Prosocial or skill-building media list

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I hope this is OK - I'm starting two threads simultaneously - this one for reference, the other one for discussion, since I find that reference threads are hard to read when they dive into discussion-world. If you want to talk about prosocial or skill-building media, go here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp3333100.html#3333100

The purpose of this thread is to create a list of specific media that you've found to be helpful to your child on the spectrum. You can include television shows, apps, books, music, audio, video, internet games, websites, gaming systems, devices, etc. Please include what it is, where it can be found, and specifically how it helps your child, and what age group the show is intended for.

I'll start this thread off with a couple of TV shows that we were surprised to find had good social modeling:

Batman the Brave and the Bold - animated half-hour TV show, available for instant download on Amazon.com - each episode involves Batman (a special interest for DS) cooperating with another superhero to defeat a villain. It's still violent, but the focus of the show is on how Batman (kind of a paternal figure) helps the superhero solve the main problem. While some episodes are standard pure entertainment, I've been offered a number of thoughtful conversation-starters by this show (my favorite was the episode where Aquaman got depressed and everybody had to work together to figure out how to make him feel better.) It's geared towards 7-8 year olds, but still interests my 10yo.

Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide - live-action half-hour TV show, available instantly on Netflix - a broad comedy about three friends in middle school. Each episode centers around one social problem that kids might encounter (e.g. a school dance) and how it affects each of the three kids differently. I like that it's two boys of different races and one girl. The other characters are broad caricatures of "types" but the messages of working things out are pretty good. Geared towards kids headed to middle school.

Great idea Momsparky!

This book was invaluable to us:

How to Be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown

It is a detailed, but kid-friendly social guide. We read it nightly when my sons were first starting kindergarten (at their request) and it really helped them to understand norms and expectations.

The Arthur Show (airs on PBS) was another helpful resource. It depicts elementary school age kids dealing with various problems and interacting with each opther in positive yet typical ways.

The Harry Potter series. Wonderful role models and lessons on loyalty, perseverance, accepting differences etc. I personally love these books, and can't say enough good things about them!

Lego Universe. A kid friendly MMOG. Lots of social skills and keyboarding involved, but in a controlled, safer environment than the more grown up MMORPGs.

Dungeons and Dragons. This is one of our current family pursuits. We were looking for something that would engage our boys that didn't involve a screen. It is highly social, cooperative, imaginative game play. My sons love it, even though it is very challenging for them. I think it is absolutely fantastic for working on social skills in a fun, yet structured way (the rules & expectations of the game provide structure). Beware the learning curve is high at first, and if your kids are on the young side or struggle with attention span/organizational skills etc. it will require parental commitment as far as learning and teaching the game, and DMing if you plan on playing as a family.

The Sims 3 (please note this is rated T for Teens due to mild sexual content) I play this myself sometimes, and was amused to find it somewhat instructive as far as social skills are concerned. I found that the concept of someone having a friendship meter that had to reach certain levels before you could unlock certain social interactions, applicable as far as RL friendships. It would be appropriate for teens/older kids. Seems to be more popular for girls.

Any multi player video games These are great for my sons for providing purpose and structure to a playdate, and are typical interests amongst their peers. They play things like Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart and Super Mario Brothers.

I should make the addendum that I'm not as impressed with the second season of Batman the Brave and the Bold.

Kratt's Creatures (we've loved the Kratt brothers since DS was a tyke) http://pbskids.org/krattscreatures/ great for kids whose special interest is animals, shows caring for others and the environment. There's a bit of a superhero aspect to it where the "bad guys" are a bit wooden, but it's OK. For a wide range of kids, target age is probably about 7, but easily could go younger or older.

The Replacements http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/thereplacements/ Not my favorite show, but of the tween animated shows, it's not as bad. The premise is that a brother and sister can replace anyone in their lives with someone better (e.g. the school principal) Of course, inevitably they find that the replacement is a mistake and they have to learn to deal with things as they are (which is what I like about it.) Unfortunately, most of the kids are somewhat whiny; vet carefully. For the 10-12 set.

(I wish DS liked Arthur - I agree, it's an excellent show, probably one of the best written shows on kids' TV - I think because it's so like real school, he can't tolerate it.)

I was surprised to find that the animated TV series Avatar, The Last Airbender http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Avatar- ... 1/70043989 to be a good source of social skills, offering actions and consequences, etc. I was a little concerned that it's all about war and fighting, but as in the first season of the Batman series above, that's there but secondary.

Two unlikely sources of social skills that my 11yo will watch (as long as nobody else knows)

Fraggle Rock
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic (be careful with this one; it's only available on YouTube but has become popular to remix - make sure you find a channel who isn't messing with it.)

Does anybody have any prosocial apps for android or iphone? Thus far, everything my son plays is truly horrible stuff that undermines all the messages we've been giving him about cooperation and not taking revenge. We really need some games that encourage cooperation, even if they're one-player games.

