All hail the great Pokemon for marvelous breakthrough in an autistic child’s interaction with children and making friends

New York July 30:The “Pokemon Go” craze has been linked to car crashes, grim discoveries and even reports of people falling off a cliff.Lenore Koppelmon, mum to Ralphie who has autism, said the augmented reality location-based game has changed her son’s life.

The New-York based mum said, thanks to a suggestion from a fellow mother through a FB post, her son was “shrieking with excitement” after he was finally introduced to it.

But not only that, he’s started socialising, verbalising and interacting well with others.

The mother went on to explain how Ralphie Koppelman spent the afternoon catching Pokémon and chatting to a girl in the playground about them – something he had never done before.

“Then the girl pointed out to him that there was a lot of Pokémon activity at the playground and he begged to go,” Koppelmon wrote.

“He never wants to go to the playground at night, because it’s out of his usual routine. He is normally so rigid about his routine.

“But tonight he was happy to change things up, and do it. We were in shock!”

Kirsty Russel whose two children are autistic is playing the game with the whole family and the effects are showing.

“Usually getting them out of the house is just so hard; I’ve tried to get them to do Parkrun, but they’ve never wanted to do that either,” Russel said in an interview with ABC.

“This was a really good way for them to get outside and have exercised with an interest of their own … Hunting Pokemon was just fantastic for my daughter,” she added.

“I’ve always dreamed of having Pokemon in the real world, so this is like it,” Russel’s daughter Charlotte told ABC. “I don’t like walking, but I like it when I have something to do. [With Pokemon] I’m distracted, I’m doing something I like to do; I’m having fun catching Pokemon.”

“We’re always looking out for really interesting ways to engage our kids, and use the special interests of our kids, because kids with autism often have very particular fascinations that they love.

Pokemon has been one of those things for a couple of years that’s always coming up on the radar, and now it’s entered this new and interesting form,” said Dr. Craig Smith who studies the effect of video games on autistic children.

Dr. Peter Faustino who is a school psychologist wrote a post about Pokemon GO on the website Autism Speaks.

“Pokémon GO is giving young adults with ASD their own unique reason to leave the house, albeit if it is to catch pocket monsters,” Dr. Faustino wrote.

“As a school psychologist, I would encourage parents to seize the opportunity for their children to capitalize on this gaming experience while at the park or when running errands. My advice is not to judge this new gaming experience as all bad and in need of limits,” he added.

Smith is also providing inputs to other teachers. He has put a course on iTunes U to teach the basics of the Pokemon world. He believes that the game encourages outdoor activity among all the children.

On the other hand, Mumbai-based consulting developmental pediatrician Dr. Anjana Thadani who works with the children with learning disabilities believes the opposite.

“I focus on getting the children away from the screen and gadgets as much as possible.

Games such as Pokemon GO would help them for a short term but something like Animal Therapy is much better than that. Anything present in the real world helps them more than a virtual game,” Dr. Thadani said.

Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of the Pokemon series, was born with Asperger’s Syndrome. And this perhaps is his way of giving something back to the community.