Social City®

The Social City® board game offers students an interactive way to learn about problem-solving & emotional regulation through play!

As players navigate the board, collect resources, and resolve social scenarios, they develop problem-solving skills, emotional regulation, and critical thinking. Designed to complement the books Bumps, Hills, and Mountains and The Problem-Reaction Meter, this board game helps students identify the size of a problem and choose an appropriate reaction—key skills for successful social interactions.

What makes this social skills board game so effective?

• Encourages real-world social problem-solving by allowing players to discuss and work through different scenarios.
  
• Reinforces emotional regulation by helping students match their reactions to the size of a problem.
  
• Develops critical thinking and flexibility, teaching children how to assess situations and respond appropriately.
  
• Supports engaging, interactive learning with resource collection, board navigation, and strategic gameplay.
  
• Designed for 2-5 players, making it perfect for small groups, classrooms, or therapy sessions.
  

Why this learning approach works so well:

• Game-based learning encourages participation and reduces stress around social-emotional discussions.
  
• Role-playing opportunities help students internalize social problem-solving strategies.
  
• Reinforces concepts covered in related books, creating a comprehensive learning experience.
  
• Encourages self-reflection and peer discussion, helping students develop social awareness and adaptability.
  

Who is the Social City® board game helpful for?

This board game targets social-emotional learning in students in grades kindergarten and up. Social City® is an educational resource for Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists, teachers, and parents. Its versatility makes this board game great for various learning environments, including small or large groups in the classroom, in one-on-one speech therapy sessions, or at home.

Why Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), clinicians, teachers, and parents love this social skills game: 

• It forces kids to think about some everyday, real-life situations and to make a decision if that situation, and therefore the corresponding reaction, is a small, medium or large issue.
• The game was entertaining for early teenage kids and the game held their attention. There was some strategy involved to collect different tokens and then use these tokens to buy cards that were needed to win the game. Still, there was also a need to collect some ‘situational awareness’ cards, which presented each player with a problem. 
• This game is a great way to teach the size of a problem and how to react to problems more effectively. The use of pictures for teaching size is great.
• The graphs in the game helped kids identify the size of a problem and the size of the reaction to that problem. It had a good analogy of describing a problem's size in terms of "not a problem, bump, hill, or mountain."

Social City® includes:

• 18 problem cards
  
• 200 scenario cards
  
• 10 player strips
  
• 45 resource tokens
  
• 5 car pieces
  
• 12 board tiles
  
• 1 die
  
• Instruction book
  
• Problem meter
  
• Reaction meter
  
• Bumps, Hills and Mountains: A Book About Identifying the Size of a Problem book
  
• The Problem-Reaction Meter: Choosing the Size of Your Reactions book
  

Caution: Choking hazard, contains small parts. Not intended for children under the age of three.