# Kinect lets autistic kids play videogames.



## tempBOT (Nov 11, 2010)

*Kinect lets autistic kids play videogames.*





Now, let me say a few years ago, my son was diagnosed with Autism.

So, when my son really wanted to try out Kinect, I was more than happy to oblige. He’s taken up to watching me play a lot of video games and tries to play some himself. Controllers for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 do frustrate him and he has a lot of trouble controlling the characters on the screen using the peripherals, but he’s always willing to try and keep on practicing in getting better. As he tells me sometimes, “I want to play with you, Daddy.” so he’s pretty persistent in trying to get proficient with them.

What proceeded to happen was pretty amazing to me.

I said hold out your hand and place it on the button. Without any hesitation, he put his hand up and moved it over the button on the screen and held it there until the circle animation finished, indicating the button has been pressed. After that initial coaching, he proceeded to move around in the menus without much vocal cues from me. I just stood there and was flabbergasted by what I just saw.  It’s intuitive enough that I spent barely any time teaching my four year old special needs son how to go about the menu system.

For the first time, I was able to play something with my son and not spend any time with him being frustrated on not being to do anything or have a character get stuck on the screen. He had fun with all the games and actually did well with them. The joy in his eyes as he was able to complete the tasks and move around in the menus is something I’ll never forget.

While he still struggles in communicating, I know there’s one thing he can do without having to deal with any of the frustrations Autism has brought upon in his life. And for me, that’s worth much more than the $150 I spent in picking up the peripheral.[/p]




Source

D'awwwwwwww.
Contributed by Rydian​


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## Langin (Nov 11, 2010)

My friend is heavily autistic and he plays all games on a psp, ds and wii!


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## GundamXXX (Nov 11, 2010)

Having a certain form of austism myself this makes me smile cuz I know how hard it can be on the parents and the kid who has autism.... Microsoft(ies) is finally semi usefull!


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## Kwartel (Nov 11, 2010)

That's cute~! :3


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## Overlord Nadrian (Nov 11, 2010)

>This is a single case of an autistic kid that can only play video games on Kinect, because he doesn't get frustrated because he doesn't get stuck.
>I know a bunch of autistic kids that play video games just fine, no matter how many times they get stuck. Sure, they get frustrated, but doesn't everyone?

Derp.


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## Arras (Nov 11, 2010)

I'm one of those autistic kids who can play videogames just fine 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



I've got a light variant, though, which isn't really comparable to the more heavy variants.


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## GundamXXX (Nov 11, 2010)

Overlord Nadrian said:
			
		

> >This is a single case of an autistic kid that can only play video games on Kinect, because he doesn't get frustrated because he doesn't get stuck.
> >I know a bunch of autistic kids that play video games just fine, no matter how many times they get stuck. Sure, they get frustrated, but doesn't everyone?
> 
> Derp.




Austistic as in dont talk and rock in a corner autistic or are actually somewhat sociable and have interaction with society? cuz the latter is more towards aspergers rather then full on austism

The thing is, people with full on autism can pay videogames but some of them have severe temper issues and a controller is far more frustrating then using your body cuz your more in control *its all about teh logic with those people*


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## Hakoda (Nov 11, 2010)

Way to go Microsoft. That's touching


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## Overlord Nadrian (Nov 11, 2010)

GundamXXX said:
			
		

> Austistic as in dont talk and rock in a corner autistic or are actually somewhat sociable and have interaction with society? cuz the latter is more towards aspergers rather then full on austism


Both.


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## jeffro (Nov 11, 2010)

Arras said:
			
		

> I'm one of those autistic kids who can play videogames just fine
> 
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Same here, I'm even coding and actually doing everything a normal person would do.

Well, communication face to face is more or less a scary thing for me but thats about all.


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## Supreme Dirt (Nov 11, 2010)

This is complete BS in so many ways. It's Microsoft trying to cash in on something. I could rant about neurodiversity and such, but I mean, that kid looks like he's 7 at the absolute oldest. How many little kids who aren't avid gamers don't get frustrated when they're not doing well in a video game? Christ, I'm autistic and I've been playing video games since I was 3.

GODDAMN IT MICROSOFT KEEP AUTISM OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN ADVERTISING SCHEMES.