Martha Speaks -- PBS cartoon with elementary age kids and a talking dog. Often they will explicitly explain social concepts to each other or the dog in the course of introducing vocabulary words. DS likes the big words he learns.

Kai-Lan is good and very concrete about problems and solutions. My son doesn't understand gender constructs so even though I am guessing it is a girl show---he does not know. Unfortunately he doesn't sit through the social part too much and mainly likes the Chinese vocabulary part.

But this is good for a child who will sit through social stories.

My kids, boy 8 and aspie girl 10, really liked;

All are available on Netflix

Avatar The Last Airbender - making choices/consequences, shows lots of emotions, being true to yourself and friendship
Teen Titans - accepting who you are, flaws and all, friendship, fighting villains
Fruits Basket - anime series, accepting who you are and finding acceptance, friendship
Harry Potter - books n movies friendship, integrity, choices, adventures
Shrek - imperfect heroes, choices, accepting yourself and others, friendship
Ella Enchanted - girl hero, choices, acceptance, friendship, romance
The Labyrinth - girl hero, choices, acceptance, friendship, adventure, David Bowie (lol, dd is now a fan)
Charlie Chaplin silent movies - perseverance, empathy, acceptance, context, reading facial expressions
How to Train Your Dragon - acceptance, being different, choices, adventure (hope we see a part 2)
The Wonder Years - tweens, slice of life in late 60's, friendship, peer pressure, crushes, emotions, choices, def. discuss after watching

Hugo Cabret book, dvd next year? - choices, acceptance, acknowledgement, movie should win a couple of oscars
Percy Jackson books - imperfect heroes have dyslexia, adhd, failed school, but are saving the world, Greek Mythology, friendship, adventure

DS is watching The Adventures of Tintin on Netflix. It's pretty slow-paced, but he started with the comics, so he's finding it acceptable. It has the advantage of being an adventure series with some excitement and violence - but Tintin is always incredibly polite and thoughtful.

Thanks for the Fruits Basket suggestion - DS is enjoying it! It's kind of girly, and I was wondering how that would go over well, but he seems to really like the odd characters and how they interact.

We found a game that isn't at all prosocial, but is an excellent single-player game for a kid on the spectrum that I wanted to recommend, called Quantum Conundrum It's a puzzle game that involves different "dimensions" where the physics changes - you switch from dimension to dimension to solve the problem. I wish it were more social, but it engages all of my son's gifts, so I thought I'd share it here.

Raggy dolls

I like the message portrayed in this cartoon series that it's okay to be different. Just the title credits makes me (and my daughter) smile......

Raggy dolls - The thunder storm

Here's some blurb about it (from wikipedia).....

The series is set in Mr. Grimes' Toy Factory where, unless the doll is perfect, it is thrown into the Reject Bin. While unobserved by human eyes, the dolls come to life and climb out of the Reject Bin to have adventures. The series was designed to encourage children to think positively about physical handicaps, as well as teaching kindness, tolerance and humility towards others.

The Raggy dolls;

Sad Sack
A sample of a design that was deemed too expensive to mass-produce; his appearance is somewhat different from that of the others. He is the oldest of the seven Raggy Dolls in the Reject Bin. As his name suggests, he is very gloomy and cynical, but he still values his friendship with the other dolls.

Dotty
Takes a preference to leadership of the group, often acting in a bossy manner. She accidentally had paint spilt on her hair and clothing. Dotty's main catchphrase is: "Good thinking!"

Hi-Fi
Converses with stammer due to him being dropped during testing. It was also stated in episode "The Trouble with Claude" that he was wired incorrectly, hence the stammer. He always wears headphones.

Lucy
Holds limbs inadequately attached with nylon thread. She tends to act in a shy manner and is easily frightened, but is very kind-hearted and always loyal to her friends. Her bravery was first seen in the episode "Ghosts". She speaks with a Northern accent.

Back-To-Front
A handyman doll with a backward-facing head (as a result of the manufacturer putting his head on the wrong-way round) and a love of mechanics. Always staying calm in a crisis, "No problem!" is Back-To-Front's catchphrase.

Claude
A French doll, perfect in every way. He fell out of a box of dolls being shipped to France. He speaks with a French accent, and sometimes alternates between speaking English and French.

Princess
Created out of 'odds and ends' due to lack of material from manufacturer. Voice characterised by H-adding. As proven in the intro, Princess is the youngest of the seven Raggy Dolls.

Ragamuffin
Wandering traveller doll who'd lost his owner and decided to spend his life taking in new sights and experiences. Introduced in the fifth series.

You can watch many of the episodes on youtube, some of the series are available on DVD from amazon as are some of the books.

Just a PS: I will note that if you have a child who scripts off of TV, there is some mild profanity in the netflix version of "Fruits Basket." We are actually finding it useful: since the characters don't do much more than swear - they are still polite and kind to each other, so we're able to use it to discuss what language is and what language is not appropriate and when and where.

We recently bought an XBox with Kinect and found two games I wanted to mention here.

