Okay, I know we’re behind the curve…I realize that most American families have owned a Nintendo Wii for years now. Recently we decided to let our son, Ethan, (who just turned 8) save his money and buy a Wii. (That’s right – we made him buy it!)

We've held off this long because there are already so many demands on his time; between school and therapy, we didn’t want to add anything else that would compete for his attention and focus. However, for Christmas last year, we bought Ethan a Nintendo DS. His older cousins each had their own DS systems and he was constantly asking them to share. We decided that he was finally old enough (at that time he was 7), but we set strict daily time limits so that it wouldn’t take over his life. (Like most children with Asperger’s Syndrome, Ethan has a tendency to fixate on certain activities or topics of interest.)

The truth is I have been delighted with how playing the Nintendo has helped forge connections with other kids his age. I wrote about some of these connections for the Dallas Moms Blog in February.

Since Ethan has very generous grandparents and a few great aunts and uncles who like to send money for his birthday and Christmas, he was able to save enough money fairly quickly. One of the teenagers in our neighborhood was ready to part with her system, so we got a smokin’ great deal on a used system and we are now a Wii-ing family.

In the past few days since my husband set it up, I’ve found it to be a nice way to connect and interact. Ethan is teaching me how to play games! And, I can only imagine that it will be fun when we host play dates, too. My hope is that this will be yet one more potential way Ethan will be able to connect with friends, neighbors and classmates. I think it will also be a great tool for social learning over Thanksgiving when we host family here at our house; it will give Ethan something new (other than LEGOs) to show and share with his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

I’d love to hear how many of you are Wii-ing families and if and how it has contributed to your child’s happiness and/or social growth. Any favorite games you can recommend? Any we should steer clear of? This big hit in our house right now is Mario Party 8.

Leigh Attaway Wilcox is a writer and editor for the projectLD family of companies. Leigh is Assistant Editor of the internationally acclaimed AutismSpot.com and her work can be found on many of the pLDNetworks sites. Leigh is a guest blogger for the Dallas Morning News on the Dallas Moms Blog and is the author of ALL BETTER: A Touch-and-Heal Book published by Piggy Toes Press in 2007. Leigh lives in North Texas with her husband and young son who loves reading, LEGOs, Mario Bros. and also happens to live with Asperger's Syndrome, an Autism Spectrum Disorder.