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]
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D'awwwwwwww.
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]
D'awwwwwwww.
Contributed by Rydian
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