Chess Club Helps Find Their People

For students with autism in schools, having a range of opportunities and activities that match their interests is often a difference maker. In my role, I run the school chess club two lunchtimes each week and provide the students with the opportunity to take part in interschool tournaments each term.

From my experience, chess club has proven particularly popular among students with autism and often helps them find their people via the shared interest. Putting the academic benefits aside and just focusing on the social benefits, the students experience social development through the shared interaction of playing chess games in addition to general skills that some may initially lack such as learning to take turns, sharing and learning to deal with losing. Chess club can offer students a safe space and a more predictable and comfortable pace that can help some students replenish their emotional budget.

Through starting the chess club, many students have since chosen during recess and lunchtime, even when chess club is not running, to play chess with friends for fun. By no means should a chess club be seen as a cure-all, as not all students will be interested in taking up chess, but rather, is just one example of a lunchtime activity that can provide scaffolded social situations for students and in some help replenish or slow the drain on their emotional budgets.