Most kids love building new worlds in Minecraft. But for those living with an autism spectrum disorder, it’s also providing them with ways to engage in school and build healthy social lives. Today we want to talk about AutismFather, who started a Minecraft server for children with autism and their families, called it “Autcraft.” He did give parents advice about the question ” How we use Minecraft to help kids with autism?”
“Stuart Duncan has autism, his oldest son has autism, and both his kids and he love Minecraft, so he have to do something. So, he got himself a Minecraft server. He spent some time, built a little village with some roads and a big welcome sign. This guy and lodging up on a mountaintop, and tried to do it inviting. The idea was pretty simple. Duncan had a white list, so only people that he approved could join. Also, he would just monitor the server as much as he could, just to make sure that nothing went wrong. And that was the whole promise: to keep the children safe so they could play.” – from Ted.com
Some parents have told Duncan that Autcraft been able to do what years of therapy has not. It helped their children to express their needs, ask for help, and recognize that their actions affect others. Even those who are nonverbal can communicate through chat. The environment of Autcraft provides them an exit to make friends, all without the stress to follow facial expressions or the distractions of an unfamiliar environment. Duncan hopes that children will learn and grow on Autcraft so that one day, they can go out and play on public servers—and out in the world—without fear.
Here are some tips from Duncan (aka AutismFather in the Autcraft community) on how to use Minecraft to help kids with autism:
Play With Your Kids
“It’s an incredible bonding experience,” Duncan says of playing Autcraft with your child. “I know video games or technology can feel foreign to parents but honestly, it’s not that bad. Being able to build an entire world with your child is an experience that you just can’t get anywhere else. You will laugh, be creative together, work as a team and dream together. There’s just nothing like it.”
He encourages parents to see what their kids see, and talk to the people they talk to.“Quite often, I find that the parents who are not actively involved in their child’s online life have no idea what their children are really like online,” Duncan says. “Some children come to my server and behave very much the same way that bullies had treated them elsewhere. I will contact their parents and explain what they are doing and the language they are using—and the parents, almost every single time, will be shocked. Their child will always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in real life, never swear, and generally just be shy, but once on the internet, with no supervision, they become the trolls that they are regularly trying to avoid.” He reminds parents often: If you are not teaching your child how to behave online, someone else will.
Let the Child Become the Teacher
For parents who are new to Minecraft, Duncan suggests letting your child be your leader. “This lets the child feel important, confident, in control and useful,” Duncan says. “The role reversal allows both the child and the parent to see things from each other’s perspectives.” This also helps kids with autism.
Continue the Conversations Offline
On Autcraft, players learn to talk, plan and work things out with others, which can be difficult when you’re not used to having any sort of relationships.
Duncan encourages parents to look out for new behaviors at their home. “Most the time these ‘small’ conversations that happen on the server can seem unnecessary, but then later I will hear from parents who tell me that their children began sharing and even giving things away to other children, or that they started making friends at school, or that someone broke something of theirs and they did not even get angry,” Duncan says. Reward those good behaviors, and talk about the bad ones. You should encourage more of what you want to see.
If your child is getting upset online, have them take a break or enter one of the calm rooms. You should remind them that anything someone says online is never personal. “How can it be?” Duncan says. “They don’t even know you. It’s an important lesson to learn.”
Duncan’s biggest piece of advice for parents is to not shy away from the game because they don’t understand it. Sure, Autcraft is a fantasy world, where the child with autism play behind pixelated avatars. But, it can just be the world where they can be the most real.
Therefore, parents should make friends with their kids by the whole heart by using Minecraft to help kids with autism.
We always trust you!