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Originally Posted by Festivus  I have an autistic son who has a lot of trouble with things like imaginary play, social interation, lack of empathy and general trepidation of the unknown.
I have tried doing some roleplay with him, only recently breaking through a bit with the use of hand puppets to help him immerse himself into the story. Other sorts of things I was thinking of trying were to try to introduce "quests" that he would need to enlist the aid of another to complete, or to figure out ways to integrate some of his favorite TV characters and objects (he loves to hammer things) into the stories as a bridge to other things.
Part of my challenge is my son is only 6, and I can't really expect much of him at this age. I continue to gently introduce concepts to him, even ones you might take for granted like rolling dice. We made up a game called "Jellybean Roundup", where we roll a d6, write the number down, roll another d6 and then add the two results together, then usher that many jellybeans into the corral. When the game is done, you get to eat them, so there is incentive to participate.
I'll be watching with interest what you come up with.
edit: sorry, missed my whole point. Each person with a disability like this is different, and not any one system is going to fit right in. What ever you end up going with would need to be flexible. I have looked at things like "Game of Shadows" and "Stuffed Heroes" (I think that's the name) before but they are difficult concepts for him to grasp. |
Very helpful. Thank you for sharing this.
My brother has Asperger's Syndrome, so I have some understanding of what you're talking about.
Jellybean roundup sounds like a fun game for a kid. I may play that with my son (age 3.5) to get him to understand dice!
And, maybe I need to create multiple levels at which the game could be accessed? One of the great things about RPGs that I've found is that they work for 6th graders as well as adults...though the play rarely looks the same. I wonder if I could have a "microlite" version as introductory as jellybean roundup and work all the way to something more complex (like d20 materials).
In fact, having multiple "levels" might be a good way to cover multiple populations with different ability levels. It might also be a good way to balance "learn in one session" with "complex system of immersion"...by graduated levels.
Thank you.
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