Matching Games for Children With Special Needs
Free browser games and printable worksheets that a very wide range of children can actually complete, plus a checklist you can use on any game, including the ones that are not mine, before you hand a device to a child.
The short answer
There are three free games here and nine free printable worksheets. Nothing needs an account, a download, a licence or a payment, and there is no advertising on any page a child would be looking at.
What makes them usable is not a feature list, it is a set of removals. No dragging, no timers, no score that falls, no fail screen, no compulsory reading, and no age printed on anything. The full account of those decisions is here.
A checklist for judging any game
This is the part worth stealing. Most of the time you are not choosing between this site and nothing, you are looking at some game a colleague recommended and trying to work out in ninety seconds whether it will land. These are the questions that predict it.
| Ask | Why it decides the session |
|---|---|
| Does anything have to be dragged? | If yes, stop there for a child with any motor difficulty. Dragging stacks four demands (press, hold, move accurately, release on target) onto a task that was supposed to be about something else, and a child who knows the answer perfectly well will still fail. |
| Is there a clock? | A countdown turns every activity into a test of processing speed. For a child who needs three extra seconds it does not measure whether they can do it. |
| What happens when they get it wrong? | A buzzer, a red cross or a "try again" screen ends the session for a lot of children. Look for a game where a wrong answer is absorbed rather than announced. |
| Can you turn the difficulty down, or only pick an age? | An age band is useless: it either fits or it excludes. Adjustable difficulty is the single biggest predictor that a game will suit a child who is not where a chart says they should be. |
| Does the child have to read to know what to do? | If the instruction only exists as text, a pre-reader needs an adult permanently attached. Spoken instructions buy independence. |
| Can you turn the sound off without breaking the game? | Some children need silence and some games hide the instruction in the audio. Both facts are fine; together they are a problem. |
| Does it work from a keyboard? | Press Tab a few times and watch. If the highlight moves and Enter presses things, the game will work with a switch. If nothing happens, no switch user will ever play it. |
| Does it say an age on screen? | An older child working on early skills should not be told they are doing toddler work by the software. |
| Are there adverts? | On a free children's game this is the thing most likely to go wrong in front of a child, and there is no way to predict what appears. |
A game that passes most of that will suit a very wide range of children, including plenty who have no diagnosis at all. That is the general pattern with access: the fixes are rarely specific to a condition.
The games, and who each suits
- Shadow Matching — a black silhouette on one side, real animal photographs on the other. The lowest entry point on the site, and the one to open first. No reading, no speech, no fine motor demand, and at two choices there is almost nothing to get wrong. It practises visual discrimination.
- Match Words to Pictures — a photo appears, the child taps the word that names it, and a button flips the direction. Suits a child who is starting to recognise whole words, and the wrong answers can be made obviously different or deliberately similar.
- Tic-Tac-Toe — a dog and a cat instead of X and O, two players on one device or against a computer that can be set not to play its best. Useful for turn taking and for playing with someone rather than being tested by a screen.
- Printable worksheets — the same photographs on paper, nine sheets graded from three pairs to six. Free to print in class sets. If pencil work is the obstacle, cut the sheet into cards and it becomes a table-top matching activity.
Pitching the level
The most common mistake, and it is an easy one, is starting too hard because the child is "not a baby". Start at the easiest setting anyway. Getting five right in a row and then being moved up is a completely different experience from getting three wrong and being moved down, even though the child ends up in the same place.
- Begin at two choices, words hidden. Move to three only when two is boring.
- Aim for almost everything correct. If a child is wrong more than occasionally, the setting is too hard. Errors are not the practice, the successes are.
- Change one thing at a time. Adding a choice and turning the words on at once means you will not know which one caused the wobble.
- Short beats long. Two or three rounds while they are still enjoying it, then stop. The game will be there tomorrow.
- The help button is scaffolding, not cheating. It highlights the answer and names it. Let them use it, then watch whether they start pressing it before they have looked at the screen, which is the sign to fade it.
In a classroom or a clinic
Practical notes for shared devices and small groups:
- No account means nothing to log in or out of between children.
- Settings are stored in that browser, so a device set up for one child stays set up.
- Once a game page has loaded it keeps working without the network.
- Add to Home Screen on a tablet gives it an icon and opens it full screen, with no address bar to escape through.
- No data about any child is collected or sent anywhere, which usually shortens the conversation with whoever approves software.
- The worksheets print on A4 and US Letter, work fine in black and white, and last a term in a plastic wallet with a dry-wipe pen.
A note on the term
"Special needs" is contested, and a great many disabled people dislike it, which is why the rest of this site mostly says disabled child. It appears here because it is still what an enormous number of parents and teachers type into a search box, and a page nobody can find helps nobody. If you use it, that is fine; if you avoid it, that is fine too. There is a longer note on language here.
What these are not
Practice activities, not a curriculum, an intervention, an assessment or a therapy programme. They will not treat any condition, they do not produce data you could put in a report, and they are made by one independent developer rather than a clinician. If you have concerns about a child, the people to ask are the ones who have met them.
Common questions
What are good online games for children with special needs?
The ones that let the child succeed on the first go: no dragging, large targets, no time limit, no failure screen, spoken as well as written instructions, and difficulty you can turn down rather than an age band you either fit or do not.
A game that gets those right tends to work across a very wide range of children, which is why the checklist above is more useful than a list of recommendations.
Are these games free for schools to use?
Yes. Free in a classroom, a clinic or at home, with no account, licence, download or advertising on the game pages. The worksheets are free to print as often as you like, class sets included.
How do I pitch the level correctly?
Start easier than you think and move up only when the child is succeeding easily. Two choices with the words hidden is the smallest version of the task here. If a child is wrong more than occasionally, the answer is an easier setting, not more repetitions of the hard one.
Do these work on a school tablet or Chromebook?
Yes, in any modern browser, and they keep working once loaded even if the wifi drops. Because there is no account, there is nothing to log in or out of on a shared device.
Is "special needs" the right term to use?
Many disabled people dislike it and prefer "disabled", which is what the rest of this site mostly uses. It appears on this page because it is still what most people search for. No judgement either way is intended.
Is there anything for a child who cannot use a touchscreen?
Yes. Everything works from a keyboard with Tab and Enter, which means it also works through a switch interface, iOS Switch Control or Android Switch Access. The setup steps are here.