He is 7, and has receptive and expressive disorders in language. On all other matters, he is doing just fine, excels in math and generally picks up new skills rather quickly, other than ones where communicating is a key component. I wanted to know if there are tools, software, apps, games that would help him (or kids like him) learn how to code (any software language) while gamifying. His addiction is beating high scores and achievement unlocking for virtually every game he plays on ipad or PC. Many thanks!
Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
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Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#2I can't help you, but you shouldn't be frustrated if you fail to find a satisfying answer. There aren't great or universal answers even on broader questions like, "How do I teach my child to code?" and even, "How do I teach a person to code?"
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#3Have you tried cubetto, robot teaching kids programming even before they can write? https://www.primotoys.com/
There's great medical improvement in treating autism, especially in US - my simple understanding of those advancements is that they try to remove cause of autism which in many cases seems to be related to brain being damaged by toxins.
Wish your son lots of health! And fun quality time with you :-)
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#4If he's really into PC games, does he play Minecraft? I've seen a lot of articles and books about teaching kids to program Minecraft add-ons. That will let him customize his own world a little more, and also give him a great reason to learn and stick with it.
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#5Wait until your son is interested. Very very very few children are interested in programming at age seven. Something that most children enjoy at that age is sitting on a parent's lap while the parent shares what they are doing with the child with a focus on sharing rather than on the thing they are doing.
My observation based on limited anecdotal evidence is that an interest in video games does not correlate to an interest in programming among children (or adults). Video games seem like fun to a lot of people and programming only seems like fun to a very few people.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#6Wait until your son is interested. Very very very few children are interested in programming at age seven. Something that most children enjoy at that age is sitting on a parent's lap while the parent shares what they are doing with the child with a focus on sharing rather than on the thing they are doing. My observation based on limited anecdotal evidence is that an interest in video games does not correlate to an in…
>Wait until your son is interested.
What an obvious realization that I hadn't thought about, lol. I guess I could wait, but I am thinking of pushing him (lol) to developing interests for possible occupations that I know that can be reliably done independently where verbal expression of language is not primarily essential, but not manual labor. I can wait too and see if he bites or drop hints to see whether he develops slow interest.
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#7If he's really into PC games, does he play Minecraft? I've seen a lot of articles and books about teaching kids to program Minecraft add-ons. That will let him customize his own world a little more, and also give him a great reason to learn and stick with it.
Sure, but he prefers blockcraft for some reason.
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#8If he's really into PC games, does he play Minecraft? I've seen a lot of articles and books about teaching kids to program Minecraft add-ons. That will let him customize his own world a little more, and also give him a great reason to learn and stick with it.
Sure, but he prefers blockcraft for some reason.
https://www.nostarch.com/programwithminecraft
Maybe will like this book as a gift ;]
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#9You can always hire a teacher that uses an interactive notebook language like Mathematica that is chock loaded with easy to use APIs for graphics sounds dictionaries graphs atlas data etc... I actually teach programming from the ground up using Mathematica -- send the email in my profile a message if you're interested in having your son try a few lessons. Inspiration is really key for young kids and I do provide that. I also have a few autistic/asperger spectrum students so thats a plus. Gotta know how to communicate best - I'm sure you know as a father that unless you gain their interest, certain pursuits are a hard sell. Thats why languages that have a lot of ways to do things and are in interactive notebooks, ie. Sage Jupyter Mathematica -- they make it much easier to give a child the vision and desire of things they can do if they learn more.
Re: Ask HN: How do i teach my autistic son to code?
#10Wait until your son is interested. Very very very few children are interested in programming at age seven. Something that most children enjoy at that age is sitting on a parent's lap while the parent shares what they are doing with the child with a focus on sharing rather than on the thing they are doing. My observation based on limited anecdotal evidence is that an interest in video games does not correlate to an in…
I actually learned programming by hacking video games. It started with Gameshark, Tsearch, poking and sieving memory. Packet sniffing and editing with WPE Pro. And then learning C and assembly language, the windows PE file format and about packers, Ollydbg, Softice..the whole gamut.
In some ways I echo the parent comment. I naturally wanted to know how my computer functioned and well..my games too. That cant really be forced to a kid..itd just be a chore.