Wednesday, August 12, 2009

What Happens when you Ban the Video Games

Asperger's, autism, days off, creative kids, play, summer, summer vacation

It's only the first day of Gus's true summer vacation. He could have slept in, but chose to get up at five instead – didn't want to waste the day! He and MM started playing on the GameCube first thing, but by eight it was clear that I needed to put a stop to that. He was getting extremely frustrated and agitated over the smallest things, near tears at one point. Then I could see him getting stuck in a loop, trying again and again to fix one little mistake and making it worse each time he went back because he was so stressed. So GameCube was banned.

They watched television for a few minutes. Then I noticed Gus going up and down the stairs.

"What are you doing?"

"Sweeping the bathroom."

Er…okay. Can't really argue with the initiative there. So he brought everything from the bathroom down to the living room and brought the broom and dust pan upstairs. Then he went to play in MM's room!

Since the intention was pure, I did the sweeping. It only took another hour to get him to move everything back upstairs – one…piece…at…a…time. I praised him for making the effort and left the two mischief makers upstairs. Who says kids aren't creative any more?

The next game was Fortune Teller. Gus took an old knit cap, a snow globe and a snack table and decided he was going to be a fortune teller. MM took a turn as well.

I've discovered that the curtains are down in my bedroom, and Gus is now dressed as Ash from Pokémon. It's not even lunch time yet! It should be interesting to see what they come up with for the afternoon.


3 comments:

  1. Just found you. I love the tone of this blog. I also love the whole Thankful Thursday thing- I need to start that.

    I hear you on the video games. Thankfully, my autistic son is obsessed with Leapster, which is portable so it can be saved for the car. But getting him to get up and move to do something productive or creative... Nice work.

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  2. Welcome and thanks for the positive feedback! I've been slacking on my thankfulness posts. I'm still thankful, these guys are just keeping me really busy! As a matter of fact, I should go rescue the upstairs now! Hope to see you again!

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  3. LOL sounds like an interesting day. My autistic son gets obsessed with games and so easily frustrated. He even ends up in tears. That's when we end it for the day or even for awhile. I so know that feeling there. Hope Gus and MM enjoy summer vacation.

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Welcome - thanks for sharing your insights!