An 11-year-old builds a game with AI

11-year-old builds – After being diagnosed earlier this year with ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, an 11-year-old used Copilot on a new Christmas computer to build his own video game with help from prompts, voice mode, and step-by-step guidance—turning a parent’s AI anxiety into a

When her son finished fifth grade, the diagnosis landed earlier this year: ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. Organization and remembering the order of things were hard. So when a computer arrived for Christmas, the plan wasn’t about coding—it was about access.

The mother, Michele Ragon, is a 46-year-old employee communications business partner at LinkedIn in the Bay Area. She said her son could use the new computer to access Copilot. The first time they worked together with AI was for a school essay on hurricanes. She described it as a two-way back-and-forth: Copilot sat open beside her son’s notes. and he could ask questions while researching. It was “eye-opening” for him, she said, because it helped him get more context from what he was reading.

A few weeks later, one night, she walked into the room and realized she had no idea what he’d been doing. She came up behind him while he was working on his computer—and until she started asking questions, she didn’t know he was building his own video game with AI.

Ragon said the process worked because it was simple for her son. He didn’t have to be a coder to make something creative. She called it an example of AI not taking away from humanity or creativity.

What he built took less than 8 hours total with Copilot.

He sometimes browses Steam, the gaming platform, to play free game demos. He doesn’t have a paid account on the site, but he explores what’s there. Ragon said he’d also read “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. ” and something in the book sparked his imagination—specifically. a civilization-building game he remembered seeing on Steam and thinking was “really cool.”.

When Ragon asked what he was doing, he told her he started asking Copilot questions like, “Help me build this game. Here’s my idea. How could I build this game?” The model, she said, began walking him through the steps.

When she asked how long it took, her son answered that it was four days of working with Copilot for an hour or two a day until he had a workable version.

He also described what it feels like to ask for help again and again. One of the best parts, he said, is that AI never gets mad when he asks the same question over and over—it just repeats the answer in a different way. His favorite prompt is “What does this mean?”

When an error code shows up and he doesn’t understand it, he copies the code back into Copilot. The model then walks him through it. If it’s still too technical, he’ll ask again—then he said it simplifies the response further. He also uses voice mode when he’s having trouble typing out what he wants to ask.

The hardest part, he said, is the stuckness. He can get trapped with the same error. and neither he nor the AI can fix it or diagnose what’s going wrong. He doesn’t yet have the maturity. Ragon said. to understand that when that happens he has to do something different—change the prompt or try another approach—or he will keep getting the same results.

When something wasn’t working, he moved on or worked around it. Ragon gave one example: he changed the rats to smiley faces because the game kept crashing.

Ragon said she does have worries about her son’s AI use, even while she’s seeing real creative gains. She said the specific game he was building felt like a low-risk environment. and she wasn’t concerned that inappropriate content or responses would come up. But she still wonders whether he has the ability to spot when something is incorrect. or whether AI might give him information that isn’t right.

She also worries about what he’s seeing online on a platform like Steam, where anyone can post games. She said they let their kids explore on their own and then show what they’ve learned. Still. as a parent. she asked whether she has put the proper parental controls in place on what her son is seeing and what he’s able to build online.

The decision to build a game, she emphasized, was her son’s idea—executed with the help of AI, and with no other way for him to do it. He doesn’t know how to code, she said, and for him AI amplified his creativity because there’s a positive reward in making something he can actually use and play.

In the end, Ragon said what surprises her most is how quickly the momentum builds. She asked her son if there was anything else he wanted to build or anything else he was excited about with AI. His face “lit up” with the next game idea.

Beyond her own home, she said schools should teach students how to use AI appropriately. She works for a tech company. but she also listens to friends outside tech who are using AI in daily life. One job-hunting friend told her she had Claude help her practice for interviews and used it daily in her job search. Ragon said even Googling something now can return an AI-generated response right away.

AI, she said, is coming fast, and she believes it’s a disservice when kids aren’t taught how to use it in an appropriate way.

Then, back at her son’s computer, the question returns—what he will build next. For Ragon, the answer is there in the excitement: a child learning through making, not just consuming.

AI creativity Copilot ADHD dyslexia dysgraphia parenting Steam gaming education prompts voice mode