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A child sits transfixed, intently watching the fast-paced action on-screen, controller in hand with thumbs quickly moving over the buttons. It's a common scene in homes across America as statistics indicate that over 67 per cent of households with children own videogame systems.
Much has written about the negative effects of video and computer games on children, but what about the flip side – the benefits gleaned through the experience? According to some experts, these are numerous and span the gamut from the social and psychological to the emotional.
Marc Prensky, New York City-based founder and CEO of Games2train and author of the book Digital Game-Based Learning (available through www.online-toy-store.net), believes that videogames can be an integral part of a child's development. "They are not the enemy but the best opportunity we have to engage our kids in real learning," he explains.
Apparently, the US military agrees. It uses over 50 different games for teaching purposes. Its belief in the potential of games is so strong that it is working with parents and educators to boost awareness of the potential for learning through fun and entertainment – or ‘edutainment,' a word often heard in the same breath as videogame.
Through the act of playing, kids learn skills that are vital to real life. Today's gamers will grow up embracing new technology, not fearing it. Remember how intimidated your parents were with the arrival of email and automatic bank tellers? That won't happen to today's kids. A UK study by Teachers Evaluating Education Multimedia (TEEM) found that certain games have the potential to improve computer literacy in children and boost capability for logical thinking.
On a psychological level, kids can hone their ability to concentrate, to make decisions quickly, to problem solve and to multi-task – all key skills for coping with daily life. And there are physical benefits that emerge through playing games, too: improved hand-eye coordination, motor skills, spatial abilities and stress reduction.
Recent research has gone a step further by focusing on the therapeutic qualities of video games. Bryan Raudenbush of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia conducted a pain study with college students and found that subjects playing a fast-action game were able to tolerate pain for longer periods of time when compared to those who were not playing. In future, the medical profession could use videogames as a tool to distract children who are undergoing painful procedures, ranging from flu shots to chemotherapy, and make them more tolerable. Some therapists have also used videogames successfully to treat patients with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
Maximizing the Beneficial Effects
Prensky advises parents to play an active role in their children's videogame playing. Just how active? He recommends the following:
- Ask your child to teach you how to play his or her favorite video games. Talk about what he or she enjoys about them and emphasize the positive aspects of the experience.
- Steer children toward other non-game related material. For example, if your child really loves a computer game featuring dinosaurs, you can buy books or watch documentaries on the subject.
- Educate yourself about the games available.
- Go with your child to purchase video games. Listen to feedback about them. If you're unsure about the suitability of a specific game, rent it first.
- Encourage a child's creativity and spend time developing a fantasy videogame that's fun and educational, based on a topic of interest to you and your child.
- Limit game playing time, especially if it begins to infringe upon others aspects of a child's life (school, sleep, meals, and outdoor activities). Watch for physical signs of overplaying, such as repetitive stress syndrome (pain in the joints, fingers, or wrists). Part of a parent's role is to teach their children about balance.
"What attracts and 'glues' kids to today's video and computer games is neither the violence nor even the surface subject matter, but rather the learning they provide," says Prensky. "Kids, like all humans, love to learn when it isn't forced. Modern games provide learning opportunities every second."
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