Random fact: There are a fairly large number of us autistics fighting to retain the right to be autistic. It is things like this that set the movement back, painting a picture of Autism as something that is undebatably bad.


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## CamulaHikari (Nov 11, 2010)

So touching...


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## RupeeClock (Nov 11, 2010)

I don't like this story, it paints a false story about autism.
If anything it's much more common that autists may escape into video gaming, regardless of the input methods, buttons or infra red array.


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## Midna (Nov 11, 2010)

Hmm, what? All autistics are different, and I know there's nothing in the diagnosis that keeps them from playing video games. This one kid just found it more intuitive with Kinect. In fact, since some of them have gross motor skill issues, this could be worse. That kid is tiny. If I went to my cousin's house and showed one of the kids of that age Super Mario World, they'd probably have issues with it too. And less issues with Kinect.

I'm remaining objective and not drawing my own Asperger Syndrome into play, given I'm very high functioning and have never had any issues with video games. This just sounds like a publicity stunt, let alone the negative picture of autism it and the rest of the media enjoys painting.


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## The Catboy (Nov 11, 2010)

Mean or not, I really don't see this as that big a deal and really not news worthy


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## ZaeZae64 (Nov 11, 2010)

Kinect lets mini Chris Chans play video games despite the fact most of 'em already have! Go M$



Spoiler



That sounded more douche-ish then I intended it to be..


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## Alato (Nov 12, 2010)

D'AWWWWWWWWWWWW.

I guess it's intuitive for young kids in general, but I don't think autism really affects that all too much.


			
				RupeeClock said:
			
		

> I don't like this story, it paints a false story about autism.
> If anything it's much more common that autists may escape into video gaming, regardless of the input methods, buttons or infra red array.


It's true.


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## Stevetry (Nov 12, 2010)

so kinec can only be be play by mentally challenge people >?


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## jerbz (Nov 12, 2010)

awww..


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## Midna (Nov 12, 2010)

ZaeZae64 said:
			
		

> Kinect lets mini Chris Chans play video games despite the fact most of 'em already have! Go M$
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Please don't mention that person.


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## iYoshi- (Nov 12, 2010)

Stevetry said:
			
		

> so kinec can only be be play by mentally challenge people >?


Pretty much


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## GundamXXX (Nov 12, 2010)

iYoshi- said:
			
		

> Stevetry said:
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itsm ore that you look like one

also stop bashing this stuff, yea some of you know autistic people who can appearantly function just fine, which means either they dont have it or a light form or theyre damn good at pretending, but in the end its about what really goes on in the head of someone with autism or related syndromes like aspergers. I for one would be very happy to give kinect a go due to the frustrations i get from normal controllers that i partly blame on my AS

and Little Catboy, I agree not really news worthy, more off topic stuff 

and about it painting a false image of autism, autism already has a false picture as being retarded people so this doesnt really change anything, if anything it might get people more intrested to find more info about it


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## Veho (Nov 12, 2010)

Stevetry said:
			
		

> so *kinec *can only be be *play* by mentally *challenge* people* >?*


Ironic, isn't it?


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## shadowmanwkp (Nov 12, 2010)

This news ticks me somewhat off. I am diagnosed with autism myself, asperger's syndrome, and I think this article generalizes autism. Yes autism is a problem, but you have a wide range of autism types, like asperger syndrom and PDD-NOS. I myself like gaming because it is a nice distraction for me. And although gaming can be frustrating (for who doesn't it once in a while 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




) I don't think games are hard to play. And this is what I think what makes this a bad article. They don't describe WHAT autism the boy has and they call it autism for convenience, just because most people don't know about it.


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## ComplicatioN (Nov 12, 2010)

That'ss just so touching and cute


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## ds22 (Nov 12, 2010)

shadowmanwkp said:
			
		

> This news ticks me somewhat off. I am diagnosed with autism myself, asperger's syndrome, and I think this article generalizes autism. Yes autism is a problem, but you have a wide range of autism types, like asperger syndrom and PDD-NOS. I myself like gaming because it is a nice distraction for me. And although gaming can be frustrating (for who doesn't it once in a while
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I agree.
I'm light autistic myself and am slightly offended that people don't even take the time to tell what kind of autism the boy has.


