A Clinical Social Skills and Group Therapy Program for Kids & Teens with ADHD, Anxiety, and Autism on Minecraft
Creating a safe space for neurodivergent kids and teens to build social skills, emotional narrative, and friendships that last.
Social Skills
Elementary:Kids practice social basics: coming on camera, saying hello, using names, reading body language, and taking turns. Unstructured Minecraft play mirrors recess or a birthday party, and in-the-moment coaching helps kids work together, compromise, and think flexibly, working through disagreements, owning mistakes, and setting and respecting boundaries.
Teens:For teens, this same practice builds life skills like public speaking, leadership, and managing emotions when things don't go their way, skills that carry directly into college and the workplace.
Enhanced Emotional Narrative
Elementary:Kids work out of a digital workbook that includes executive function, creative arts therapy, and visual emotion exercises, like Unpack Your Backpack of Worry and the Emotion Regulation Roller Coaster. These completed homework assignments prepare kids to name emotions, share them, and build coping skills during live sessions. Each phase also runs on focused coaching topics and planned conversation starters, so play doesn't take over the clinical value of group. Review a sample Phase 2 parent calendar for an example of the planned weekly topics and assignments.
Teens:Teens talk openly about identity, friendships, bullying, and what's next, building the same emotional narrative through open conversation rather than a workbook.
Characteristics of Being a Good Friend
Elementary:Kids work off a reward system built to boost self esteem and self confidence: digital trading cards for demonstrating specific social skills, and printable awards for showing the characteristics of a good friend. Victoria and peers can both nominate a child for a card or award, so the skill is reinforced by the whole group, not just from the front of the room.
Teens:Teens practice being a good friend through the relationships they build in group, developing cultural competency, respect for other people's values, and empathy, the same qualities that make someone a strong roommate, teammate, or coworker in college and beyond.
Here's what parents are saying, from families who've completed the program:
Friendship and communication skills taught in an environment that mirrors the playground
As a teacher and creative arts therapist, I used to have a lot of conversations with kids after the fact. Tell me what happened. What could you have done differently? Some kids are honest about it. Some deny they had any part in it. Some genuinely don’t understand what went wrong. And talking about it afterward doesn’t give a child the skills to actually use in the moment.
Neurodivergent kids learn best hands-on, in the moment, and that’s exactly why this program uses Minecraft as the practice space. Loud, chaotic, and unpredictable, the same way a lunchroom, a playground, or a birthday party is loud, chaotic, and unpredictable. Kids are talking over each other, changing the plan, ignoring boundaries, and doing exactly what kids do. The same situations that trip your kid up every day happen here too, and I’m live in the game and on the call, helping to guide and teach kids in the moment, encouraging participation, collaborative play, and sharing about emotions.
See how it all comes together & phases build on eachother
Kids receive a digital and printable workbook. Phase 1 assignments come every few weeks, ramping up to weekly by Phase 3.
- Art Therapy About Me assignments help kids share about themselves, and connect over something besides Minecraft.
- Executive Function worksheets help kids organize, prepare, and talk through what works for them in session.
- Visual emotion worksheets, like the one below, help kids walk through their emotions, with a focus on social anxiety and worry or big emotions, depending on the group.
Each phase, kids set goals and reflect on them in their digital workbook, working toward the digital trading cards they can earn. There are 8 social skill cards and 2 character awards per phase, and kids can earn one from Victoria or be nominated by a peer.
Printable awards recognize kids for demonstrating the qualities of being a good friend, qualities we talk about and practice together during sessions.
- Minecraft Club Introduction: a welcome worksheet where kids share their name, set a goal for group, and draw their Minecraft character
- Show & Tell prep worksheet: helps kids plan what they'll bring and share with the group
- Mid-Phase Reflection: a check-in on how group is going halfway through the phase
- Roller Coaster of Emotions: a worksheet for naming what's building up before a big feeling, what it feels like, and what helps them ride it out
- End-of-Phase Reflection: looking back at what they're proud of before moving into Winter
- Show & Tell prep worksheet: helps kids plan what they made and want to share with the group
- Artwork Quest: designing a new Minecraft character and naming that character's social or friendship strength
- Mid-Phase Reflection
- Unlocking the Keys to a Successful Group: identifying what helps them be a strong group member, and a plan for what to do when they get stuck
- Building Your Village: planning how to ask a friend to play after group, including a worksheet for working through the social worry that can come with asking
- Minecraft Me: a feelings check-in and self-expression page for introducing themselves to the group
- End-of-Phase Reflection
- Show & Tell prep worksheet: helps kids plan what to bring that represents who they are
- Artwork Quest: designing an identity banner that reflects their strengths and how they show friendship
- Mid-Phase Reflection
- When Group Pushes My Buttons: identifying personal triggers in group and their own ways to reset
- Level Up Your Self-Care: a self-care and stress management planning worksheet
- Building Your Village: planning to ask a friend to play, and a plan to stay connected with friends after the program ends
- Prickly or Protected: working through social anxiety, boundaries, and brave next steps in group
- End-of-Phase Reflection
Friendships that last beyond the call
This program isn't just about learning skills. It's about connecting kids and building the kind of community and friendship that keeps going after we log off.
Community is a pillar of this program. Three tracks are offered this year, each built around a different community, so kids end up beside peers who just get it, who they can have “me too” moments with and be understanding of each other’s “oops” moments with, so real friendships can form. That’s also where the therapy comes in, kids get to talk about life, being bullied, depression, or happiness, in a way that feels less pressured than sitting across from someone one-on-one. Take a look at the tracks below to see which community your child would benefit from most.
