I don't really have any opinions about video games; I always got bored with them too quickly to spend any substantial amount of time on them. But that's really

I don't really have any opinions about video games; I always got bored with them too quickly to spend any substantial amount of time on them. But that's really just me... I suspect if my hand/eye coordination and reflex time was a bit better I might've spent a lot of time on them. I had some problems with following through on hard tasks in grad school. When I got to the point where Google was completely useless and I knew I had six months of work to do (at best) with very little outside guidance, I kind of got down and couldn't focus. I found that biting off small pieces that seemed either easy or interesting and then convincing myself to forget about the long-term picture until I figured out that piece was a helpful way to avoid paralysis. Also, whispering "I could give you a hint" in your own ear is pretty amazingly helpful, for the same reason that just knowing you could just Google for the answer if you need to is helpful when you're working on a hard assignment. Less stress, I guess. Not sure if or how that applies to your son. Also seems like the sort of thing a kid would have a very difficult time doing for themselves. In any case, it sounds like you're very in tune and thinking about things the right way. Good luck with your son.