{"id":1356,"date":"2019-06-14T11:30:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T15:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:38:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:38:45","slug":"five-or-so-questions-on-critical-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/06\/five-or-so-questions-on-critical-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Five or So Questions on Critical Core"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have an interview today with AdamD from <\/strong>Game to Grow<\/strong><\/a> about <\/strong>Critical Core<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>which is currently in preorder<\/strong><\/a>! It sounded like such a fascinating project focused on helping autistic gamers! Check out Adam’s responses below!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tell\nme about Critical Core. What excites you about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critical\nCore is a starter set for therapeutic tabletop role-playing games. We’ve been\nusing games to help kids and teens build social skills for around 8 years now,\nand have always wanted to reach a larger audience of people than we can reach\ndirectly in the greater Seattle Area. At Game to Grow we’ve been saying for\nyears that we think the world would be a better place if everyone played more\ngames together. This is our opportunity to get a game into more homes,\nhospitals, schools, clinics and libraries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What are the backgrounds like for\nthe various people working on Game To Grow? What motivated you to apply it to\ngames?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Johns is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I (Adam Davis) have a masters in education with a specialization in Drama Therapy. We met in grad school at Antioch University Seattle and started working together running drop in groups using Dungeons and Dragons with socially isolated youth. As we ran the groups we realized the potential that the game has as an intentional intervention for building social competence. We created Wheelhouse Workshop, a for-profit company, in 2013 dedicated to using RPGs to build social skills. After several years of running groups and serving the local community, they formed Game to Grow in 2017 to continue to expand on the use of games to help people learn, grow, and change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game to Grow was formed as a nonprofit to reach a larger audience to help with a wider range of challenges.\u00a0 Another member of the development team is Virginia Spielmann, who is a British-trained Occupational Therapist with more than 20 years experience working in pediatrics. Virginia is a specialist in the DIR Floortime\u2122 framework of developmental intervention. Virginia approached us with the Critical Core project as a collaboration with the ad agency Mcgarrybowen Hong Kong, who sought to use their creative talent in design and project management to serve the autistic community in Hong Kong with an innovative idea. Critical Core was born from this international collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How does the starter kit work and\nwhat is included in it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The starter kit contains three main\ncomponents: the rules and materials for a simplified  and easy-to-play\nrole-playing game, a facilitator\u2019s guide with the best-practices we have\ndeveloped over the near decade of experience we have running groups and using\nthis method to help clients, and adventure modules in which the in-game\nscenarios are targeted developmentally to real-world areas of social growth.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is for new game masters to be able to pick up the starter set and learn a simple game they can use to help and connect with their family, students, clients, or community. They can use the modules and facilitator\u2019s guide to improve the outcomes of their game and provide some support for kids, whether they\u2019re on the autism spectrum or not.\u00a0 Experienced game masters will be able to apply the wisdom in the facilitator\u2019s guide and adventure modules to other game systems and use the games they already know and love to help their community. Trained therapists, educators, and other community support will have a new tool in their repertoire to help their community in a way that is, fun, safe, and enriching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How do you approach accessibility for\nthose with disabilities like blindness, or who have mobility issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our approach to accessibility is that, as our colleague\nMike Fields said during a presentation: \u201dAn impairment is only a disability\nwhen there is no accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also recognize that every individual is different\nand may need a different level of modification or accommodation for them to\nfully participate. The key element  to\naccessibility is open dialogue around what a participant needs and how we can\nhelp.  There\nare obvious ways we can improve accessibility, i.e., by making sure paths are\nclear for wheelchairs and walkers, or by providing braille dice, though it is\nimpossible to be 100% prepared for everything so we must be open to\nconversation about how we can make sure our table has a place for everyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do these starter kits work for people who aren\u2019t\nexperienced professionals, based on your testing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re still developing the kit to make it the best it can be to professionals with less experience using RPGs to help.\u00a0 Our \u201cofficial\u201d beta-testing with Critical Core kits hasn\u2019t begun, though in the trainings we\u2019ve conducted over the years using the wisdom and best practices that will go into the facilitators guide, we\u2019ve seen the largest area of growth is making sure that the professionals new to facilitating RPGs for growth remember that they are also a player<\/em>, and that SO MUCH<\/strong> of the power in the work comes from relationships and play. \u00a0 So we\u2019ll make sure that the kits have a clear outline of the game structure, but also explain in depth how to use the game to maximum impact.\u00a0 Not just the what, but the why and the how.\u00a0 Much of that will be in the facilitator\u2019s guide included in the Critical Core box.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you so much to Adam for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out <\/strong>Critical Core<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>consider preordering if it is a good suit for you!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have an interview today with AdamD from Game to Grow about Critical Core, which is currently in preorder! It sounded like such a fascinating project focused on helping autistic gamers! Check out Adam’s responses below! — Tell me about Critical Core. What excites you about it? Critical Core is a starter set for therapeutic … Continue reading “Five or So Questions on Critical Core”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[81,79,149,31,2,30,83,90,20,10,4,17,25,35,8,15,12,23,18],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodation","tag-ada","tag-disabilities","tag-disability","tag-diversity","tag-education","tag-fantasy","tag-five-or-so","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-interviews","tag-mental-health","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Arsenal.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-lS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":80,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/06\/five-or-so-questions-on-champions-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":1356,"position":0},"title":"Five or So Questions on Champions Now","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"June 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all!I did an interview with Ron Edwards on his Kickstarter project, Champions Now! 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To leave some cash in the tip jar, go to http:\/\/paypal.me\/thoughty.If you'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}