Greets all. I'm an Autism Parent and a long time old school Game Master, writer and coder.

Reading and writing is a great way to open up the minds of children and adults allowing them to better express themselves as a knight, warrior, etc.

I wrote this awhile ago about how role-playing opens a whole new world in being able to write and socialize.

The content is still very relevant. Maybe you know someone on the spectrum or their parent(s) who can benefit: Read Article.

I am a former special education teacher and I had many students diagnosed (or labeled) as autistic (or Asbergers which was popular back then). Many of these students had great fun playing RPGs and engaged socially at the table with other students. That said, my students were tweens and teens and regardless of diagnosis, there were bumps in the road with social interaction. AKA, mostly the same bumps of any teen RPG group [aka "can I use mind control to have your character have sex with mine?"]. One of my students wrote his own Event Horizon RPG and ran it for the other players because cool divorced dads show rated R horror movies to 11 year olds and he was extremely excited to share visions of blood splattered space ships and lungs suffering explosive decompression with his friends at school.

BTW, there have been several RPGers on the Palladium Books forums who claim to have autism and claim RPGs enhanced their lives tremendously.

Neat thread, thanks for sharing, both.

Spinachcat, thanks for sharing... in the same link to the Article is full of testimonies of how it helped both the parents and the child.

Great thread. Games and health industry is very interesting. This reminds me of glucoboy. A gameboy reward system for blood sugar testing. Your gaming might be able to derive ideas and inspiration from its developer's story. Kelsey Lewin has a very good video on it.

I would be cautious with the phrase "therapeutic effect" because its a loaded medical term. Instead, I would look to promoting RPGs to families with a child who may have autism (I say may because of the phenomenal level of misdiagnosis and the very wide spectrum of behaviors now labeled as autism) as a fun family activity focused on creativity and social interaction. I say creativity and social interaction because "therapy" is an activity that seeks to cure or alleviate symptoms.

As a society, we throw around the terms therapy and therapeutic a great deal, to our detriment.

I do not know if increased creativity and increased social interaction results in any measurable decrease in autism, but by playing RPGs with your child (any child of any flavor) you are helping them become more creative and more social.  

I know this sounds pedantic and wanking about terminology, but I'm ex-special education which was a cesspool of overeducated wankers where more time and tax dollars were spent wanking over terms, CYA and pedagogy than spent on hands on interaction with children whose developing brains need more, not less, human involvement.