Just as with professional sports, the chances of becoming a professional video gamer are very small. However, the video gaming industry is growing by leaps and bounds, much faster than traditional sports and entertainment. There are lots of careers in this growing industry — careers like coding, marketing, or running events. Those are some of the potential benefits of video games. Now learn how to choose video games and apps for your child.
He picks himself up when he falls, and he tries again. Share 6 surprising benefits of video games for kids. Podcast Wunder community app. Main menu Our work Blog Surveys and research. Join our team Privacy policy Terms of use Fundraising disclosure Sitemap. At a Glance While there are downsides to playing video games, there are also surprising benefits. Video games can help kids build skills and make social connections.
Kids who play video games are often very creative. Although video games get a lot of bad press, they do have some benefits. The trick is to strike the right balance of good content and appropriate limits. Studies have found that video games can improve learning.
When video games have been used in the classroom, teachers see improved test scores. Games also allow students to learn and then apply what they have learned in a real-life situation. Medical and military training programs both use simulation-style games to teach tools and strategy.
Many video games teach kids how to delegate, work as a team, and prioritize. Internet-enabled games that let kids play with their real-life friends often require collaboration and division of tasks to beat the level.
Video games have been shown to help us improve our ability to reason and solve problems. They help us make split-second decisions, process information more quickly, and multitask effectively. Games can also improve hand-eye coordination and boost auditory perception. Motion-controlled games like the Nintendo Wii were once thought to be the answer to parental concerns about video games leading to obesity.
However, there is some hope in the form of smartphone games that encourage kids to leave the house. Pokemon Go is one example, but your kids may also enjoy the real-life treasure hunt appeal of activities like Geocaching. It appears that this causes an increase in the amount of gray matter in their caudate nucleus, while it decreases in the hippocampus. However players who play games that requires players to navigate using spatial strategies like the 3D Super Mario games have increased grey matter in the hippocampus.
Too much video game playing makes your kid socially isolated. Also, he may spend less time in other activities such as doing homework, reading, sports, and interacting with the family and friends. On the other hand, a study by researchers at the North Carolina State University, New York and the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology points out that gamers usually do not replace their offline social lives with online game playing, but rather it expands them.
In fact, among gamers, being a loner is not the norm. Some video games teach kids the wrong values. Violent behavior, vengeance and aggression are rewarded. Negotiating and other nonviolent solutions are often not options. Women are often portrayed as weaker characters that are helpless or sexually provocative. On the other hand, a University of Buffalo study suggests that violence and bad behavior played in the virtual world may be contributing to better behavior in the real world.
Gamers who play violent games may feel guilty about their behavior in the virtual world and this may make them be more sensitive to the moral issues they violated during game play. As one boy revealed in a research focus group, "In the games that are real, which are mostly the sports games, you see them do amazing plays. If you go outside and try them and keep practicing, you could get better.
It's normal and healthy for kids, especially boys, to compete with their peers as they jockey for status and recognition.
In my surveys and focus group studies with young teens , "I like to compete with other people and win" was one of the most popular reasons for playing video games -- again, especially for boys. Video games are a safe place to express those competitive urges, and can give children who aren't good at sports a chance to excel. When children play video games in groups, they often take turns leading and following, depending on who has specific skills needed in that game.
In studies by Nick Yee of the Palo Alto Research Center, teens who had played group games online felt they had gained leadership skills such as persuading and motivating others, and mediating disputes. Online multi-player games offer teens a rare chance to participate in, and sometimes lead, a diverse, mixed-age team. And nobody cares how old you are if you can lead the team to victory. An experimental study published in the Creativity Research Journal found a link between certain video games and creativity.
The participants either played Minecraft with or without instruction, watched a TV show, or played a race car game. The researchers found that those who played Minecraft without instruction completed subsequent tasks with the most creativity—maybe because they were given the most freedom to think on their own while playing, researchers think.
Roughly one-third of the children we studied said they played video games in part because they liked to teach others how to play. As one boy's dad revealed during research, "Most of the interaction my son has with his buddies is about solving situations within a game.
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