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## FireGrey (Nov 12, 2010)

Some autistic people are really good at games.


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## iPikachu (Nov 12, 2010)

eh i dont get it, i just read it as kinect magically made that kid play and the other consoles don't?
*rereads*


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## monkat (Nov 12, 2010)

ds22 said:
			
		

> I agree.
> I'm light autistic myself and am slightly offended that people don't even take the time to tell what kind of autism the boy has.



Why is it offending to not be made aware of the personal details regarding someone else's issue?


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## Kwartel (Nov 12, 2010)

iPikachu said:
			
		

> eh i dont get it, i just read it as kinect magically made that kid play and the other consoles don't?
> *rereads*


No the kid couldn't handle other consoles due the controllers. With Kinect that problem disappears!


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## Rydian (Nov 12, 2010)

Christ.  Reading the linked article and it's comments is too much to ask of the 'temp, it seems.  I mean, there's even a bright yellow icon with an arrow pointing to it.
Reminds me of the April fool's joke here this year, where it was posted in the news that the 3DS itself was an April fool's joke... and most of the temp didn't get it at first, because nobody bothered to click the source link (which lead to a message saying it was a joke).

The comments section is an interesting read in this article, particularly.  It highlights the fact that there's plenty of autistic people that grow up perfectly fine, but some retreat into videogames, while others want to but have trouble with the controls.  It also covers people who are around 15 or so.  _You know, unlike the kid in the article._  Anybody ever stop and get past the whole "article about a kid with a disability" thing to think that maybe part of the reason he's having trouble is because HE'S ONLY FOUR FUCKING YEARS OLD?  I even made sure to include a picture of the kid (instead of a pic of kinect) to make sure people would realize he's fucking four.

Also, you all saying he's like 9...  try watching less anime (where shota-looking boys and loli-looking girls are always "at least 18").


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## WiiHoney (Nov 12, 2010)

Rydian said:
			
		

> thing to think that maybe part of the reason he's having trouble is because HE'S ONLY FOUR FUCKING YEARS OLD?  I even made sure to include a picture of the kid (instead of a pic of kinect) to make sure people would realize he's fucking four.



Thank you, aahhh you........you....

Kid is four, 4 years old kids can not read words only letters... 

My kid is normal and she still having problem figuring out what botton to click next... actualy few times she clicked on the online purchase of new games of the ABC the hungry caterpillar games.. why? because she cant read....

If a game asks for "yes" or "no" or "quit" answer... then its ok, i guess she memorize what each picture means...

If a game ask for "Do you want me to repeat what i said?" and the answer is "Why do you need to repeat it, got it!" or "How about one more time, i was distracted". then she wont know what to do and she has to do trials and errors to figure it out... for 4 years old, this is very frustrating...

If the game comes with too many instruction... then she looses interest in it... 

Best example of a game that she likes to play the same levels over and over is Wii Kirby, either press 1 or 2 with pics...

Anyway, this article reminds me of the one with the Girls who learn to walk using a wii games...


Funny how easy it is to prey on human feeling...


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## Rydian (Nov 12, 2010)

Part of the articles focus was on how intuitive the system is to use, as that was one of their focuses in the design.


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## RupeeClock (Nov 12, 2010)

Alato said:
			
		

> D'AWWWWWWWWWWWW.
> 
> I guess it's intuitive for young kids in general, but I don't think autism really affects that all too much.



See that's what I think too, regardless of his autism, he is very young and has an easier time interacting with the kinect because of it's design being so simplistic.
I mean incredibly simplistic, there's no complexity of buttons, and the software is designed to guide you to enjoy yourself more than anything.

Thinking really, that hints at the possibility this kid could be good at physical activity, which he should maybe be encouraged to do.


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## Stevetry (Nov 12, 2010)

i play kinect sonic free riders yesterday i never seen such a bad game is like you need to be mentally challenge to enjoy it


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## Aeladya (Nov 12, 2010)

There are different sides to the Autism spectrum. Some with Autism are worse off than others. My cousin will never be able to take care of herself. She make cereal, toast, ect, but other than that she really can't do much by herself and she's 13. Still she can play games like the Wii Bowling and run around in Zelda without knowing what she has to do. I think she even has a Cooking Mama game, although I'm not entirely sure what she does in it as I haven't seen her play it. She really enjoys the bowling though and it isn't THAT complicated. The kid that's having trouble with the controls probably needs to be in therapy, that's what my cousin does and she's pretty severe.


