Wii Fit helps autistic boy stay fit.

paul · **Joined:** Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:43 pm **Posts:** 551

I recently came across this fascinating blog entry by the father of a young autistic boy, about the problems of keeping him healthy, and how the Wii and Wii Fit have helped.

The boy, "J", has trouble eating many healthier foods (they trigger his gag reflex), so eating well can be hard. Combine this with the problems of many social or team sports for those with autism, and staying healthy can be hard. But it looks like the Wii Fit is perfect for young J, to quote the blogger...

Quote:

All of these features are precisely conducive to J's unique way of learning. First of all, it is engaging without being overly demanding from a social standpoint (unlike team sports). It is unforgivingly rigid in its repetitive nature - it behaves the same way each time. This avoids J's sometime-anxiety about variable things. It has clear, easy-to-understand goals, which play to J's learning style. It disguises physical activity in what seems more of a cerebral pursuit with the use of points, stars, levels of achievement, and gradual unlocking of new activities. Frankly, it is an ideal method for J to improve his physical fitness.

It's interesting how some of the things that many see as a negative, are a positive for someone like J.

There is increasing activity in the healthcare world looking at how to best use such off the shelf technology to help people. I suspect we will see many more stories like this, of the Wii and Wii Fit being used to help all sorts of people, in the months and years to come.

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:08 am

Amazing story

!