Mental Health Games for Children

Working with children in a mental health setting requires different strategies than used when working with adults. Since they typically are not there voluntarily, they are usually less invested in their treatment. Playing games aids to engage children in treatment by making therapy fun. The American Academy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry suggests that children can use playing, drawing, pretending and building to express themselves and learn to resolve problems. You can purchase therapy games through retail stores or mental health catalogs, however, they may also be handmade or imaginative play games that cost little or nothing.

Board and Card Games

• Mental health catalogs have board games available for a variety of mental health issues. There are board games specifically designed to address depression, self-esteem, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and more. General board games can also be used to address therapeutic issues. Use classic games such as Candy Land or Old Maid in group settings to address social skills or Operation to improve self-esteem. Simply add a step to a traditional game to adapt it to therapeutic goals such as asking the child to make one positive statement before each turn at the game.

Strategy Games

• Strategy games are particularly useful tools for building self-confidence, controlling impulses, improving problem-solving skills and improving team-building skills. These games include Jenga-type building games, dominoes and checkers or chess. Strategy games involve thinking about the next move and planning ahead which address problem-solving skills and impulse-control making them useful for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Children with low self-esteem benefit from the success they have when accomplishing a task or completing the game. These games address team-building skills when used as a group activity.

Hand-Made Games

• Use a little creativity and make your own games. Make sentence completion cards by writing incomplete sentences on index cards. Ask the child to read each card and complete the sentence. After each turn the child can move a token on a hand-made board or gets a stamp on a card. Draw faces with different expressions on paper plates and ask the child to describe what the feeling is and identify a time they felt that way. Hide small beads in silly-putty or craft dough. Finding the beads addresses problem-solving and attention-to-task.

Imaginative Play Games

• Imaginative play, or role-play, games can be applied to any mental health issue. They give the therapist the option to adapt to the needs and mental health objectives of the child, and give the child the opportunity to take part in directing the path the game takes. Children with depression can "pretend" to be happy and describe how it feels. Children with impulse-control problems can act out appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. Children with low-self esteem can imagine they are a princess or super-hero. Children who have been abused and cannot describe the incident can act out abusive situations.