Day 151 (of 2025/26) The benefits of D&D
Thanks to CBC News and Simon Little for this great article on “goblin therapy”
Loved this article on the therapeutic benefits of Dungeons & Dragons and neurodivergent learners:
I loved playing D&D growing up.
I’m less certain I love being the Dungeon Master. But don’t tell my campaigners…
Partly because I know I’m not exactly running the most rules-pure campaign. My style is… gentle chaos. Less “strict adherence to the handbook,” more “let’s make this work for everyone.”
By design.
Our party is made up of students from Grades 2 through 11. Most join in from our qathet building, while a couple connect virtually through Teams. I was deeply uncertain whether a hybrid D&D campaign would work.
Turns out that it works remarkably well.
It has become a space where students who often struggle to connect can collaborate.
A place where they can disagree, get frustrated, negotiate, problem solve, and occasionally attempt to derail the campaign by declaring, “I attack ______.”
Fortunately, as DM, I possess the ultimate educator superpower:
“That action cannot be argued.”
What fascinates me is how students who often resist rules in other contexts have no problem embracing them in a world of imagination.
With some compromises, of course.
One of our party members is a red dragon with a familiar that is, for lack of a better description, a snow dragon.
The rulebook may not fully endorse that.
Our campaign does.
And that flexibility is part of the magic.
Through play, students practice making choices when real-world decisions can feel overwhelming.
They learn to trust uncertainty.
They roll the dice and deal with outcomes they didn’t hope for.
In our world, a natural 20 is spectacular success.
A natural 1 usually means dropping your weapon, falling over, or suffering some form of memorable embarrassment.
Why?
Because failure should be survivable.
Even funny.
Especially for learners who often experience mistakes as something much heavier.
As the article explains, D&D creates a safe space with supportive boundaries. It offers enormous freedom, but within structures that require collaboration, communication, and conflict resolution.
It allows students to let parts of themselves flow into their characters.
And it gives them permission to explore other possibilities too.
Different genders. Different races. Different alignments. Different classes.
Different ways of being.
Sometimes education asks students to imagine who they might become.
D&D lets them try it out first.
Sample PPT Dungeon Campaign:
Technolandy 
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