And continuing the topic of the previous post. There are even more additional positive effects of playing games.
- Video games introduce children to computer technology and the online world. One should recognize that we are now living in a high-tech, sophisticated world. Video games help kids adapt and be comfortable with the concepts of computing. This is particularly important for girls who typically are not as interested in high technology as much as boys.
- Video games allow you and your child to play together, thus a good bonding activity. Some games are attractive both to kids and adults, and they could be something that they share in common. When your child knows more than you, he can teach you how to play and this will allow you to understand your child’s skills and talents.
- Video games make learning fun. Your kid likes games because of the colors, the animation, the eye candy, as well as the interactivity the challenge, and the rewards of winning. The best way to learn is when the learner is having fun at the same time. That’s why video games are natural teachers. Having fun gives your kid motivation to keep on practicing, which is the only way to learn skills. Video games are also capable of making difficult subjects such as math fun.
- Video games can make your kid creative. A study by the Michigan State University’s Children and Technology Project found a relation between video game playing and greater creativity, regardless of gender, race, or type of video game played. (In contrast, the use of cell phones, the Internet, and computers other than video games was unrelated to creativity, the study found).
- Video games can improve your kid’s decision-making speed. People who played action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others without sacrificing accuracy, according to a study from the University of Rochester. Other studies suggest that most expert gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people, and can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confused, compared to only four by the average person. Surprisingly, the violent action games that often worry parents most had the strongest beneficial effect on the brain, according to cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier, who studies the effect of action games at Switzerland’s University of Geneva and the University of Rochester in New York.
- Video games increase your kid’s self-confidence and self-esteem as he masters games. In many games, the levels of difficulty are adjustable. As a beginner, your kid begins at the easy level and by constant practicing and slowly building skills, he becomes confident in handling more difficult challenges. Since the cost of failure is lower, he does not fear making mistakes. He takes more risks and explores more. Your kid can transfer this attitude to real life.
- Video games give your child a feeling of happiness or well-being, which is a human psychological need, according to Berni Good, a cyber-psychologist. In addition to giving your child a sense of competence or mastery when he progresses through game levels, video gaming also helps him relate to others in a meaningful way when he shares his gaming experiences with others in multiplayer gaming or in social media. It also gives him a feeling of being a master of his destiny.
- Games that involve multiple players encourage your child to work cooperatively to achieve his goals. Your kid learns to listen to the ideas of others, formulate plans with other kids, and distribute tasks based on skills. Some online games are even played internationally, and this can introduce your kid to players of different nationalities and cultures. This fosters friendships among different people.
- Video games that require your kid to be active, such as Dance Dance Revolution and Nintendo Wii Boxing, and games that use Kinect, give your kid a good workout. When playing these active games for 10 minutes, your kid spends energy equal to or exceeding that produced by spending the same amount of time on a three-mile-a-hour treadmill walk.
- Video games make players’ visions more sensitive to slightly different shades of color, according to a University of Rochester study. This is called contrast sensitivity and is observed particularly in first-person shooter game players. “When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing,” according to lead researcher Daphne Bavelier. The training might be helping the visual system to make better use of the information it receives.
- Video games may improve eyesight. Studies have shown that video gaming has better than average eyesight. A study performed by researchers from McMaster University has also found that playing video games could help improve eyesight by teaching the brain to spot small details, follow movements, and spot subtle light changes, at least for people with visual difficulties. Another study by vision scientists at the University of Rochester and Vanderbilt University found that children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training via kid-friendly video games.
- Video games help children with dyslexia read faster and with better accuracy, according to a study by the journal Current Biology. In addition, spatial and temporal attention also improved during action video game training. Attention improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities. Another study suggests that just one hour of gaming can improve visual selective attention, which is how scientists refer to the brain’s ability to focus while simultaneously disregarding less relevant information.
- Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California states that playing first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty has shown to have a “benefit on high cognitive abilities” including focusing for long periods and multi-tasking. He even suggests that these games can be prescribed to children who are struggling to focus in class.
- Kids are not necessarily drawn to video games because of their violence. The attraction lies in their being rewarded by awesome displays of explosions, fireworks, and yes, blood splattering. Also, violent games have the most emotional appeal for kids. But these factors are only secondary to what kids enjoy in these games – the opportunity to develop and master skills and have the freedom to make choices in the game universe.
- Violent video games may act as a release of pent-up aggression and frustration in your kid. When your kid vents his frustration and anger in his game, this diffuses his stress. Games can provide a positive aggression outlet in the same way as football and other violent sports.
- Playing video games is safer than having your teens do drugs, alcohol, and street racing in the real world.
- A study done by researchers at North Carolina State University, York University, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology concluded that playing online games does not replace offline social lives, but is expanding it. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.
- A 2013 study by Berlin’s Max Planck Institute for Human Development and St. Hedwig-Hospital found a significant gray matter increase in the right hippocampus, the right prefrontal cortex, and the cerebellum of those who played Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day over two months. These regions of the brain are crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory, and motor performance. Indeed, the increased gray matter in these parts of the brain is positively correlated with better memory. Decreased gray matter is correlated with bipolar disorder and dementia. What’s also striking is that those who enjoyed playing the game have a more pronounced gain in gray matter volume. The study suggests that video game training could be used to counteract known risk factors for smaller hippocampus and prefrontal cortex volume in, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative disease.
- Other studies found that playing video games changes the structure of the brain. Brain regions involved in attention were more efficient in gamers and regions related to visuospatial skills were both bigger and more efficient.
- Another study published in Scientific Reports has found that Action Video Gamers have more gray matter and better integration of brain networks associated with attention, sensory, and motor functions.
- A Bristol University research shows that the “gamification” of learning can reduce the activity of a particular brain network which is responsible for mind wandering. When designed and developed properly, computer-based games can have a beneficial effect on learning.
- Several researches, including the one done at Ruhr-University Bochum, show that video gamers have an advantage in learning compared to non-gamers. In their test, video gamers performed significantly better than non-gamers in a learning competition. Also, gamers showed increased activity in the brain areas relevant to learning.
- A study published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology in 2016 suggests that “video game use is not associated with an increased risk of mental health problems. On the contrary, the data presented here suggest that video games are a protective factor, especially regarding peer relationship problems for the children who are the most involved in video games. Finally, video games seem to be linked to better intellectual functioning and academic achievement.”
- Another study suggests that playing some video games may even overcome the cognitive skills affected by poverty like focus, self-control, and memory. That may help reduce the achievement gaps related to poverty that are seen in school.
- Video games can stimulate your child’s interest in technology, and can be a gateway to learning technological skills such as coding or programming.
- Finally, according to a study, gamers tend to be more social, more successful, and more educated than people who make fun of them.
- Considering all these, be reminded again that the type of genre affects the brain differently, and one should not generalize that all video games have the same effect or benefit. For example, the researchers of a study hypothesize that playing strategy games results in improving memory tasks. Playing action games that stimulate the limbic area and elicit emotional arousal might be beneficial to those with mood disorders.
- Experts believe that parents playing video games with their kids can boost better communication between them.
So what are you waiting for?
Come and check out the games we can offer! Your brain will thank you!