Minecraft (8-17 yo)

Social Skills & Team Games Group:

Minecraft Teams

Friendship skills - Negotiating - Conversation skills - Expressing opinions - Co-operating - Playing as a Team - Learning Sportsmanship Skills

WE ARE NO LONGER RUNNING MINECRAFT

Minecraft in Social & Teamwork Skills Groups

Imagine your child working with other children or teens to build amazing things while having to negotiate, listen, and work with others. Minecraft is the perfect 'common interest' for helping children learn to express themselves and communicate more effectively.

Get Started Anytime!

You don't need to wait until a new school term - you can start any week.  It usually takes just 1-2 weeks to get your child started with an ideal mini-group.

Wednesday start times

NSW/VIC/TAS/QLD: 3:30pm/4.30pm/5.30pm/6.30pm

SA/NT: 3:00pm/4.00pm/5.00pm0/6.00pm

WA: 1.30pm/2.30pm/3.30pm/4.30pm

Tuesdays & Fridays start times

NSW/VIC/TAS/QLD: 3:30pm/4.30pm/5.30pm

SA/NT: 3:00pm/4.00pm/5.00pm

WA: 1.30pm/2.30pm/3.30pm

Saturdays start times

NSW/VIC/TAS/QLD: 8am/9am/10am/11am/12pm

SA/NT: 7.30am/8.30/9.30/10.30/11.30am

WA: 6am/7am/8am/9am/10am

WE ARE NO LONGER RUNNING MINECRAFT

3 Ways To Learn Social Skills & Teamwork Skills

Your child is part of a mini-group, with 3-4 students working together, with a couple of our leaders helping and guiding team-work negotiations. We work together as a team (e.g. create a space shuttle or a playground or a robot factory etc).

Creative Mode (Building Together)

Minecraft is like Lego - except on a screen

We work together to make scenes and building projects.  Your child’s team will build fun things like pirate ships, beach scenes, Star Wars spaceships, Treehouses etc.

Games Together (Players-vs-Players)

Learn sportsmanship skills (Advanced/Optional)

Once your child is feeling more confident and has learnt some teamwork skills, they can start to play team mini-games. We build and play together with our leaders and our mini groups to develop sportsmanship skills and communication skills.

Team Survival Challenges

Increased Teamwork (Advanced/Optional)

In team survival challenges, we get together and make our team’s home base. We cooperate to gather food and to find building materials.  - We start without even a spare sandwich in our backpack and no tools at all..

My son has grown in confidence tenfold since joining Minecraft around October 2022 [8 months].

I am just thrilled at his growth in confidence, talking with a trusting community & gaining problem-solving skills along the way with Sebastian (his favorite helper) and other like-minded Saturday morning colleagues.


- Proud Mum of 11 year old


Learn Specific Social Skills with Minecraft

  • Express opinions.
  • Listen to others’ ideas.
  • Build conversational skills.
  • Take others' feedback on board.
  • Politely say 'no' to others' suggestions.
  • Give and receive compliments.
  • Learn to build rapport and make connections.
  • Learn self-esteem and self-talk strategies.
  • Plan together.
  • Create together.
  • Be a great team-player.



We Help Your Child Achieve Their NDIS Goals

We have different goals for each child and team. We set your child’s teamwork goals depending on your child's abilities. For community members who are on NDIS goals, we can set goals that match NDIS objectives and we match goals to your child's unique personality.



NDIS Funding Categories

NDIS funding is generally available for self-managed and plan-managed NDIS plans. Chat with your plan manager for what is relevant to your situation. It is helpful to know that other families have told us they usually use these categories (or similar):

  1. Increased Social & Community Participation
  2. Improved Daily Living

For plan-managed participants, your plan manager will be able to tell you whether your plan will cover this, as some plan-managed participants may have some out-of-pocket expenses. Most families are able to cover this without out-of-pockets.


Pricing for NDIS is structured as: $69.80

[1.0 hour of face to face ($61.50) + 0.135 hour ($8.30) non-face-to-face, total $69.80]


NDIS Reports Provided

Parents often ask, “Can I please have a report for our NDIS plan review?”

Rest assured, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" 

We'll arrange that for you.

No hidden fees - All reporting like this is already built into the standard program fee, so you will not be given an extra fee beyond the usual cost of the program. 

WE ARE NO LONGER RUNNING MINECRAFT

Advantages

After School Sessions

Convenient & Flexible - All sessions are at after-school times or on Saturday mornings because our children need an uninterrupted school routine.

No Waiting Lists!

You hate waiting lists and so do we!

Every week your child is not learning new skills is a wasted week. That’s why we'll do everything we can so your child can start within n 1-2 weeks of enrolling.

Teaching social skills in an Autism friendly way

We use a range of Autism-friendly strategies to make it easy and fun for Autistic people to develop their social skills, conversational skills and teamwork skills. Here’s how we help young people grow their skills in an Autism-friendly way:

  1. We introduce a skill broken down into simple steps - This defines clear and specific routines, rules & social norms, so our learners don't have to guess
  2. We make our demonstrations fun and natural
  3. We provide a safe & fun space to practice - We create a fun, safe place with plenty of opportunities to practice social skills
  4. Create ways that our learners can practice at home
  5. Explain why these steps work - Solidify their understanding & show that these skills are worth learning & using
  6. Encourage them to keep going - We use encouragement, humour and sense of team spirit to make learning fun and to build peripheral social skills at the same time
  • How do I get setup (Tech support)?

    Our Tech Support People (Patrick, Tristan & Lani) can happily show families how to get their child set up. We help children set up their own Minecraft account. If you have any trouble getting set up, our friendly Tech Support People will even walk you through it. Easy!

