Are Video Games Good for Children?

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Are Video Games Good for Children?

by Cathie Sims

It's difficult for most parents to allow their kids to play video games for hours and hours every day.  So I spend a lot of time reading about the effects of video games to understand the dilemma. Many researchers base evidence on "screen time", which includes television, concluding that it's detrimental to kids in large doses. The American Medical Association recommends limited “screen time” because of the passive nature of watching TV but, ironically, school is passive (like TV) and harmful to kids for all the same reasons that “screen time” is passive and harmful.  Don’t tell the kids this, or they will want to stay at home with you!   Overall, counter-intuitive research specific to video games shows healthy and positive effects from high engagement.  

Video games increases problem solving skills

The major difference is passive vs. active engagement. When children zone out in front of a TV, they lack problem-solving or strategizing. That's definitely not true for a video game. Children who are completely absorbed in a video game and can't hear a word his mom says is actually exhibiting the behavior psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi call “flow” —which is the highest form of learning due to the engaged attention toward mastery of a skill.

Video games progress motor skills  

Letting a 4-year-old sit in front of a TV with a game controller might not seem like the most prolific use of their time. But researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, would disagree. Their study examined the development of 53 preschool-aged children, and found that those who played "interactive games" had better "object control motor skills" than those who didn't. It's not clear whether children with above average motor skills tend to gravitate toward video games in the first place.

Video games improve your decision-making skills

Most video games require fast reactions and split-second decisions that can mean the difference between virtual life and virtual death. Cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Rochester in New York found these games give players' brains plenty of practice for making decisions in the real world. Researchers suggest that action-oriented games act as a simulator for the decision-making process by giving players several chances to understand information from their surroundings and pushing them to react accordingly.

Video games help your vision

Mom may have warned you that sitting in front of the TV wasn't good for your eyes. But one developmental psychologist found it could actually be advantageous to your vision. Dr. Daphen Maurer of the Visual Development Lab of Ontario's McMaster University made a surprising discovery: People suffering from cataracts can improve their vision by playing first-person shooter games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. She believes these games are so fast-paced that they require an extreme amount of attention, training the visually impaired to view things more sharply. They can also produce higher levels of dopamine and adrenaline that "potentially may make the brain more plastic," she said.

Video games are also therapeutic for children with chronic illnesses.

The University of Utah released a study last year that examined the effects of regular gaming on children diagnosed with illnesses like autism, depression and Parkinson's disease. Children who played certain games, including one designed just for the study, showed signs of improvement in "resilience, empowerment, and a 'fighting spirit.'" Researchers believe the games' ability to act on "neuronal mechanisms that activate positive emotions and the reward system" helped improve kids' demeanors as they cope with the daily challenges of their illnesses.

Video games provide pain relief

Video games also help those who are suffering from physical pain. Psychologists at the University of Washington developed a game that helps hospital patients suffering from immense physical pain by using an age-old mental trick: distraction. The virtual reality game "Snow World" put patients in an arctic wonderland in which they throw an endless collection of snowballs at a series of targets, such as penguins and snowmen. Military hospitals found the involvement helped soldiers recovering from their battlefield wounds. The soldiers who played "Snow World" required less pain medicine during their recuperation.

Video games reduce stress and depression making healthier and happier Kids

Research suggests that unlimited video game time makes for healthy kids in the same way that unlimited baseball practice does for a kid who loves baseball. They say a kid stops naturally when he is exhausted from exerting effort.

Research also says that gamers are happier and more successful as adults.  In 2009's Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine,  a study that found gamers who suffered from mental health issues such as stress and depression were able to vent their frustration and aggression by playing video games — and showed a prominent improvement. The study hypothesized that games gave certain "Type A" personalities time to relax in "a state of relative mindlessness" that allowed them to avoid reaching "a certain level of stressful arousal" as they tried to relax. Science Direct also republished a study that shows that gamers report a higher sense of wellbeing than non-gamers as they age.  Researchers from North Carolina State University looked closely at our aging population to see if there was a link between playing video games and mental well-being — i.e. "happiness." They found that senior citizens who said they played video games — even occasionally — reported "higher levels of happiness, or well-being," says Rick Nauert at PsychCentral. "Those who did not play video games reported more negative emotions" and were more likely to be depressed. It's unclear what exactly is behind this link — or if the relationship is even causal.  A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that gaming is social and gives people a sense of belonging to a community; the long-term benefits of spending large amounts of time on video games are similar to the long-term benefits of spending a lot of time at church.

Video games help prepare you for future careers

In the future, thinking type jobs will be largely about data gathering, analysis and collaboration. So children should learn data gathering early. If you tell a kid to do research online for a paper they are writing for school, the kid is not doing self-directed research. They are finding something because they were told to. Gamers constantly gather information online about the game, becoming better players. The data collection and synthesis skills are more innovative for someone infatuated with a topic, because they are determined to find more and more particular information.  In the long run, gamers will outperform non-gamers in intellectual jobs.

They also say gamers do better in jobs that are active. Especially those types of jobs that require hand-eye coordination and continuing to play the games a little bit each week keeps these professionals sharp at work. We have known about this research for a while from the military, but a study from Iowa State University confirms that even surgeons perform better when they regularly play video games.

Currently in the workplace, the gap between younger people and an older people usually rests in their differing abilities to search for information online. The search and synthesis skills one will need in order to be a great performer at work will only increase with time. Children’s brains essentially change when they are online searching and taking in information all day in odd bits and chunks. If a childs’ brain does not develop this way, they eventually will have an outdated way of problem solving.

So go get your mind enthralled in some new game today, especially those challenging at PocketCake.com!