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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 5, 2022 20:54:43 GMT -5
This is an interesting topic. I can speak for my own situation and no one else. My son is on the autism spectrum; mostly manifesting on the social level. We discovered this because he was something like a year and a half and was doing very little verbal interaction. Now, his verbal stuff is pretty spot on. He does socialize and he does have some friends that he talks to and interacts with at school. I'm still not accustomed to the fact that he is 15 years old and has never had anyone stay the night or stayed the night at a friend's house. I see no reason to force the issue on that. I went through a roundabout way to get to my point, but my point is I completely understand what is going on with the child with dyslexia. When my son was young, I put him on my Wii to see what he would do. I also had YouTube and Netflix on the Wii so it was like an all-in-one entertainment setup. The interaction with the game - don't know if it would have happened the same with any game system but the Wii was particularly interactive - got him not only more mobile (really not a problem with him at the time) but the important thing is he started talking much more than he previously had. His speech was improving as he would come get us to show us something on a game. It wasn't uncommon to go in his room and he would be watching something semi-educational on YouTube about science. One day there was a small group of adults outside talking about the flowers, etc. during the spring. He had walked up on this conversation and after listening for a bit he said, "That's pollination.". Then he went on to explain the process and what takes place. IIRC he was 7 at the time. Everyone just looked at each other like what in the world is this little guy talking about. I know a lot of people like to talk about video games and TV "rotting the brains of the youth" but I don't see it that way. Can it get out of hand? Certainly. As with anything, people just need to use moderation and discretion. I let him maintain a game console in his room, but he understands that schoolwork comes first and so far, it hasn't been a major issue. Like any kid there are times he tries to push it a little, but I've never had to be stern about it. I just ask him, and he says, "Oh yeah." and stops playing and does his schoolwork. He did have a birthday celebration one year and we took him and a friend to watch a movie, eat, and play video games in the arcade. Still no staying overnight but that doesn't really concern me. I can understand that. People can be jerks. He also has discovered D&D and loves going to the hobby shops with me. He will engage in conversations with strangers and the store workers about different games. You can't convince me that games (of all sorts) can be beneficial. It just takes a little moderation and discretion. I think it is some video games and TV "rotting the brains of the youth" and some is very educational on many different levels. Video games and TV are like everything else, there is a lot of dross and garbage that covers up a lot of solid gold nuggets. "You can't convince me that games (of all sorts) can be beneficial." I think don't think that sentence says what you meant. I had a cousin who could not read and the teacher called to ask if there was anything he was interested in, "Trains", so she got some books on Trains and suddenly he could read several grade levels higher than he was at.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Feb 5, 2022 21:35:19 GMT -5
This is an interesting topic. I can speak for my own situation and no one else. My son is on the autism spectrum; mostly manifesting on the social level. We discovered this because he was something like a year and a half and was doing very little verbal interaction. Now, his verbal stuff is pretty spot on. He does socialize and he does have some friends that he talks to and interacts with at school. I'm still not accustomed to the fact that he is 15 years old and has never had anyone stay the night or stayed the night at a friend's house. I see no reason to force the issue on that. I went through a roundabout way to get to my point, but my point is I completely understand what is going on with the child with dyslexia. When my son was young, I put him on my Wii to see what he would do. I also had YouTube and Netflix on the Wii so it was like an all-in-one entertainment setup. The interaction with the game - don't know if it would have happened the same with any game system but the Wii was particularly interactive - got him not only more mobile (really not a problem with him at the time) but the important thing is he started talking much more than he previously had. His speech was improving as he would come get us to show us something on a game. It wasn't uncommon to go in his room and he would be watching something semi-educational on YouTube about science. One day there was a small group of adults outside talking about the flowers, etc. during the spring. He had walked up on this conversation and after listening for a bit he said, "That's pollination.". Then he went on to explain the process and what takes place. IIRC he was 7 at the time. Everyone just looked at each other like what in the world is this little guy talking about. I know a lot of people like to talk about video games and TV "rotting the brains of the youth" but I don't see it that way. Can it get out of hand? Certainly. As with anything, people just need to use moderation and discretion. I let him maintain a game console in his room, but he understands that schoolwork comes first and so far, it hasn't been a major issue. Like any kid there are times he tries to push it a little, but I've never had to be stern about it. I just ask him, and he says, "Oh yeah." and stops playing and does his schoolwork. He did have a birthday celebration one year and we took him and a friend to watch a movie, eat, and play video games in the arcade. Still no staying overnight but that doesn't really concern me. I can understand that. People can be jerks. He also has discovered D&D and loves going to the hobby shops with me. He will engage in conversations with strangers and the store workers about different games. You can't convince me that games (of all sorts) can be beneficial. It just takes a little moderation and discretion. I think it is some video games and TV "rotting the brains of the youth" and some is very educational on many different levels. Video games and TV are like everything else, there is a lot of dross and garbage that covers up a lot of solid gold nuggets. "You can't convince me that games (of all sorts) can be beneficial." I think don't think that sentence says what you meant. I had a cousin who could not read and the teacher called to ask if there was anything he was interested in, "Trains", so she got some books on Trains and suddenly he could read several grade levels higher than he was at. Exactly! It's a whole range of quality vs. quantity. Good catch in my post. I added "never" to my post fix the fast fingers...lol.
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Post by Vladimir, The Dark Prince on Feb 21, 2022 21:11:57 GMT -5
Again, for the record, what I meant by stimulating but not engaging was things like: - scrolling, apparently in anguish, through social media, stopping on nothing, reading nothing, viewing nothing, just thumb, thumb, thumb (I have mostly seen adults do this, but also some younger people, and I admit, I have done it some myself)
- today's political / social discourse, which seems to admit even less nuance and originality than it did twenty years ago -- just say your pre-fab opinion or watch out
The various activities that are strangely addictive but...where there is nothing to do.
I have seen this too, across a wide range of ages, it is just constant, they don't even read things, not more than the first sentence. When I get on social media I do a lot of reading while I am there and there are so many short comments posted that demonstrate that the poster did not actually read the post they are commenting on.
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Post by hengest on Feb 21, 2022 21:57:33 GMT -5
Again, for the record, what I meant by stimulating but not engaging was things like: - scrolling, apparently in anguish, through social media, stopping on nothing, reading nothing, viewing nothing, just thumb, thumb, thumb (I have mostly seen adults do this, but also some younger people, and I admit, I have done it some myself)
- today's political / social discourse, which seems to admit even less nuance and originality than it did twenty years ago -- just say your pre-fab opinion or watch out
The various activities that are strangely addictive but...where there is nothing to do.
I have seen this too, across a wide range of ages, it is just constant, they don't even read things, not more than the first sentence. When I get on social media I do a lot of reading while I am there and there are so many short comments posted that demonstrate that the poster did not actually read the post they are commenting on. It's horrible. What you describe was common enough before social media, but is either much worse or much more visible now.
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