Gaming limits for children with SEN

[Miguelo]

Just wondering how everyone else navigates gaming with their children who have SEN?

On one hand I can see the benefit, however I feel like the little self regulation they have goes out the window when it comes to gaming.

tonight DS nearly 10 hit me when I said it’s time to come off. He has suspected ASD and learning difficulties roughly around 2 years behind chronological age.

DD9 suspected ADHD gets far too focused on it and again struggles with the transition.

should I ban it altogether or severely limit it!? How does everyone else manage?

please be gentle, I’ve been hit, kicked and pushed tonight all by own child. 😫

Oh, my sympathies! It's hard. We have very strict limits and like you, when we started letting DC1 game (actually on the recommendation of his physio) we did have instances of being hit, things being thrown around etc.

We had to come up with some clear groundrules for the sanity of all of us. Refusal to turn it off = no gaming the following "gaming" day.
Violence = none for a week.
Term time = no gaming during the week
Holidays more relaxed but they had to have spent 30 minutes outside, 30 minutes doing something sensible and 30 minutes doing something helpful before they were allowed it.
They each had a maximum time of 2hours to use as they want (and I include watching others gaming on YouTube as part part of those 2hours)

As they got older it tended to be certain games which led to the bad behaviour. We tried the ban for a week etc but it didn't work and one has been in storage for over a year now and I've no intention of letting them have it back.

The switch has a parental app which lets you set how long they can play. It gives an on screen alarm 5 minutes before the time is up and then shuts off. Even though they know it's me who sets the time, there have been far fewer complaints since I started using it.