What makes Minecraft so fun to play (and also why it is a perfect game for children with autism) is there are no rules, no clear objectives, and no winning or losing. Kids are free to create and experiment in the world as they wish. For younger children developing early play skills, a lot can be worked on in the realm of Minecraft, including imitation, taking turns, observational learning, and pretend play. Setting up a server and playing Minecraft with a child is a good way to work on these skills that can be difficult to target in real world situations.

If playing Minecraft as a reward or reinforcer for a child you are working with, you can turn this downtime into a virtual play session and work on crucial skills. This requires some setup and an additional computer; however, imagine being able to engage the child in their world, a world that the child is imagining and creating – more importantly, a world where the child wants to engage. You and the child can work together to build structures or even play hide-and-seek. Exposing the child to games like hide-and-seek or tag in Minecraft can help the child when he or she encounters these games in the real world.

For older children with autism who struggle with socialization, Minecraft can be a great bridge or conversation starter. Since Minecraft is so popular, the game can provide a virtual place for socialization and interaction between children with autism and typically developing peers. Also, since many children with autism excel with technology, Minecraft being no exception, there’s an opportunity for children with autism to help their peers and reveal their expertise. This can be a great equalizer between children with autism and their typically developing peers to help improve self-esteem and foster new friendships.

One highly important precaution to consider when setting up and maintaining these online worlds is monitoring content and conversation. Cyberbullying is prevalent in online communities and can turn any positive environment into a negative one. Fortunately, the Minecraft community has had some amazing people step up and facilitate environments where negativity is not tolerated. The Minecraft server Autcraft, for instance, was established by a father of a child with autism and is a place where players need to be “whitelisted” or approved to play. There are also rules of conduct that are enforced by moderators. Autcraft is a great place to start if you are concerned about who or what may be on the other side of the computer.

If you’ve never played Minecraft before, I encourage you to give it a shot. It will open up a whole new world of possibilities for introducing new skills and concepts to children with autism.

Have you used Minecraft when working with a child? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Benefits of Minecraft for Children with Autism appeared first on PixelAtion Labs.

At the start of the app, the user is presented with a table of four characters, two humans, a cat, and a bull. After choosing a character, the user makes the character food picking from a large selection of ingredients that can be prepared in a variety of ways. Each character has different tastes and their reactions to the food express their preference, disgust or indifference.

It is easy to work on inferring likes/dislikes, cause and effect, and preferences with this app. For starters, ask the child how the character feels after eating each food item based on the character’s reaction. For instance, if the cat makes a happy face after eating a boiled lemon you can ask, “Did the cat like it?” Once you’ve done a few of these, you can go back to the main screen and ask questions about the preferences of each character. You can ask which characters liked or disliked certain foods.

As you are working through these questions, there are always opportunities to vary your language to include categories, colors and negations. Instead of always naming the ingredient, try referring to the ingredient by its category and/or color. For instance, instead of saying, “broccoli,” you might say, “the green vegetable.” You can also work on negations by asking the child to pick an ingredient that is “not a fruit,” for example.

Selecting the ingredients is only part of the fun to be had with this app. The user also has loads of options to prepare the food (cut, blend, boil, fry, microwave, and more). This adds another layer to likes/dislikes as well as the option to target cause and effect skills. For example, one of the characters doesn’t like meat unless it is blended and cooked into a patty.

You can also work on knowing with your kiddo. While observing the reactions of the characters ask, “Did they like it/how do you know?” There isn’t a whole lot more to expand on here but it is a small opportunity to generalize this skill.

If you are working on following instructions with the child, you can chain a few steps together to carry out in the kitchen. You can ask the child to choose a specific ingredient and preform precise steps to prepare it.

Toca Kitchen provides a lot of opportunities for learning and as a bonus the reactions of the characters are pretty entertaining (especially the bull). There’s a parent section in the top left that provides basic information about the app. Toca Boca also makes an app called Kitchen Monsters that uses the same concepts but features monsters as the characters. That app is free but only available for iOS at this time.

Have you played Toca Kitchen? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

App: Toca Kitchen

Price: $2.99

Available on: the App Store, Google Play, Windows, and Amazon

Developer: Toca Boca

Targeted Skills: Actions, Categories, Cause and Effect, Colors, Following Instructions, Foods, Knowing, Likes/Dislikes, Negations, Preferences

The post The Benefits of Playing Toca Kitchen for Children with Autism appeared first on PixelAtion Labs.

When I started as a therapist many years ago, the reward (or reinforcer) for finishing activities was usually a preferred toy of some sort. Blocks, paper airplanes, and plastic dinosaurs are examples of the types of toys kids wanted back in the day. These activities were great because they offered a chance to interact with the child, work on appropriate play skills, and generalize the skills and language that the child had learned during those more structured trials.

However, as tablets and mobile phones increased in popularity and accessibility, these devices quickly became the preferred activity of many of the children I worked with. After completing an activity, kids wanted to play a game on the phone, take pictures with the camera, or watch a video on YouTube. While highly motivating for the child, time spent on the phone meant lost learning opportunities. A child playing on a tablet or phone doesn’t get the chance to socialize with someone else, practice play skills, or generalize the skills and language that he or she had learned.

This is the common perception but this doesn’t have to be the case.

While a child may lose the chance to work on some of the motor skills associated with building blocks or throwing a ball, the wide array of apps and games available provide many (if not more) learning opportunities as long as you know how to use what’s out there.

This blog will focus on finding and highlighting the ways existing apps can be leveraged to target many of the skills and language that are so important to generalize.

If you have an app that your child loves, send us an email at

appreview@pixelationlabs.com.

 We will take a look at the app and find new ways to use it to generalize skills and language.

The post Finding New Uses for Existing Technology appeared first on PixelAtion Labs.