[Vigilanteman]

Yep. Another one of my daughter's first jobs out of college was as a caseworker for families of autistic kids. She told me the vast majority of her cases (90% +) were, at best, kids with borderline autism which could best be dealt with by the adults in the family spending even an hour per day doing something with the kid as simple as tossing a frisbee, playing catch, a picnic, board game or almost anything other than letting them play alone with some electronic gadget.

A relative handful of her cases (less than 30%) were impressed with the results when she just demonstrated this with them a few times. Most of them were interested only in making sure the government check continued.

The excuses were laughable. None of them had the time, money, etc. to buy simple things like books or board games. But they all had multiple big screen televisions, the latest electronic gadgets such as X-box, Play Station, etc. which are to autistic kids what an open bar is to winos.

[sheana]

My grandson has all the Ds. OCD, ADHD. etc. He needs attention. Play with him for an hour and he is a happy camper. Then give him something to do. Legos are great for him. He’s 9 but since he was really young you could hand him a Lego kit and he will work on it til he is done. He has to. lol
Puzzles are also a good one. If you give him a large number puzzle he starts from the inside and works on it til it’s done. lol
His largest obstacle is boredom. If he’s bored he makes everybody’s life miserable.

[rlmorel]

I consider myself fortunate I was not born today, in the age of video games and such.

They would have me medicated so fast it would make the head spin. Sigh. I feel bad for a lot of young boys today. They get labeled so quickly with some kind of “ism” and boom, right on the meds, when much of the time...they are just boys being boys.