Tearful Mom Thanks Pokémon Go for Changing Autistic Boy’s Life | Hacker News Reader

Tearful Mom Thanks Pokémon Go for Changing Autistic Boy’s Life

thememo.com

Like apple pie, its good. Also the app totally doesn't follow certain conventions of virality. No social graph imported. Love that fact that it's blowing up.

On Android it requested contacts permissions, as well as storage (and a couple of others). I denied them and it seems to work fine. Still...?

Likely for future features. I'm sure social stuff will make its way in eventually.

Clickbait title about a clickbait subject

what? How? it's an anecdote of potential positive benefits of a video game. I think it's interesting. The game has had a clear impact on this kid's life. Interested to see studies on the long term impact on children with autism playing this game. If there is any lasting impact on socialization.

I'll tell you how:

SUMMARY: "Reading this will give you shivers."

I mean it's nice to know and heart-warming and all, I just wish the journalist wasn't in-between.

> The game has had a clear impact on this kid's life.

The game has been out for 8 days. So no, it has not had a clear impact on his life.

> Interested to see studies on the long term impact on children with autism playing this game. If there is any lasting impact on socialization.

Yes, that would be interesting.

> The game has been out for 8 days. So no, it has not had a clear impact on his life.

It can certainly have had a clear impact on his life in a short period (whether it is a durable and lasting impact is, of course, not going to be obvious in a short time.)

What a horrifically awful article that quite possibly is not even a true story.

Awful awful stuff.

Man, I mean I'm normally skeptical about anything I can find.. but what's the use in being skeptical about something like this? It's just a feel good anecdote from an excited mother. Even if the kid wasn't autistic and just had problems socializing, it's still an encouraging story..

...or shameless viral marketing. I start with a presumption of guilt if there's a product involved.

Pokémon Go cures autism, apparently.

Well, maybe the one caused by vaccines.

Not at all what stated in the article... Just a mom's experience. The kid needed a stronger motivator to interact with other people, the game gave that motivation. There's lots of research on how videogames help kids in the spectrum, this is just more popular because it's pokemon.

Edit: grammar

As you say, this happens with many videogames and other kind of stuff: I remember the case of a child that started to interact with other children after watching Jurassic Park. He totally wanted to play and talk about dinosaurs.

The article just tries to go aboard the Pokémon GO hype, in a particularly wrong way, IMO.

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