  • What is this program's location?

    Your lounge room, using zoom - No need to travel.

    You don’t need to travel anywhere. It's easy to use Zoom from your lounge room.

  • What devices can kids use for Minecraft?

    What devices can kids use for Minecraft?

     

    Kids who are used to using Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo switch can't use those playing Minecraft with us, but they would have the skills so we can transfer them onto their computer, laptop, tablet or iPad instead.

  • How many sessions should I do?

    This is not a set-weeks-time course. We take public holidays off but most of our kids use this as a long-term skill-building program.

  • Will my child be 'Building' or 'Playing' in teams?

    It's easy to opt out of Team Games or Survival Teamwork Groups – Parents can let us know if they want their child doing building without the extra teamwork challenges. That’s okay because some kids are in the early stages of learning communication and team skills.

  • Who is this for?

    It's for ages 7 to 25 who love Minecraft. 

    Your child will join a similar age group. 

    The group will match their social skills. 

    We have many groups for all ages. 

    Each group helps with learning social skills.

  • How do you ensure online safety during the sessions?

    The main concern is unknown players in real-world games. 

    You can't know their intentions. 

    Children sometimes play Minecraft unsupervised or with other groups. 

    They may be mistreated or spoken to harshly. 

    Our sessions have leaders trained to support children with Autism. 

    It's risky to let your child play with strangers.

  • How can parents and caregivers support their children during these sessions?

    We ask parents to keep their phone nearby during sessions. 

    Sometimes, children may struggle or almost melt down. 

    They might need to find you quickly. 

    You can help them, like getting juice. This helps a lot. 

    After sessions, we send positive texts. 

    These texts talk about your child's new skills. 

    You can read and share these with your child. 

    Celebrate their success together.

  • How do I register my child for the program?

    You can book your child/teen in on our website at: https://amazingskills.typeform.com/enrol-mc

Tony Attwood (basically the go-to guru in Australia on Autism) said this:

This is what kids get out of computer game time:

  • They can achieve a temporary escape - to get away from the world and it stresses.
  • Create a sense of connection with other people who think like they do (which doesn’t always happen - in the real world)
  • Computer games give instant gratification - because there are always a series of goals and you achieve them and you get told you are a champion for achieving them.
  • There’s a good sense of challenge that appeals to kids with Autism
  • Often kids to feel unpopular at school can feel a sense of popularity with other gamers
  • There’s usually hardly any social chit-chat or off topic social cues to read. It simplifies interacting with others
  • In some types of computer games, kids can build their own avatar, which is a pretend person who they can be, like a superhero or something like that.

Source: https://attwoodandgarnettevents.com/internet-gaming-and-autism/




We are not "Minecraft" or "Microsoft" - We just use Minecraft to help kids/teens build social skills.

NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT EVENT/etc.]. Not endorsed or approved by or associated with mojang or microsoft.

Each week we have a different theme and discuss a different social skill - here are some examples:

Other Programs Loved By Kids & Teens

Start point - juniors

Secret Agent Society®

8-12 yr

Secret Agent Society® (SAS) is a fun, evidence-based learning experience, helping your child grow their social skills and emotional regulation skills. The engaging spy-game curriculum helps your child learn to make new friends and keep those friends. Kids can choose to feel happier, calmer and braver. Recommended by Psychologists, OTs and Speech Therapists.

Start point - seniors

Peers® Social Skills (Teens/Young Adults)

12-17 yr

Peers is an friendly, evidence-based learning experience for teens and young people. Together with a caring “mini-group” of new friends and leaders, your young person learns skills and confidence for social interactions - learning new ways to make friends, keep friends, and thrive in life. Recommended by Psychologists, OTs and Speech Therapists.

Minecraft Teamwork Group

8-15 yr

Each week, your child will enjoy creating and co-operating with other kids. Your child will be guided through teamwork skills, negotiation skills and friendship skills. Each week we build a different Minecraft building project together. Will we build a beach scene, a spaceship, or a theme-park?

Art Friendship Group

8-17 yr

Kids and teens create fun art activities together, with our leaders helping and guiding your child through social skills to make new friends. It’s relaxed, supportive and very social. Each week we have a different art project that we work on together as a team (e.g. a drawing, painting, graphic design etc).

Friendship Hero (Boys) Playground Skills

8-15 yr

Your young man builds on skills he’s learnt from SAS & Peers (Evidence-based social skills courses), targeted for the daily challenges that growing boys face. Your child learns to be more confident, contribute more to interactions with others and how to keep friends. It’s a fun experience, with a focus on playground-style social skills.

“Worth It” (Girls) Friendship Skills

8-16 yr

Your daughter will love learning new social skills, building on the skills she gained in SAS & Peers (Evidence-based social skills courses).  In a fun, safe space your daughter learns how to navigate healthy relationships and develop social resilience. She can learn to ‘read the room’, evaluating social settings to drop her social ‘mask’ and shine as herself.

Adventure Team - Role Playing Game

11-25 yr

Social Role Playing - A fun interactive Zoom board-game-like Social Skills learning experience on Zoom. Each session, we learn new social skills and then we apply those social skills as a Pirate, a Space Pilot or a Farmer.

Free

Parent Encouragement Groups

Parents only

Parents who love hanging out and exchanging ideas - What’s working in your family right now, and what is tricky? Let’s learn together. Parent support, ideas & encouragement night are so much fun.

Want to know more?

Is this course right for your child? Get in touch with the team to arrange for your child to get started. It’s a way to start learning about new social skills, making better friendships and enjoying their school experience more.

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