First of all, the game Your Shape: Fitness Evolved has an interface that both my son and I are finding incredibly useful in managing our proprioperceptive deficits. Essentially, the Kinect "sees" your joints and measures the angle at which they are extended. This game uses that information to create an avatar that does what you are doing...but also makes a little dot-and-line "skeleton" that turns green when you finally adjust yourself appropriately to the correct position. It is SOOO much better than having some stupid exercise instructor yelling "bend your knees!"

The one negative is that the verbal instructions are kind of hardass. If you don't do an exercise right, the somewhat chirpy virtual instructor will say "that's not what we're looking for. Why don't you do that again?" I spent some time telling DS we'd purchased an older version of the game and I'd read the controls were a bit finicky (they are not, they're surprisingly accurate) and to ignore the voice. Because it isn't a human being and he started to have success, he is finally learning that criticism is sometimes a way of helping you get better at something! There area ny number of different exercise methods and games, so you're bound to find something your child will like.

For me, I find the privacy to find my own way comforting, and the direct computerized feedback much better than verbal feedback or figuring out a mirror. My one complaint is that they don't do each movement separately, so you have to learn them as a whole or break them down into hand and leg on your own.

The second game, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, is more prosocial than physical (which it isn't at all,) although be aware it's rated T for Teen with good reason - there is lots of combat, and the bad guys are dystopian robot-y- pachwork creqtures that ooze black goo. Plus you and the Majin can die. Repeatedly.

The game itself has some problems, for avid gamers: it's a third-person game, the controls are a bit clumsy and the voice acting is frequently awful, but the environment is beautiful and it's engaging enough.

What I like about it is that the point of the game is that you are cooperating with a "good guy" creature, and yo have to work with him and take care of him during the whole game. You can do things on your own, but you get more points for working cooperatively and will typically have more success; there's an entire gauge for "friendship" as well as "life," etc. in the game. If you do something mean (like accidentally whack your friend with your weapon or a rock, he will ruefully exclaim "WHYY" or "OWWW" and move on.

I think it's an interesting take on social skills - not really a skill builder persay, but more a way of showing the big picture of the benefits of cooperation and friendship - how two very different people are stronger together (even with someone who's not always very bright and mildly annoying.) DS loves it, as do the rest of us.

Dinosaur Train on PBS is good, if you like trains and/or learning about dinosaurs. There are usually pro-social and otherwise useful messages. It was useful when my son was super into dinos. It is about a T-Rex who hatched in a Pteranodon nest. So they talk about it being OK to be different, a lot. Also Don the Pteranodon, son has collections of objects, is not as social as the others, and kind of does his own thing a lot in a friendly quirky way that I think resonated with my son.

One episode was about handling anger, another was on finding a calm place. There was one about having to go to the bathroom. etc.

Great idea!

For children in the younger age groups (my son is 4.5yrs)...

Charlie and Lola series
Little sister Lola navigating a whole lot of new and difficult experiences with her big brother Charlie by her side. A beautifully animated series from BBC teaches children to work things out, this pair find a solutuion for everything! Charlie is a wonderful and patient teacher and Lola is hilarious. My son has learnt lots of great things from these shows, they are one of his special interests. Created from the characters of Lauren Child's books (egs.I Will Never, Ever Eat a Tomato, I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed and I Am Too Absolutely Small For School) plus a whole stack of books from the BBC episodes.

Kimochi dolls
Beautiful toys to cuddle that come with feeling packs. Helps a child learn to identify their feelings in a safe, comforting way. For us, after a meltdown, it opens up a door to talk about how DS was/is feeling, what made him explode. Social, because we get to talk about what he, or we, did to make him upset and helps us to get back to a calmer state. The Kimochi is seen as a constant friend who always understands his feelings and looks after them.

When I'm feeling... books
A series by Trace Moroney inculdes When I'm feeling Happy (Sad, Kind, Angry, Scared, Lonely, Jealous, Loved etc....) Hel[ps identify feelings, clearly discusses each feeling. For example, what "Angry" feels like, the kind of things you might do when you feel "angry", things that might make you feel "angry", how others might feel when you are "angry" and suggests things that you can do that might help you feel better.
Published by The Five Mile Press

And for children of all ages...
Pictello app at the app store
Create your own social stories with your own photos, text and it will even read it for you. Great for all ages, we use it for our high functioning 4 yr old and our 13 year old with severe Autism. Suitable for ipad, iphone or ipod touch. Put out by AssistiveWare, not free but quite cheap ($20ish i think). Then you and your kids can be your own authors of your own social stories!

Thanks!

I checked out the app you mentioned, miss-understood, and noted that it was $18 (certainly not the most expense in terms of a theraputic tool, but expensive for an app.)

I just ran across this app that's free and does most of the same things: http://www.britely.com/about Now that I think about it, you could also use PowerPoint with photos, text, and sound to make a social story, right? Just hit me that there are hundreds of options out there.