to stereotypes in general. Research has also shown those who listen to heavy metal and hard rock tend to be avid readers with an interest in the same and are often cognitively superior to those who listen to other genres of music.
The stigma attached to playing D&D is, or rather was, very real. But even when I started playing in the school library 37 years ago, those who'd gather week after week to play weren't all "introverted nerds"; we were a mix of kids from both sides of the tracks, achievers and trouble-makers with vastly different personalities united in our undying love of fantasy.
That stigma is gone and has been gone for years. "Geek cool" has been a thing for some time now after all. I'll never understand people who flaunt "geekery," like it's a competition, in displays of one-upmanship to somehow prove one is as "geeky" as can be. It subverts what was once stigmatized to the point those doing it now just sound like those who were always trying to fit in with the popular kids. A perfect example of how the mainstreaming of things can drain them of something that was truly special.
I wonder if this is popping up on people's radar because a lot of researchers/experts in this space are hyping their SXSW panels this week and are thus pushing the algorithm..
To clear up what I think is a misunderstanding surfacing in some of the comments, the present research is not really at all saying "ttrpg gamers" are inherently more SEL learned than the broader population. I mean, look at the OGL fracas and you'll see plenty of people identified with the ttrpg community beset with conflict management skill deficits. Rather, it's about the capacity/potential TTRPGs have for trained mental health professionals and educators to foster (broad brush alert) SEL development in children (and adults too, but the scholarship I'm familiar with focuses on children). Games to Grow, the org/project in the linked research are mental health practitioners who have 1.) a game designed to specifically engage mental well being skill development and 2.) a training program for credentialed therapist as well as vetted lay people on using tarps to foster mental wellness. On the more formal education front, WotC's actually partnered with a literacy curriculum group to advocate D&D's (and folks working in that space will admit other games work too when Hasbro money isn't paying for the microphone) use in the classroom to foster a range of literacies and competencies, from storytelling, problem solving, SEL, numeric literacy put into practice, reading and writing skills, language acquisition, etc etc. It's an interesting field, though a fairly young one.
Does the ttrpg community, or at least some percentage of members of it, receive similar benefits outside of environments run by clinicians or credentialed practitioners? Sure, but there's not as much substantive research on that as there is consideration to using ttrpg as tools for the practitioners. As said in thread, many ttrpg community members have articulated similar benefits from their regular play sessions and that's been conventional wisdom for a while that's been more or less accepted by educators and child psych types. When a lot of people were suffering through the satanic panic, I happened to have the opportunity to take advantage of one of those summer academic enrichment programs, which among other things offered a course on D&D. Now this was the peak Geraldo Rivera freaking over Mazes and Monsters and Dark Dungeons era, so the program included in the catalog an insert "About Dungeons and Dragons" which touted the administration and staff's anecdotal understanding of the clear benefits of D&D for creativity and social development (while not ttrpg specific findings, role playing and imaginative play are sort of documented general "goods" in psychological development).
So from many clinical/educational practitioners point of view, re: ttrpg it's always been the kids are alright. But there's an interest, not entirely divorced from the hobby's renewed popularity, in taking that conventional wisdom and model real developmental tools out of them.
I saw that story on the news feed on my phone today! And as someone who has been playing D&D off and on since 1981, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of absolute deranged MONSTER I would have ended up as if I hadn't been playing D&D all this time.
I saw that story on the news feed on my phone today! And as someone who has been playing D&D off and on since 1981, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of absolute deranged MONSTER I would have ended up as if I hadn't been playing D&D all this time.
So true. No offence.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I want friends, come talk to me about stuff here. I am the weird hybrid Italian-Australian D&D guy/wannabe comedian.
Thanks to Drummer_The_Dragon_Slayer for my custom title: The Adamantine Warrior, and The ruler of the Sky’s
I mean, I was once a kid, and now look at me as an old lady, with all the fancy letters and the whole job teaching people to stop being mean to each other.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
In the hands of the right DM the TTRPGs are very good for the 4 Cs of the education:
Critical thinking
Creativity
Collaboration
Communication
Yup. In fact I'm sure I've seen a slide deck making that point (again, these are things sort of known or largely accepted fact by the game community, it's just that some mental health and educational practitioners are sort of using these accepted practices to create more clinical/formal tools and methods that can be taught and trained toward mental health professional and educators. I'll see if I can look up some of the slide decks I was reading over in the fall.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
A research study found that playing D&D (and other TTRPGs) can help children with social and emotional learning. So, I guess we're not all a bunch of introverted nerds, that's just me.
foundry10 - education research
Sitting together in a small group creating a shared (fantasy) world and having to work as a team to overcome obstacles. Having Derek happen to your persona and learning how to deal with it, recover and move on. Watching the same things and worse (and better) happen to others so you can recognize that your emotions are not “special”. Finding out that making room for others to share the or have the spotlight actually makes you feel good. Learning that fighting ( physically or otherwise) to get the rewards feels much better than just having them handed to you without work. Finding that is the hard work that builds your sense of success. Is it really so surprising? I’ll bet that if they looked they would find most long term players are more empathetic, generally feel more satisfied with their lives and carreers and are better able to handle the “ruts in the road” than others.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well, that's all well and good until you ask someone to pronounce "drow." Then it gets all tribal and there's no sympathy for the other side. (Note: please don't turn this into such a discussion.)
