Welcome!

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. 

George Bernard Shaw

The Game Collections are groups of games for example, one collection is a group of games to play with your child while he or she is moving, another is a group of games based on drawing together.  The Game Collections are the heart of this site where you will learn about and see demonstrations of different kinds of social play for children with autism. These games are all pre-tested.  They have engaged and delighted many, many children with autism as well as parents, siblings and friends. The games are organized by difficulty (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).  The Collections are arranged so that you can see how similar games can be made very simple for players who are very new at social play and then gradually made more complex for children who are becoming more adept at social play.  In addition, the collections are grouped by where the games are meant to be played, by language learning objectives, and organized into other quirky themes that I use to categorize games as I try to maintain a variety of different kinds of play in my work with children...more

A Selection of Parent Tips

I have included a variety of articles on strategies, concepts, and even toys or tools that I frequently tell parents about in my professional work.  For many willing play partners, just watching the game clips is not enough and the game still does not feel natural or work as well as hoped to teach a new skills.  it might be that you need some additional information and I hope I have included this kind of additional information in the Parents Tip section.

A List of Learning Objectives

I am a Speech Language Pathologist so I collected or created these games in order to teach children how to communicate better.  The children and families who learned these games clearly loved playing them and would often keep playing a game well after their child had achieved the language objective.  We have often remodeled games that children like in order to keep in interesting and in order to teach something else with it. The  list on this page represents the kinds of goals and objectives  that we have had in mind as we played these games with children in our clinic. I thought this information would be of interest, if for no other reason but highlight how many things children with autism can learn while playing.  But, feel free to play these games just for the fun of it.  Your child will learn just because you are playing together.  Your relationship with your child will grow just because you play together.  Play does not actually need a reason, anyway.

An Index of all the Game Clips

Printable Microsoft Word Version of the Introduction Pages Attached Below