The Student Activities Directory offers several games to help children identify emotions from facial expressions. "Let's Face It" shows clip art type pictures and children choose which emotion the person is feeling. "Gotcha!" uses pictures of real people. Players are asked which person is feeling a certain way. These games help a child with social problems relate to others.
FaceSay is an innovative computer game geared toward teaching social skills to children with an autism spectrum disorder, but the game can be applied to any child who has problems with social skills. The game has several aspects such as matching two faces so that they show the same expression, piecing together parts of the face to create an expression and following a gaze to choose the correct object. Research cited on the FaceSay website shows that these games have helped children with autism spectrum disorders improve their social skills.
Club Penguin is an online social network for children ages 6 to 14. Children play games while interacting with other children, all in the form of penguin avatars. They can create igloos and outfits for their avatars or participate in parties and special events. Club Penguin is free to play and can help children learn social skills if used properly. Children who struggle with interacting face to face can learn conversational skills with real people through their avatars.
Brigadoon is a special island in the computer world of Second Life. This island is designed solely for people with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism that is often characterized by a lack of social skills. Those who are under 18 are restricted to the island, so that they cannot join the other more mature sections of Second Life. This online community is geared toward helping those with Asperger's syndrome learn how to interact with other people. Through their avatars they each create a "second life," where they can interact socially at their own comfort levels.