Friendship doesn’t stop when the call ends. After group, kids can stay on Meet and in the Minecraft Realm to keep playing, and they have Realm access outside of session time to coordinate playing together on their own. An hour a week is enough to start a friendship. What happens after is what keeps it going.
Different Tracks Available to Meet Kids Where They Are At:
Finding Your Village
For Elementary aged kids rebuilding their support system during and/or after divorce, a move, a new school, chronic illness or life transition.
Workbook activities focus on social anxiety and worry.
Tuesdays 4-5pm ET
Sept 15 – June 30th
Three phases, 35 overall sessions, with two week breaks between phases
Navigating the Overworld
For Elementary aged kids who want friends but struggle in the moment.
This tends to be a more high energy group of children who may interrupt, act impulsively, become stuck on their own plan, miss social cues, or have difficulty repairing after a disagreement.
Workbook activities focus on big emotions.
Wednesdays 4-5pm ET
Sept 16 – June 24th
Three Phases, 34 overall sessions, two week breaks between phases.
Minecraft Connection Club
A Homeschool community for Elementary, Middle Schoolers and Highschoolers.
Elementary groups include workbook activities that cover both anxiety, worry and big emotions.
Teen groups are an open format to support age/maturity. Kids are encouraged to come on and play or attend the live session snack and craft!
2-3pm ET
Elementary: Tuesdays
Teens: Wednesdays
complete the insurance verification section below for an eligibility check.
Insurance Verification
Quick Check Before You Enroll
If you're planning to use insurance, a diagnosis is required for a claim, though it isn't given during group, which is why it's collected on your enrollment form. Claims also require session notes that reflect medical necessity. If your child doesn't engage in the talk therapy part of a session, wasn't present because they were with a parent during a meltdown, or was placed in visitor mode for behavior, that session can't be submitted to insurance and will bill at the self-pay rate of $70 instead. I'm credentialed with insurance providers as a creative arts therapist, not a behavioral interventionalist, so my scope of billing covers mental health talk therapy, not behavioral interventions.
Enrollment confirms your child's spot for all 12 sessions of the phase. Any session they miss during that time bills at the missed session rate of $50, including if they've decided to leave the group. There's no unenrolling once a phase has started, a confirmed spot is a confirmed spot for all 12 sessions.
Victoria is a teacher and educator who uses Minecraft and Meet to facilitate the program. Victoria is not in IT and cannot provide any technical assistance. If registering, you and your child must be able to navigate the technology independently.
- Minecraft Bedrock, kids need their own account
- Minecraft updates frequently, kids will need to update their game.
- We use a private Realm, you will need to be able to join that.
- Google Meet
- Meet requires a separate device or screen. Minecraft will close if kids try to access the game and Meet on the same screen.
- We play in creative mode. Kids can adjust to a different mode if they wish.
- Kids need to know how to play the game. Minecraft gameplay instruction will not occur during sessions.
- Kids need to be on camera.
- Kids need to know how to turn themselves off of mute.
- Meet picks up background noise and conversation. If a child's Meet is disrupting the group due to background noise, they'll be placed on mute until they're able to move to a private location, or asked to leave the call.
Minecraft is kid-driven, on purpose. It's meant to mimic the lunchroom, the playground, a team sport, a playdate, unstructured, loud, and unpredictable, the same way real peer environments are. There are no aides, no 1:1 staff, no accommodations built into that space. Kids are intentionally asked to participate independently, no adult in the room, so that the skills they build in the group can actually transfer to those spaces.
Check in with yourself:
- Can your child self-soothe?
- Can they regulate themselves on a call?
- If they need to keep leaving the call for a parent, they aren't present enough to work on skills or earn skill cards.
- Do you feel comfortable allowing your child to participate independently?
The group runs on one rule: treat others with kindness. If a child is intentionally mean to a peer or breaks something someone else built, they're placed in visitor mode for 10 minutes. In visitor mode they stay in the Realm and can watch and talk, but they can't place or break blocks.
If a child ends up in visitor mode three times in one session, and that happens again the next session, and again the session after that, three sessions in a row, they'll be asked to leave the program. A child who spends half of group in visitor mode isn't practicing or learning the social skills the group is for. This group setting can't change bullying behavior, and it isn't fair to the peers who are there to play and connect.
Because this is a learning environment, tuition is not refunded if a child is unenrolled for consistently disrupting it.
I'm Victoria Prisco, a Special Education Teacher with a master's degree in art therapy and nearly two decades of experience working with neurodivergent kids.
I created the Minecraft Social Development Group after years of watching neurodivergent kids get pulled out of classrooms, struggle to connect with peers, and feel discouraged when the skills they had been taught wouldn't work in real situations. I saw how those experiences affected confidence and self-esteem, especially for kids who felt like they were always the one who didn't quite fit.
Inside this group, kids are met exactly where they are. Minecraft gives them a space to be themselves, play the way their brain wants to play, and practice the social and communication skills they need in an environment that actually reflects their day to day life. They connect with other kids who share similar experiences, and friendships form without pressure or a script.
As a parent, you can feel confident knowing your child is in a program led by someone who understands neurodivergence, has worked with these kids for a long time, and genuinely cares about helping them feel capable and connected.