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Playing with a Purpose
Computer and Video Games for Special Needs Children By Teri Brown
Toys are a child's natural form of play, their first way to express themselves. Long before they begin communicating, children are playing. Educators have long known the importance of play in a child's life and have used that play to teach many things. Computer games and video games can open up a whole new world for all children, but especially those with special needs.
Elaine Wood of Valley Springs, Calif., found that these kinds of games were a way to connect with her autistic son. Her son has been diagnosed with high-functioning autism and is very bright, but his people and life skills are very low. One day, in her son's school office, she observed the principal teasing a boy playing his Gameboy, and she saw herself reflected in his attitude toward the child.
"Frequently, I am asking Michael to cross a bridge to a destination he can not perceive our world that we take for granted," Wood says. "My son loves computer games, online and any games like the Nintendo, Playstation, GameCube, etc., and he is intensely passionate about playing them He is in a zone during the play and can spend hours, if allowed, without verbalization, food, drinks or bathroom breaks, rocking or manipulating his body like a contortionist. I did not see the value in the gaming or understand it, but standing in the school office that day I decided that I needed to examine my generational judgment of gaming and cross the bridge into Michael's world."
Wood asked her son if she could play with him that very evening. Though she found it incredibly frustrating at first, the benefits were worth it. "I realized that by playing games, I was developing a social interactive opportunity for Michael," she says. "The days of game time evolved into a share time with Michael pulling up a chair to the computer with me, and we would play together several online games. He easily converses with me now during the gaming, although not during his turn, and I can understand that!"