It is my firm belief that different children need different limits. I have one who has a hard limit of 3 hours a week of video games apart from homework, and one who does not need a limit to be set (reads instead).
I don't think that educational gaming should be allowed to be a special, unlimited case for those kids who are strongly drawn about screens. Just because something allows the learning of academic content does not mean it's necessarily a good. Especially for kids with ASDs, screens can really be a stand-in for social interaction; too much screen means they're not in conversation or practicing imaginative play with others, which is what they might really need. Again, kid-dependent: I would look at it and ask "is it serving him well as a person?" (i.e. not just in terms of academic content, but in terms of whole-child development) and make a plan based on that.
DeeDee