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## Hadrian (Nov 12, 2010)

I used to do learning support with autistic kids, they played games perfectly well and better than most "hardcore" gamers.


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## Midna (Nov 12, 2010)

Article says he's a 4 year old High Functioning Autistic, in other words, Aserger Syndrome (Like me). This is not remotely news worthy. He's bloody 4. Very few people can play video games properly at 4. Unfortunately, the article, or maybe the parents, put a nice little spin on it, and suggest all his problems are caused by his disorder. Which is not unexpected, sadly.

Also Rydian, I already pointed that out. Not with the swearing or caps, but I mentioned none of my cousins at that age can do squat with video games.


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## Rydian (Nov 12, 2010)

I'm mainly pointing out how many people feel insulted by this, when they're shouldn't, because the kid's only fucking four (and HOPEFULLY the members here are far above that age).


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## shakirmoledina (Nov 13, 2010)

tht is something nice actually and besides the kinect is a casual console so it would fit correctly


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## kosheh (Nov 13, 2010)

Wow, this is just the kind of article I...needed

I work in a residental school for children with autism. And um, at the risk of sounding like a dick, let's say that none of the kids are...really capable of reading, or posting in this topic. >>

One student maybe, but that's it. Out of the school's 150-student population, I can only think of 3 students that I'd call "gamers". They like Mario games [actually, one of the students in my classroom picked up Glory of Heracles and Spirit Tracks on a home visit (keep in mind he's comparable mentally to a 3 year old). I saw the receipt he took with him to school, looked at it and actually laughed "Holy shit!" out loud - I couldn't keep it in. Keep in mind this boy is MR and can't read let alone tie his shoes, yet he's got the best gaming library ever. WHAT] but, for most of the students at my school they have a hard time understanding the controller in relation to movements onscreen.

That tangent written out, my boss actually approached me as she was considering purchasing a Wii for the classroom - we're a research school as well so finding out how well it works out for the population would also massively benefit us as well 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 At the time, Natal wasn't even proposed and I was on the fence about it most of the time, not really sure how well it'd fare with our population.
After seeing the Kinect, however, it's like this lightbulb in my head went off - it's interactive gaming like the Wii, but it's more like those IR gaming setups you see at children's museums, but downsized and playable right in the household. And it's controller-free.

A year's about passed since I started in that classroom, and our classroom demographic has changed dramatically, from having the highest-functioning to medium-low, but it's amazing - I think this new group of kids could actually take advantage of the Kinect much better than something like the Wii - especially since the menus are voice-activated and don't really require much reading skills. I'm seriously considering bringing back the proposal with new information and the support from some other teachers - and it seriously helps when one of the teachers is a hardcore gamer who plays a ton of FPSes on PSN 
Even if we're brand-loyalty nerds it's impossible to not acknowledge the accessibility of Kinect 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




The only thing is that I'm pretty sure some of the higher-functioning kids would be humongous jerks and shout "XBOX, SHUTDOWN" while their classmates are playing, rofl



oh no i've typed like an entire article what have i done

PS. Now that I think about it, I've heard Kinect is extremely finicky about voice-recognition. Only one student in the class can really speak clearly and loudly; every other student has speech impediments in one form or another (grammar most of all, but particularly pronunciation - one student's pronounces L's like Spanish LL's, so ruler becomes "rooyur"...hmm) so I don't know if that'd be difficult for Kinect to pick up

But, now that I think about it, can Kinect do voice recognition like
-every student has a profile
-to test voice commands, student "reads aloud" phrases back to Kinect, similar to how it's done with cellphone voice-activated command works
-Kinect understands strings of phrases, i.e. "XBOX - Start ____"

if so that'd totally work, but I'm sure Kinect is tailored so specifically that it recognizes your Brooklyn accent if you have one


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## Midna (Nov 13, 2010)

Yes, I can certainly see that. However, this kid isn't exactly like the ones you work with. He’s a 4 year old _high functioning_ autistic. 4 year olds can’t read or play video games anyway. And I’m assuming you work with low functioning autistics. There’s rather a big difference. I am and know high functioning autistics. We have no problems with video games, I was playing them at 7 at the latest.


