Press Start: Video Games, Healthy Habits, and Finding Balance with Andrew Fishman, LCSW #240

Most parents know their kid plays video games. Far fewer could name the game. Andrew Fishman, LCSW, says that gap is where the nightly fights start. Andrew is a licensed clinical social worker who works with teens and emerging adults, writes about video games and mental health for Psychology Today, and is the author of Parenting A Gamer: Help Your Child Build Healthy Habits, Make Positive Choices, and Find Balance in Virtual Worlds. He has led social groups for autistic teens and adults, and he is a lifelong gamer himself. In this conversation with host Jeff Skibitsky, Andrew explains why gaming works as social scaffolding for autistic players. No eye contact to manage, no body language to decode, and everyone in the lobby already shares the interest. Autistic people play roughly twice as many hours per week as neurotypical people, and Andrew makes the case that there is a good reason for that. What we cover: Why gaming rarely becomes a clinical problem, and the specific signs that say otherwise Transitions and the "five more minutes" fight, plus why changing when a kid stops beats fighting over that they stop Turning off public chat, and the parental controls most families never find Skills that come out of play: social practice, reading, math, and real world interests Why playing badly alongside your kid is a gift, not an embarrassment What Andrew wants gamers, parents, and providers each to take away Resources Andrew Fishman, LCSW Book: Parenting a Gamer: Help Your Child Build Healthy Habits, Make Positive Choices, and Find Balance in Virtual Worlds, available wherever books are sold Website: videogamehealth.com Psychology Today column, Video Game Health: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health Practice: The Juniper Center, Park Ridge, Illinois The Juniper Center Social: Video Game Health on Facebook and Bluesky Mentioned in the episode Parental controls and chat settings: look for communication or privacy settings inside each game and switch public chat off. Console-level guides are at the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo family settings pages. ESRB Family Gaming Guide for ratings and platform control walkthroughs: esrb.org/tools-for-parents Roblox parental controls: corp.roblox.com/parents ............................................................... Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.