Does anyone have a child with Asperger's and/or TourettesSyn

Not Asperger's but similar - my son has nonverbal learning disability. He has social skills deficits and anxiety. Both of which make him a great candidate for online gaming addiction. Linda

Karen,
My son has Aspergers - he's 23 and not addicted (I'm here for my 20 year old son who is), but spends many hours creating these intricate maps for games...he is somewhat of a celebrity at this one site for his work. He is higher functioning Aspergers - has a job and just earned his A.S. degree in Computer Information Technology, and just moved away to live with his brother in LA. Google search CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities) - there may be resources in your area.
Karen

My child does not have either of those syndromes but I think if the gaming issues are creating other troubles for him, that needs to be addressed. Maybe his therapist can offer some insight?

Hi Karen, My youngest is 11 next week. He is not Aspergers, but had been diagnosed as PDD by a neurologist in the past and most recently completed 2 years of OT for Sensory Integration Disfunction. He has been described as a "higer functioning" autistic. Amazingly enough, his anger symptoms haven't arose at school - yet. But at home, this is another story. His rage is both self-destructive and outwardly-destructive - smashing things, screaming, threatening others. He once tried to fling himself down the stairs because I made the wrong kind of meatloaf for dinner, and told me recently he wanted to kill me for asking him to change his dirty shirt. We continue in therapy. I fear what will happen when he hits puberty. My heart goes out to you as my husband's cousin has two children with Aspergers and so I can imagine what you must go through. I admire the strength you must have to deal with these meltdowns. Sometimes I don't think I can make it through another one. I think the biggest risk is one that Karen touched on - it's so easy for these kids to get "sucked in" and spend hours and hours focused on one thing. My son also makes maps for WCIII and will do so for hours. I am torn because on one hand, I don't think it's healthy for him to spend so much time doing this. On the other, making maps as opposed to playing the game means the meltdowns come with less frequency. And also, he's teaching himself Visual Basic, which can't be a bad skill to have. How I deal with video game anger is with distraction. My son fences and in the summer, likes to swim. I work full-time, so now that he is old enough to ride his bike to the pool in our development, he's been doing that often during the day (there are lifeguards). My oldest son or neighbor "babysits". When he is home, both of them play video games all day - I can't really prevent this. My youngest hangs out with older kids because they can talk about video games - most kids his age aren't doing MMORPG's yet, but the few that are are seem to be very regulated in their gametime. I trust my oldest son to tell me if he thinks the younger is talking to the "wrong" sort of people; so far, I think I have been lucky. He does have big meltdowns over video games. Just last night he threw a controller at the TV screen so hard I thought for sure it would break. When he gets angry over a game, the sooner I can distract him with another activity, the sooner he "calms down". Sending him to his room doesn't work because it just makes him more angry. I can't control the rage until he is focused on another activity, whether it be taking the dog for a walk or watching TV or even cleaning his room or eating a snack. The key is to get him away from the game. Then I can tell him he is done for the day (or two or three if I feel he's in that much trouble). I do know from research that there is a direct corellation between ADHD symptoms and computer time. The computer screen puts the brain in a "feel good" place - much like chocolate - the brain creates "dopamines" while they are gaming. This is one reason why sometimes you sit down at the computer to check your e-mail and the next thing you know, three hours have gone by! Also, Dr's have discovered that when you are using a computer or playing a video game, your "blink rate" declines from about 15 times a minute to 4 or 5. Eye strain must have a big effect on these boys, I think. Playing in the dark is going to make this worse, so make sure kids have lots of light when they do play. How much time is "too much"? I don't have an answer for this. When I talk about it, one of the things that always comes up is, what's the difference between a video game and just regular TV watching? Well, when they're playing video games, they are "locked" into watching - "engaged" in an activity that requires interaction. Think about it - when was the last time you saw someone screaming at the TV while watching a sit-com? I don't think the TV remote goes flying a tenth as much as the video game controllers do! So if "They" say that a certain amount of TV-watching is okay, I kind of feel like half that amount is "okay" for video/computer games. Those are my thoughts on it... good luck, Karen. Take care, Lizz

Just this weekend I spoke to a family member who is teaching at a university. She had read the article and phoned me to discuss it. She also mentioned that she had a student with Aspergers who should have done very well in his Mathematics courses but had ended up failing and leaving school. She attributes a great part of that to the fact that he was obsessed with online games.