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Gambling, Gaming & Technology Use Community of Interest

The Gambling, Gaming & Technology Use Community of Interest brings together addiction and mental health service providers, researchers and subject matter experts in the fields of gambling, technology/Internet use and video gaming to collaborate and share knowledge on emerging trends and clinical best practices.

Gaming and Autism

A quick google search shows that videogames can be helpful and/or harmful for Autistic youth. While video games can provide a sense of belonging and self-esteem for some autistic youth who may struggle with social skills, too much time spent gaming could become a problem. Autistic youth may have difficulty transitioning from the gaming activity to real life social, learning, and work opportunities which may be less reinforcing for them. There has been research (Beaumont et al., 2021) to show that video games can assist Autistic children in learning social skills especially in situations where in-person interventions are not available (e.g. during COVID-19 pandemic). It should be noted that in this study (Beaumont et al., 2021) the social skills video game was based on an in-person social skills training program that has been used in clinical settings for several years.

Providing parents of Autistic children with information on helpful and potentially harmful gaming may help them instill healthy gaming habits in their children.

Links

https://www.amaze.org.au/2018/...ful-and-the-harmful/

https://www.psypost.org/2022/0...-social-skills-63270

https://link.springer.com/arti...803-020-04801-z#Tab3

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