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Ask HN: Teaching an 8 year old with Aspergers to code?
I want to teach an 8 year old with Aspergers to code games. She is highly functioning and very creative and curious. I know about Scratch and Alice but I am not sure if there is a more appropriate tool.
My background is C/C++, OpenGL but I don't think this would interest any 8 year old.
Any advice on tools and techniques?
- dylanhassinger 9y agocheck out Bloxels! http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com/ http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com/
- jason_slack 9y agoWow, this is awesome. Why doesn't everyone know about this? Thank you.
- LifeQuestioner 9y agoMy brother has aspergers. He loves games so I've taught him how to code unity. He's 14 and picked it up super quick
- jason_slack 9y agoThat's awesome. If he releases a mobile game let me know.
- chris11 9y agoI had a ton of fun with Lego Mindstorms when I was a kid. It's not free, but she might enjoy it if she's interested in programming lego robots. It looks like you might be able to use those legos with python too, but that would probably take more work on your part to set up. https://sites.google.com/site/ev3python/ https://sites.google.com/site/ev3python/
- DoreenMichele 9y agoIs this something she wants? If not, you may be facing an uphill battle. If so, help her set goals. She needs a project to work on. Let it be interest led. Girls often have different gaming interests from boys. Respecting that fact will help you get traction. I am female. I like match 3 games and city building games. But I was a military wife and a history major. I hate how a lot of city building games have military bases and bizarre disasters (like alien invasions) but war has no real world impact on the economy. My sons have introduced me to a number of 4x games, like Master of Magic, by telling me "It's like SimCity" and helping me play it with an emphasis on civilization building, minimizing the pain of dealing with combat and strategy for me. Way down my list of things I would like to do is make a city building game I would like, one that incorporates war as an element but isn't focused on winning by killing and conquering everything. So, that's a little rambly and doesn't suggest specific tools. Commenting at all because I did homeschool my two sons, who both likely qualify for an ASD diagnosis. Best.
- kleer001 9y ago>I want to teach... >I don't think this would interest any 8 year old... Sounds like you're filling you back pocket with goodies to share... But don't hold back, don't limit the selection only to what you think a kid would like. Why? Since I was 5 I remember being ravenous for all the complexity and hidden knowledge of the adult world. Cursive, how driving works, cursing (lol)... This was before the wide adoption of in-home personal computers, but I suspect if I had been born 20 years later I would have gobbled up any and all technical data on how those things worked. I say don't hold back. Heck, even offer up some super technical obscurities like Fortran or assembly or MIDI. The more esoteric the better. Be the bottomless cornucopia.
- jason_slack 9y agoWhat I meant was c/C++ and OpenGL are not of interest to a kid. I need to use something different :-)
- kleer001 9y agoIs this from personal experience? Never had to deal with kids myself... I would have expected nothing in the real of knowledge off limits to a motivated child.
- mindcrash 9y agoLike said earlier if she's into coding (it might not be her forte, and as she has ASD you can forget all about it if she doesn't -- speaking out of personal experience) No Starch [1] has some great books on teaching kids how to code. If you want something game centric you might like "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition" by Al Sweigart [2] [1] https://nostarch.com/catalog/kids https://nostarch.com/catalog/kids [2] https://nostarch.com/inventwithpython https://nostarch.com/inventwithpython