Hi,
I'd appreciate some game and educational tool recommendations for a specific user.
My brother in law Keri is autistic. He's non-verbal, uses sign language and uses a DynaVox to speak.
He has a PC and an Xbox, but his family became concerned about the content of the games, because he gets quite frustrated with the games he'd inherited from an older brother which are more mature in content, and Keri doesn't have the patience to read instructions or figure out complex scenarios.
For example, there's a game "Legend" (I think - no wait, my partner says it's "Fable") on Xbox. Keri has no trouble moving around the world, but because he gets stuck in the same scenario, tends to engage in repetitive behaviours like making the character punch (rather than interact with) other game characters. This behaviour isn't like him, but it's not something we want to encourage!
I'm hoping to set this computer up with a range of games that he will find engaging, entertaining and hopefully of more value than the commercial titles he's been playing. Non-violent games seem like a good idea to me, but aren't a strict requirement - it's more important that they be engaging and accessible to him.
I've installed Edubuntu (to get the educational extras) and have installed a range of games which looked suitable in Synaptic, but actually taking the time to play through enough of them to assess them looks like it could be demanding! There are a LOT of games in Ubuntu :)
More about Keri: he loves jigsaws and swimming, so he's not averse to puzzles. He also really likes food (and books about food, etc), so a game with food in will probably be a winner :)
Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts and experience! I hope you can help us get a good experience out of this install for him.