In Defence of the Internet

I vividly remember when I first heard about the Internet. I was sitting in a friend’s Stoke Newington kitchen drinking a glass of wine, she had on the table a laptop which she said she needed to close down. I asked her what she had been doing and she said, “surfing the Internet”. I asked her what that was and she said it was bit like a library there was no point in just going on it unless you wanted to find out some information. That must’ve been over 15 years ago. I’m not sure that I still agree with her. It is great for finding something out but I seem to spend an awful lot of time playing on it. Watching clips on YouTube and looking things up that I have a little interest in. Last month I was googling “joint attention”  and came across this amazing website.

here’s the link  www.autismgames.org

I have since spent hours playing on it, be warned if you have an interest in autism you too will spend hours there.

This site has a large number of games and activities for autistic spectrum children. Many of the activities are extremely simple and need very little equipment perhaps a balloon or a straw. Others require jigsaw puzzles, a bean bag or a trampoline and some others seem to require more complicated equipment. However nearly all the activities have a video clip explaining very clearly how to do the activity. There is also progression in the activities. It is one of the best websites for autism that I have come across. I wish I had found this website (if it existed) all those years ago when my own daughter was diagnosed with language delay.

This website has been created by Tahirih Bushey who is a speech and language pathologist and an autism consultant.  For 12 years she has specialised in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders.  She is currently employed by the Scottish rite clinic for language disorders in Duluth, Minnesota. Here she works with young children and their families involving parents and carers in every aspect of intervention. She says it is for these children and their families that she has created her website. She quotes George Bernard Shaw “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” She also says that playing is like breathing and she signs off from her website saying

Happy Playing.