(Ohhhh my gosh, that would be disappointing.)
⌜╔═════════════ The Board ══════════════╗⌝
...and started me on my way into my next chapter in life...
⌞╚════════════ Extended Signature ════════════╝⌟
The benefits of playing table-top role-playing games have been known for years. Players of table-top role-playing games are more likely to develop an interest in history and literature than the general population, for example.
It pays to not pay attention to stereotypes in general. Research has also shown those who listen to heavy metal and hard rock tend to be avid readers with an interest in the same and are often cognitively superior to those who listen to other genres of music.
The stigma attached to playing D&D is, or rather was, very real. But even when I started playing in the school library 37 years ago, those who'd gather week after week to play weren't all "introverted nerds"; we were a mix of kids from both sides of the tracks, achievers and trouble-makers with vastly different personalities united in our undying love of fantasy.
That stigma is gone and has been gone for years. "Geek cool" has been a thing for some time now after all. I'll never understand people who flaunt "geekery," like it's a competition, in displays of one-upmanship to somehow prove one is as "geeky" as can be. It subverts what was once stigmatized to the point those doing it now just sound like those who were always trying to fit in with the popular kids. A perfect example of how the mainstreaming of things can drain them of something that was truly special.
If kids find D&D a bit to confusing with all the skills and everything, they could try Lasers And Feelings. With only 2 skills.
I want friends, come talk to me about stuff here. I am the weird hybrid Italian-Australian D&D guy/wannabe comedian.
Thanks to Drummer_The_Dragon_Slayer for my custom title: The Adamantine Warrior, and The ruler of the Sky’s
Want some time to relax? Want a place to go on holidays? Want to join my eternal army… Come here! ——————> I think we can all agree that this is a good idea
Come and join the 20 Questions!
I wonder if this is popping up on people's radar because a lot of researchers/experts in this space are hyping their SXSW panels this week and are thus pushing the algorithm..
To clear up what I think is a misunderstanding surfacing in some of the comments, the present research is not really at all saying "ttrpg gamers" are inherently more SEL learned than the broader population. I mean, look at the OGL fracas and you'll see plenty of people identified with the ttrpg community beset with conflict management skill deficits. Rather, it's about the capacity/potential TTRPGs have for trained mental health professionals and educators to foster (broad brush alert) SEL development in children (and adults too, but the scholarship I'm familiar with focuses on children). Games to Grow, the org/project in the linked research are mental health practitioners who have 1.) a game designed to specifically engage mental well being skill development and 2.) a training program for credentialed therapist as well as vetted lay people on using tarps to foster mental wellness. On the more formal education front, WotC's actually partnered with a literacy curriculum group to advocate D&D's (and folks working in that space will admit other games work too when Hasbro money isn't paying for the microphone) use in the classroom to foster a range of literacies and competencies, from storytelling, problem solving, SEL, numeric literacy put into practice, reading and writing skills, language acquisition, etc etc. It's an interesting field, though a fairly young one.
Does the ttrpg community, or at least some percentage of members of it, receive similar benefits outside of environments run by clinicians or credentialed practitioners? Sure, but there's not as much substantive research on that as there is consideration to using ttrpg as tools for the practitioners. As said in thread, many ttrpg community members have articulated similar benefits from their regular play sessions and that's been conventional wisdom for a while that's been more or less accepted by educators and child psych types. When a lot of people were suffering through the satanic panic, I happened to have the opportunity to take advantage of one of those summer academic enrichment programs, which among other things offered a course on D&D. Now this was the peak Geraldo Rivera freaking over Mazes and Monsters and Dark Dungeons era, so the program included in the catalog an insert "About Dungeons and Dragons" which touted the administration and staff's anecdotal understanding of the clear benefits of D&D for creativity and social development (while not ttrpg specific findings, role playing and imaginative play are sort of documented general "goods" in psychological development).
So from many clinical/educational practitioners point of view, re: ttrpg it's always been the kids are alright. But there's an interest, not entirely divorced from the hobby's renewed popularity, in taking that conventional wisdom and model real developmental tools out of them.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I saw that story on the news feed on my phone today! And as someone who has been playing D&D off and on since 1981, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of absolute deranged MONSTER I would have ended up as if I hadn't been playing D&D all this time.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
So true. No offence.
I want friends, come talk to me about stuff here. I am the weird hybrid Italian-Australian D&D guy/wannabe comedian.
Thanks to Drummer_The_Dragon_Slayer for my custom title: The Adamantine Warrior, and The ruler of the Sky’s
Want some time to relax? Want a place to go on holidays? Want to join my eternal army… Come here! ——————> I think we can all agree that this is a good idea
Come and join the 20 Questions!
I mean, I was once a kid, and now look at me as an old lady, with all the fancy letters and the whole job teaching people to stop being mean to each other.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
In the hands of the right DM the TTRPGs are very good for the 4 Cs of the education:
Yup. In fact I'm sure I've seen a slide deck making that point (again, these are things sort of known or largely accepted fact by the game community, it's just that some mental health and educational practitioners are sort of using these accepted practices to create more clinical/formal tools and methods that can be taught and trained toward mental health professional and educators. I'll see if I can look up some of the slide decks I was reading over in the fall.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.