Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gaming

As supporters of autism awareness, our goal is to build a game library and host regular autism friendly gaming events. We hope to provide opportunities to learn through gaming while raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society. The game library will be available to all who attend. We hope to maintain an atmosphere of comfort and understanding for those families effected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Children with ASD benefit tremendously from games. Cognitively, games assist with problem solving, deduction, and planning skills; typically areas of weakness for those with ASD. Games also develop memory and math skills. From a speech-language perspective, games assist with vocabulary building as well as pragmatics. Games teach turn-taking skills that can be applied to conversational language. Multiplayer games encourage social interaction and conversation, a very important yet challenging skill for children on the spectrum to develop. The preset rules of the game provide a structure that children with ASD find comforting. Social gaming encourages sharing, being a good winner and loser. Gaming evokes emotions, and active participation in social gaming is a great platform to teach about both emotions and the social rules of gaming.

Games can strengthen gross motor skills and/or fine motor skills. Children with ASD may be deficient in one or both of these skills. Sensory processing can also be effected by the child participating in a social gaming event. The child will be exposed to a new place, with new people, sounds, sights, smells, and games. Though this can be overwhelming, a game of interest to the child can be a point of focus for them and aid in self regulation.

There are so many ways games can help children with ASD, especially in a social gaming situation. We want to provide that opportunity to families in the community. We want neurotypical families and families effected by ASD to enjoy gaming while gaining a better understanding of what ASD is really like and how games can strengthen development.

Soon we’ll have an area of this website dedicated to our gaming, and more info on events and our gaming library.

  1. aidensawesomeness posted this