Developing a Developer

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/860120 · Post by **Twinkeltoes** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:33 am

I have a 7 year old son who might have mild Aspergers. He has been scheduled to be tested for a year now and keeps getting pushed back for higher priority children. He has had social development issues since before he was in preschool and was recieving early intervention, got right into preschool where he was in a special needs program until he was old enough for kindergarden. In kindergarden he was doing so well academically that they took him out of special needs fearing that other kids would bring him down. In Preschool he was reading up to nearly the 3rd grade level and advanced in math also. Same in kindergarden and now he's finishing up first grade and still higher than all his peers academically wise, it's his social behavior that he has trouble with.

He LOVES video games. I kick him outside all the time to limit his playing to get him excercise, and after a failed attempt at forging my name on a note sent home when he got into a pushing match at school I grounded him from video games. But his love for video games goes so deep that he's content with just WATCHING other people play. He'd come in to my room saying he knows he's grounded but can he watch his twin sister play (who doesn't have the desire to play more than 10-15 mins at a shot). Instead of playing with his ample amount of toys, or going outside on his bike/scooter, backyard play set, he would try to talk his sister into playing just so he could watch her and get his fix in.

I was talking about this to a friend the other day and he suggested that I take his love for video games and his strong academic skills and try to lead him into computer programing/video game development. Granted he's only 7 and I'm making no claims that he's any kind of prodigy. But I do know that kids in his situation tend to excel in those areas. My question is how would I go about getting him on that path? What age should I start, what things should I start getting him into to learn from. I'm not going to force him, honestly, I think it's something he's going to embrace. He's not that atheltic at all. He's not overweight or anything, he's just not that coordinated. He's definatly a book smart kid.

Any advice is appreciated.

Post by **Zargut** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:24 am

"My question is how would I go about getting him on that path?"

Kodu

http://venturebeat.com/2010/01/12/micro ... ids-on-pc/

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=10056

tug

Post by **Timothian** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:51 am

Twink:

There are multiple paths you could try to push him, the best ones involve some education of some kind, engineering, computer science, special schools aimed at game design, graphics, etc.. Use your kids interest as motivation (i.e. if you want a to work on this, you need a degree..need to do well in math...).

Post by **Ylyrra** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:16 pm

If you can find a way to swing the funding.. there are also camps designed to further his interest / abilities:

http://www.computercamps.com/index.html

http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/kid-adventure-camps/

http://www.ticcamp.com/

http://www.internaldrive.com/

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1881992 · Post by **Dakuan** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:40 am

HTML5 HTML5 HTML5

Also show him Microsoft Access & OneNote. He can practice note taking, create lists, learn hierarchy and develop his understanding of the relationship between logic and language. I had a lot of fun organizing my CD collection in school rather than some fake situation from a textbook. Make it something fun and it won't be so much work later. Then he'll be a little older and can start learning some code more easily.

Post by **Iane_Blaidd** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:07 am

HTML ans PHP

try to find a good video class

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/860120 · Post by **Twinkeltoes** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:58 am

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys, I'm really looking into all this for him. I need to get him his own lap top to mess around with. Nothing special just something to get him started and more familiar with PC.

Post by **Astute** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:03 pm

Hey twink i would do some research on the topic of hyper-focus and ADD, I have a feeling you will find out what you need to know to guide your son with the best out-come. Not saying put him on drugs and such but just look into the topic. Lots of positive methods to allow him to be be who he was meant to be.

Post by **Lorai** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:05 am

It does sound like you've got a future game developer on your hands.

For now, you could get him some computer-based math games, and see how far he can go with them.

http://www.edutainingkids.com/buyersgui ... games.html

Post by **Noircogi** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:18 pm

This game is awesome and really helps build logic skills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Jo ... _Zoombinis

Real games are developped in C/C++ but some lightweight things will be in HTML5 going forward with Flash discontinued.

Alsmack · Post by **Alsmack** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:20 pm

I work in the Video Games industry. Everyone I know that's been an amazing talent at making video games (and there's a ton of different talents that go in to it) have one thing in common: they themselves have the drive to be better than everyone at what they do. They want to be one of the best of XYZ profession, be it art design, sound design, game design, level design, client programming, network programming, networking, infrastructure, whatever it may be.

I got good at what I do (I'm an infrastructure guy) because I was always tinkering and playing and learning. I was never content with an answer of "that's just how it works." No, don't tell me that. Tell me why it works that way. Or better yet, get out of my way and let me figure it out.

That said, how to foster that environment for a kid? I don't know. For sure get him a computer he can break (not physically) and fix on his own. Get him books to learn programming languages if that's what he wants to learn. If he loves video games, there's tons of books that talk about game design and non programming topics as well. Programming games is not something you can just get in to. You have to learn the fundamentals, and many folks don't have patience for that.

Put linux on his computer, let him learn GCC and C/C++ and start programming stuff. I programmed a heuristic hangman when I was like 11 years old in C. You would punch in a word, and it would try to guess your word. All it knew was the frequency of occurences of letters in the alphabet to start with. As you played it, it got better and better guessing your words, until ultimately it got them every time. Stuff like that, if he's interested in it, the game mechanics are simple, but you learn a lot of other things just by doing it. Program a tetris clone.

Also, you don't have to start off with C/C++.

Anyways, enough rambling from me, hope that helps. Best I can say is give him the tools he needs to succeed, but unless he really digs in and has that strive to better himself and follow his passion of xyz, then it won't be an easy road.

Post by **Ylyrra** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:54 pm

Noircogi wrote:This game is awesome and really helps build logic skills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Jo ... _Zoombinis

Neat - what an awesome way to build logic skills in a child! And honestly.. even if he grows out of his obsession with computers, logic is the foundation for so many aspects of life that gaining early training there will not be wasted.

Post by **Ylyrra** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 2:42 am

I looked into the Zoombini games thinking to purchase them for my nephew. It looks like due to their age, there are compatibility issues with Windows 7 OS.