Publications
Partners
With the ever rising popularity of Pokémon GO, there seems to be three camps that are forming:
- Adults and kids who are 100% on board and loving this.
- People who just hate it and think it’s childish and stupid.
- Parents who have no idea what it's about so are rightfully a bit overcautious about itAmongst.
Read more: 5 tips on how to use Pokémon GO safely
But there are another group of parents out there who are quite happy that there is a game that is getting their kids out of the house, breathing fresh air and being more social.
One such mom is Lenore Koppelman from New York. Her son, Ralphie is autistic and as a result is quite anti-social. When another mom of an autistic child gave her a heads up about the game, she downloaded it for her son and the results were amazing.
He was actually socialising with other kids, adults and even breaking his own routine to catch Pokémon.
Read her full post below:
A friend of Lenore’s shared her post to Reddit and the comments were just heart-warming:
Soon they started sharing stories of how they overcame their own social anxieties:
We asked a few SA moms who have autistic children how they felt about their kids using Pokémon GO. Carine Kriel has two autistic boys doesn't feel like it's a good idea, "I don't believe in having them play Pokemon Go, especially with ASD kids who wander off easily like mine. There are so many other ways to stimulate them and get them to interact. It just takes time to learn all the ways."
Wilma Gray is of the same opinion as Carine, "Firstly I am not sure about it as I do not really know what it is about, but my husband said he does not want the kids to be part of it. We monitor what they watch very carefully, and even on the laptop/Ipad I am always there to see what they are up to. Until they can show responsibility in how they use it. We have not really let them game so much yet. It might come".
I totally understand this. My kid is not autistic but we are also very strict about the things he watches and the types of games he plays. So I can imagine that you would be even more careful about the things that your autistic child consumes.
However, if your kid is benefiting Pokémon GO then I think that's a fantastic thing.
What do you think about the benefits of Pokémon GO when it comes to kids? Tell us your thoughts to chatback@parent24.com.
