Published on 12, July, 2020
This afternoon I watched a short BBC YouTube video featuring a London man called Barrington Campbell was diagnosed as autistic at 30 years old.
Barrington said something interesting I had not thought about before; that playing tabletop / board games with people might not be as social anxiety inducing as some other socialising options.
I suppose you can be partly absorbed in the game and it gives you the starting point for conversation with less time and likelihood of the full non-Autistic interrogation level of conversation demanded.
Also, I was thinking about the concept that not all tabletop / board games need to involve a large numbers of players, plus, if chosen with care, the games do not have to be of the type which involve buzzers and exuberant shouting or conflict!
Do you tend to find that to be your experience?
Over the years I have enjoyed the following styles of game:
Chess, Draughts / Checkers, Go, Scrabble, Nine Men's Morris.
How to play Nine Men's Morris (jump to 4:27 on this video):
m.youtube.com/watch
(However, I usually make my excuses ...to sit out of the following game examples):
Monopoly, Ludo, Cluedo, Snakes and Ladders (if there is a way to cheat and argue about such a game ...I have relatives who will really go for it! Other horror shows include e.g.:
Operation (electronic buzzer and often noisy conflict from younger players)
How to play Operation:
Pit (cards and a push bell ...lots of loud overexcited older relatives getting way too competitive ...it is just a game people!)
How to play Pit:
BBC YouTube video which started me thinking about all this:
I suspect I am more competitive with myself than against other people.
You mentioned Scrabble; once I lived somewhere where it was not practical to physically meet up with others to play a game of Scrabble ...so we devised the means of playing Scrabble over the telephone - with a board at each house - which we each updated as moves were laid on the board (a bit like people used to play chess by post / mail). Wacky, yes, but kept us out of mischief!
I don't play board games with others as I'm not competitive and lots of people are, I sometimes play scrabble by myself, just making "good" words.
I do think that having an activity makes socialising easier as although you're a random collection of people, you're a random collection of people with the same purpose.