By SHAUN HEASLEYJuly 29, 2013
Boys with autism are spending significantly more time playing video games than their typically developing peers and are at higher risk for gaming to be problematic or addictive, researchers say.
On a daily basis, boys with autism are spending more than two hours playing video games. That’s nearly twice the playing time clocked by their typically developing peers, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers surveyed the parents of boys ages 8 to 18 — 56 with autism, 44 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and 41 with no diagnosis — about their children’s gaming habits.
Problematic or addictive video game use was much more prevalent among those with autism and ADHD, the study found. In boys with autism, this propensity toward problematic play was associated with a preference toward role-playing games.
By: ROBERT T. GONZALEZ
March 23, 2012
When most of us get lost in unfamiliar territory – a hotel, for example – we consult a map to orient ourselves. But for the blind it's not so easy. With this in mind, researchers have developed a virtual gaming platform that uses other sensory cues to help blind individuals develop mental maps of new surroundings before visiting them in person.
The game platform uses virtual layouts of actual public buildings. Like a level map in a computer game, the simulated environment can be explored with a keyboard (future interfaces will use joysticks, or motion controllers like the Wii remote), but instead of using visual feedback to navigate, players don headphones and rely on auditory cues to orient themselves spatially. Players are then given a mission objective: find jewels within the building and carry them back outside, while avoiding building-roaming monsters who steal the jewels and hide them in a different location. Over time, this interaction helps the player generate an accurate mental layout not just of the simulated building, but its real-world counterpart.
