Today is World Autism Awareness Day. Children with autism generally have trouble with developmental skills that affect social interaction, communication, movement or problem solving. But just like game play can promote learning and social skills in all children, game play can also improve the symptoms of autism in the following areas:
Cognitive: Games can assist memory, problem-solving, deduction and planning skills. Mastermind, Qwirkle, Memory and Clue and the computer version of Pictionary are examples of games that help cognitive skills.
Language: Many games can improve vocabulary skills. Classic examples of language skill games are Scrabble, Boggle and Bananagrams. The computer game Reader Rabbit and Baby BumbleBee videos also help increase vocabulary.
Math: Children can practice counting, learn to recognize number and engage in math with game play. The games Rat-A-Tat-Cat, UNO, and Chutes and Ladders and computer versions of Bingo are examples of games that improve math skills.
Social: Games with multiple players encourage social skills and communication skills. Children with autism who prefer isolation may be willing to work with others during a game activity. The preset rules also teach children how to share with others, take turns and win in a fair competition or lose without a tantrum. Other types of games help children understand how to relate to other people. For example, the computer game FaceSay helps children with autism better understand emotions and facial expressions.
Motor: A number of games provide opportunities to sharpen fine and gross motor skills such as hand and eye coordination, balance and the ability to thread a shoelace. Examples include Twister, Pattern Play, stringing bead games and many Nintendo Wii sports games.
Sensory processing: Many children with autism have sensory processing issues. Some games help stimulate senses such as playing with water balloons, guessing objects by touch, singing games or playing Musical Chairs may improve sensory disorders by engaging different senses during game play.
Please visit the Love to Know Autism website for more information and suggestions (http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Games_for_Autistic_Children).
Very nice article. These games seem like they would be really helpful. I personally know that 1 teacher of my autistic son uses the game Chutes & Ladders. Before, he told me, I had no idea that my son could play that!
That’s wonderful! There are so many great games out there for autistic children, people just don’t know where to look! Let us know if you know of any other great games that we missed!
We all know that in the early days children are spending too much time watching TV. But now days the problems has been change. Currently children are more and more connected to the computers, especially when they are playing computer games, for parents this is certainly troubling because they assumed that computer games are not useful
especially with the number of in-game content that is deemed inappropriate for young children such as violence and nudity. this is of course frustrating for parents who feared the disruption of their children’s psychological development.
But In reality, children can benefit from computer games. For example, students may use the flash game that offers a mathematical test. They are more interested in solving mathematical equations in documents with full color graphics and sound. Computer interactive quiz can also help students remember their tables faster. There is a lot off educational software that parents can download for free or buy it from the site.
Very good thoughts. Thanks for sharing them on the blog! MindWare values the opinions of the readers here and is always happy to hear more.
Thanks for mentioning my FaceSay Social Skills Computer games. The wider debate about whether children can benefit from computer games is interesting. I was talking with a bright, articulate parent while we waited in line recently, telling her about FaceSay, the recently published peer reviewed paper, etc.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k1244308044ml647/
and at the end, she raised an eyebrow and said, “it’s kind of ironic, using a computer to teach social skills”. It does seem ironic, and a decade of studies of promising games have ended with a question, something along the lines of “do the benefits measure in the lab, generalize to everday life?”. The breakthrough playground observations of improved social interactions in the FaceSay study above are a good first step in answering that question. There are some neat anecdotal reports as well.
On the anecdotal side, an 11yo FaceSay study participant with Aspergers was asked what she learned, and she replied, “I learned I need to look at both halves of the Face. I’ve been looking at just the bottom half.” Here’s a recent interview with Mitchell, another FaceSay study participants, 4 years later, playing with friends, closely following his Mom’s face. Pretty neat
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX-_ri7QBzo