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## EpicJungle (Nov 13, 2010)

Aww.
M$ is smart


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## Overlord Nadrian (Nov 13, 2010)

A Gay Little Cat Boy said:
			
		

> Mean or not, I really don't see this as that big a deal and really not news worthySays the person who used to post topics like these non-stop.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I read it before even reading this topic. I still stand by my opinion that this is just stupid.


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## kosheh (Nov 13, 2010)

Midna said:
			
		

> Yes, I can certainly see that. However, this kid isn't exactly like the ones you work with. He’s a 4 year old _high functioning_ autistic. 4 year olds can’t read or play video games anyway. And I’m assuming you work with low functioning autistics. There’s rather a big difference. I am and know high functioning autistics. We have no problems with video games, I was playing them at 7 at the latest.


oops. I totally wasn't responding to your post, I was just sort of

tangent-ing

I'm quite aware of the difference, that's why it's called the _Autism Spectrum_ - because there's the very low-functioning (cognitive level of an infant, great difficulty coping with the sensory overload of his/her surroundings) and the high-functioning person (with mostly just Asperger's, some difficulty in social settings [not picking up on social cues, facial expressions])
A person with autism [high-functioning] shouldn't and probably wouldn't have any trouble at all with videogames. :V

And I am not doubting you for a second, I have a few friends with Aspergers who wipe the floor with me in Brawl, lol




I was more-or-less thinking out loud, I suppose - most of students in the classroom I work in are cognitively 4 and up
And yes - said child is a high-functioning child with autism, once again I'm aware that there are big differences between the two x)
This kinda doesn't seem news-worthy as others have said, it's just another means of saying "hey, look - our new toy is really, really accessible! buy one!" but
this article just...


a light bulb...


yeah


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## Rydian (Nov 13, 2010)

This was the simplest title I could have that still fit the limits.  I originally aimed for some variant of the guy's "I don't like kinect's launch titles, but it's the best $150 I've spent on videogames", but I couldn't get anything acceptable to fit.


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## Vidboy10 (Nov 13, 2010)

Okay guys let me break this down for you. I'm Autistic, I have ADD, I started playing my N64 when I was 3 and I was highly functioning. But does THIS kid have a Video Game brain like other 4 year olds where they master it? NO, If he can't use a fucking controller properly then thats something he's going to live with until he grows in a couple of years. 

And also I know John, he works with my dad, When my dad saw some of the negative replies in this thread he was in disgust.


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## Midna (Nov 13, 2010)

Eh, I wish my parents had let me play video games when I was 4. Granny ended up buying me a system when I was 6 or 7.


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## Rydian (Nov 13, 2010)

Vidboy10 said:
			
		

> And also I know John, he works with my dad, When my dad saw some of the negative replies in this thread he was in disgust.


Considering all the bitching on both sides, you're going to have to define "negative" here. XD


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## _Chaz_ (Nov 13, 2010)

What's really stopping autistic kids from playing video games anyway?


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## Vidboy10 (Nov 13, 2010)

Rydian said:
			
		

> Considering all the bitching on both sides, you're going to have to define "negative" here. XD
> From my opinion, these are negative replies.
> 
> 
> ...


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## kosheh (Nov 14, 2010)

_Chaz_ said:
			
		

> What's really stopping autistic kids from playing video games anyway?


This is one of the most open questions ever


and so i'll answer it with an open answer


frankly: it depends on the child

nothing is really stopping children with autism from playing the vidya; but most of the time [well, I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who works in direct care for persons with severe autism - probably applies for elsewhere on the spectrum] frustration is what holds the child back from ~becoming a gamer~
Not sure how to describe the kid's circumstance, but it could be spatial issues as well [understanding relation between controller-to-character movement, which is of course second nature to us lol]



Spoiler



actually, given the population I work with, the issue is the overbearing sensory input and stimuli addiction

kind of like how a person in our generation always checks his phone, needs to talk or is very impulsive
that's the need to have said mental stimulation that compares to the intense experience that videogames offer
(and why parents yell at their kids to stop playing)


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