ASD and pokemon?

[mariamma]

avoid or encourage, advice please

If our diagnosis goes as we expect it to DS is ASD.

From that, encourage. DS loves the game on his DS, looks very cool at school knowing loads of Pokemon and what they do. If you go down the cards route there is lots to collect and enjoy, lots of facts and figures. DP is autistic and he loves Pokemon. Grown man of 29, his friends are the same.

Be prepared for endless Pokemon facts coming your way though. And apparently it's not funny if you try to tell them it's pronounced "Pac-Man".

For your sanity discourage, for the potential for interaction, encourage but it slightly beats a Thomas the Tank Engine obsession.

I would encourage it. We used pokemon 'type' and relations (fire and water don't go together for example but Charmander and Squirtle still like each other... ) to explain many social situations to my brother (who has Aspergers) when he was younger.

I take pokemon over spongebob any day.

I would encourage it and use it in moderation, while at the same time help him to understand that his interests aren't necessarily shared by everyone else .

I've used Pokemon and other obsessions to great effect for 5-point scales and other learning strategies - if you can engage a child by developing a method around his interests, it's got far more chance of success.

And yes, social interaction comes on in leaps and bounds if you've got a cool shared interest, so it's worth pursuing for that alone.

It's a very fine line. Not sure if I've got it right just yet and it's been many, many years . Good luck.

DS found it hard to talk to people, but could talk about Pokemon. In situations where he was nervous or out of his depth, he could relax by talking about Pokemon. He could also join in games with his school friends and cousins

"I would encourage it and use it in moderation, while at the same time help him to understand that his interests aren't necessarily shared by everyone else" Streakybacon, YY to this. Any ideas how OP and myself could achieve this?

collette, I'll second that!

The man who invented Pokemon has aspergers I believe.

Locally a Mum has set up a Pokemon / Warhammer / games group and that has worked really well - its open to all although most who come are on spectrum. Its also become a nice support group for parents. The local NAS branch helped fund the hall hire.

I'm very firm with ds Rev and make it clear when he's boring me with Pokemon talk (or currently Skyrim or Halo or whatever), to the point when I'll tell him straight that I'm not interested and can we talk about something else. Sometimes we'll have a certain slot in the day when he can ramble at me and I'll give him my full attention (though in all honesty I avoid that because it's painfully dull ). We talk a lot about how to tell when people aren't interested and how to change the topic - I use tv a lot for this (we watch Holby City every week and study the interactions between the characters), and Mind Reading software a couple of times a week. We try to strike a balance between encouraging him to talk about favourite subjects for social interaction, but also to discourage it so that he understands that social interaction isn't just about his needs but other people's as well. It's not easy, and it's been a long haul to get to where we are (he's 13 now), but you have to put in that effort to make progress.

But using obsessive interests to facilitate learning (especially in social and emotional development) can be very effective, as I said above about 5-point scales. We've used lots of subjects over the years, defining the scales according to features of the characters we use. For example, we used Star Wars for anger management, with Yoda as the ultimate in calm and controlled (level 1), with Anakin (at the point when he turns into Vader) being level 5. As a SW obsessed kid, it meant far more to ds to have figures he could relate to than just mum telling him he needed to stay calm - these were characters he could picture and try to emulate.

I would like to read more about 5 point scale and learning about people losing interest, Pokemon/warhammer group sounds fab!

We start a new social skills group with my ds on Monday, might be able to bring these into the meeting. Thank you.

Incredible 5 point scale

You will note that I have NCed back to my Pokemon name.

DS has been obsessed by Pokemon for about 4 months. We have many many cards, soft toys, bags, tins etc etc. I hate them

HOWEVER it has helped him make friends! The shared interest has finally in Y2 got him a friend who has invited him for a play date. Last term he no longer just ran around by himself in the playground. He talked, communicated, laughed. It was a joy to see.

As some of the others have said, Pokemon is a nightmare but for our children it can often be a way that we can broaden their lives.

I agree with Streaky's post.

Pokemon has been a valuable social tool for ds1. He has made friends at school through being a walking Pokedex and knowing such a lot about the games. It also enabled him to earn the respect of some older kids in school, which had the knock-on effect of earning him the respect of his peers.

As Streaky said, we have used it for motivation and education purposes. He has earned Pokemon stickers (ebay) for every time he practised his spelling/handwriting and he enjoyed collecting them in a book and labelling them all etc. We also use the episodes to talk about appropriate behaviour (some of the characters are very self-centred and others down-right rude etc).

We also make sure we tell him if he is over-focussing on it, by telling him we are not as interested in Pokemon as he is and either want him to stop talking about it right now or to talk about something else (usually a different obsession, but you can't win 'em all ).

Thank you everyone... Will perhaps encourage for now, and if it gets excessive try to brainwash his little girl cousins into becoming pension crazed in the hope of it then getting a bit pink-sparkly-uncool [evil grin]

Aargh. Pokemon-crazed, not pension....

Dd1 loves pokemon (as well as Harry Potter, moshi monsters and sci-fi), she goes on a pokemon game on the pc, i think they have a forum too, she loves designing her own pokemon and loves collecting the cards. Pokemon stuff is quite expensive though, we pick cards and toys up from boot sales but at the moment she likes the figures which are expensive .

I would say encourage. DS (8, aspie) adores Pokemon, as do many of the boys in his class and it has most definitely helped him socialise, develop friendships and enhance skills as well.

DS had a birthday party earlier this year with 10 school friends invited - a couple of whom are on the spectrum, the rest NT as far as I am aware - and it was a complete Pokemon chatfest . It's one of the few times where DS has seemed completely at ease and 'one of the crowd' with a group of his peers.

mariamma, don't count on the girl thang. dd2 is just as obsessed as ds1. he taught her everything she knows.

the cards don't hurt as much as gogos when you step on them, either.