4 ms·
> I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it. As a parent of an autistic kid: How wo
by WA 2y ago
> I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it.
As a parent of an autistic kid: How would you cultivate that? Our son is autistic, he is 8 years old. He started to hate school. All he cares for is Minecraft and Magic: The Gathering. It's a bit sad to see that he seemingly drowns his curiosity by immersing himself mentally only in these two topics. I wonder if there's a way to guide him to develop interest in other topics. Any recommendations?
- imtringued 2y agoMake him play a Minecraft mod pack like Nomifactory or Gregtech horizons and an economic simulation game like prosperous universe. Use that as a stepping stone to increase his interest in architecture, computer science, mechanical engineering, chemistry or aerospace. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3Rvcnk%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3R...
- ModernMech 2y agoBest I can say is lean into it. Make everything those themes or adjacent to them in some way. You’re lucky because Minecraft is a gateway to computing in general. Find out what he specifically likes about it and then figure out how to use Minecraft to build a bridge toward real world skill that still include everything he likes about Minecraft. Forcing him to do things he doesn’t want to will be next to impossible. RSD is real and irrational. You can trick him into wanting to do things though. And by trick I don’t mean deceive but just to make him thinks he wants it. Give him a choice and let him choose, but make both options good. Don’t force him to do things your way or the correct way as you see it. Autistic people like to build and use our own systems, so that’s probably what he likes out of Minecraft, a world he can shape to his liking. He rejects the real world because it forces him to be something he doesn’t want to be.
- WA 2y agoThanks, coincidentally, I listened to a podcast episode about RSD (assuming you mean Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) this morning and yeah, it is absolutely real. He's extremely sensitive to criticism, which often results in a vicious cycle. Will try to work with Minecraft to give him more topics. So far, he didn't like the whole Redstone logic stuff, but maybe it'll come in a bit. His mathematical abilities are actually quite good (and so are his language capabilities).