S/o Minecraft

[MedicMom]

Reading the other thread I realized how little I know.

Ds6 and DD4 have recently gotten really into playing Minecraft. It seemed creative, fun and less annoying than Skylanders, so I've been letting them play during screen time. They only play on an iPad so no network or other people. I think.

 

Ds6 has HFA and I have found Minecraft is popular among his classmates(all similar age and HFA), so it assists with communication that way. The other day we were at the store looking at Lego Minecraft kits and he struck up a conversation with a young adult, trading tips and strategies. It encourages him out of his little world and for that I'm glad.

 

Is there anything I need to know as a parent though? Gaming of any sort has never been part of my life so I feel completely clueless. My experience began and ended with Tetris.

Edited June 5, 2016 by MedicMom

[Innisfree]

Listening in with interest.

 

HFA is part of the equation for us too, for my younger girl. I've been both glad to find something the girls can have fun with together and a bit leery of anyone getting too caught up and focused on this.

[Farrar]

Minecraft is social currency for kids in a lot of friend groups these days. You're smart to recognize that. My experience as a teacher with kids on the spectrum was that they often struggled to figure out social currency - how to adopt an interest that others would share so they could then use that to make friends. This is one that seems good for a lot of types of kids and seems to work for a lot of types of kids, which is cool.

 

My main thing about Minecraft is just to be balanced in your view of it. A couple of years ago, there was a huge mania for it in education circles that seems to have ebbed a little, but there are still a lot of people who seem to think it's some sort of miracle education tool. It's definitely a game. It's a creative, engaging game that kids can learn a lot from. But it's also still a game, screen addictions can absolutely still apply. And there are plenty of more mindless, not as creative ways to use it as well.

 

On the other hand, you can harness it just like you would any interest - and it does lend itself to that - in order to facilitate learning. There are lots of Minecraft books and lots of kids write Minecraft fanfic. There are education printables for things like handwriting practice and math that are Minecraft themed. There's a Minecraft Homeschool that has lots of classes (older kids mostly). The ways it can be used as a tool for learning programming are really useful and cool.

 

If he gets more into it, he may start asking about servers. So that's another thing to explore and it's a way that it can be a social outlet and another way to use it. There are some that are family friendly and some that are specifically for kids with autism.

[Janeway]

I found Minecraft to be highly addictive. And kids with ASD easily get even more sucked in to the game. Being on the computer works on specific parts of the brain and not others. So for the developing brain, this can cause stunted growth in the areas that the computer does not work on. And I have found my kids, and many others (Google it, it is a common problem) will lose all desire to interact with others outside of Minecraft and will completely stop all other activities. 

 

Knowing what I know now, I would never allow my 4 yr old or 6 yr old to start Minecraft. My 6 yr old already plays it, so it is already a problem. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Both mine enjoy it.  The only issue we have ever had is them fighting with each other about it.  But hey brothers...they fight.  If it's not Minecraft it's something else.

 

They convinced me to get an account.  I tried it a few times, but I dunno...it's really not that interesting to me.  They get excited about me seeing what they do with it so I try to humor them from time to time.

 

 

[NCMom]

I think the others have brought up some good points.  On a totally different note, though, Minecraft on the iPad is not the same as the (modded) Minecraft that you can, if you so choose, play on servers with others from around the world. At some point you will likely need to consider this.

 

 

Georgia

[MedicMom]

They are probably a long way off from realizing that you can play Minecraft with other people. Hopefully, at least. Screen time is already limited, and I don't plan on changing that. I have found that, as with Skylanders, they play for a while and then once iPad time is over, create their own imaginary worlds in play time. They pretend they are Skylanders or pretend they are living in their Minecraft world for hours on end, and I am okay with that. That's different to me that spending all that time on the iPad in a virtual world.

[Farrar]

They are probably a long way off from realizing that you can play Minecraft with other people. Hopefully, at least. Screen time is already limited, and I don't plan on changing that. I have found that, as with Skylanders, they play for a while and then once iPad time is over, create their own imaginary worlds in play time. They pretend they are Skylanders or pretend they are living in their Minecraft world for hours on end, and I am okay with that. That's different to me that spending all that time on the iPad in a virtual world.

 

My kids are older, but this is also how they've approached screens for years. Play for awhile, be into it, move on and it becomes one of the inspirations for real world pretend play.

 

They can still play together on the iPad - if they have two, they can use bluetooth to play together in tandem. My kids do that and if they see their friends in person, they'll all hook up devices and play together. This is totally different from playing on a server. It's contained (no need to worry about anything else). It's not going to massively change the dynamics, but they'd probably enjoy it if they're not already playing that way.