Children in Swansea with additional learning needs will spend part of the school holidays in wellbeing sessions held inside Minecraft, paid for by the council.
More than 30 young people are expected to take part.
The sessions are run by NeuroPathways, the Swansea service of the provider Health is One, using money from Swansea Council’s Here For You This Summer holiday fund.
They follow a pilot earlier this year that the organisations involved say worked, and which is the basis for the council putting in further money.
Support that doesn’t depend on talking
Children join online, inside the game, in groups led by trained practitioners.
The techniques named are emotional scaling, narrative building and co-regulation, aimed at confidence, communication and problem solving.
The thinking is that a child who struggles to sit in a room and answer questions about how they feel may say a good deal more while building something alongside somebody else.
Emma Davies, director at NeuroPathways, said many children, and particularly neurodivergent children or those with additional learning needs, find traditional forms of support hard to access or engage with.
“This pilot has shown us what’s possible when you meet children on their own terms,” she said.
The programme is being delivered with Ellie Finch, a counsellor and social worker who specialises in digital and play-based therapeutic work.
“Minecraft can offer children a creative space where they can communicate and explore experiences in ways that do not rely on talking,” she said. “For some children, particularly where conventional support hasn’t been designed with them in mind, that can make a real difference.”
Finch added that digital play, used safely and ethically, can meet children where they feel most comfortable while still doing therapeutic work.
She is an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, registered with Social Work England, and founder of PlayMode Academy, a non-profit that trains professionals to use Minecraft and similar tools.
Council money, from the summer holiday pot
Cllr Rebecca Fogarty, Swansea Council’s cabinet member for community support, said the funding was an example of the council backing groups to run activities suitable for all young people across the city.
Parents whose children took part in the pilot reported improvements in confidence and enjoyment, according to feedback gathered by the organisers.
One mother described the change in her son during a session. “Usually my son’s interactions are up and down while he’s online. One minute he’s happy and the next he is crying, so it was a breath of fresh air to hear him laughing the entire time.”
The backdrop: Swansea schools ‘owed £11m’ for additional needs
The sessions land in a city where support for children with additional learning needs is already stretched. Council leader Rob Stewart said last month that Swansea’s schools should be getting at least £11m a year for pupils with ALN.
Families here have also described waiting years for a diagnosis while a child struggles unseen.
Sign-up details are on the NeuroPathways website at neuropathwaysclinic.co.uk.
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