Games and Education: Good or Bad?

Are all video games harmful? Do they really negatively affect children’s psyche and impair their ability to learn? Gathered all the pros and cons of video games. It turns out they can be useful for your children.

Video Games: Are They Able to Teach Kids Anything?

Video games can be categorized into two groups – for learning and for leisure.

For leisure ones are shooters, platformers, and fighting games. They require speed of reaction and good agility of hands. Therefore, many scientists are trying to comprehend how these games can be useful.

People who are fond of games for leisure show high visual attention and spatial orientation. Professors S. Green and D. Bavalier write about this in their work “Exercising your brain.” Such games also develop the ability to switch between tasks, identify small objects and focus for a long time on something alone. In experiments on the ability to concentrate on various factors, children who had previously played a dynamic shooter showed a better result than children who did not play.

In video games, the load gradually increases – both speed and complexity. In this way, learning becomes individualistic, and everyone is at their limits. Also, action games need constant adaptation as new areas, tasks, and requirements emerge at higher levels. This forms the habit of “continuously improving and bettering your understanding” because the player has to adapt to the new.

It is a mistake to think that such a pastime makes children more irritable and aggressive. On the contrary, they can distract from painful memories and negative emotions, as well as reduce anxiety. So if your child is afraid of the dentist, invite him to play his favorite game before the session.

Another positive effect of games for leisure is the skill of planning. In order to play successfully, you need to develop a sense of the consequences of your actions and think strategically. And if the game is dynamic, then the decision has to be made quickly enough. All these skills work not only in the virtual world but also transferred to real life.

Moreover, games help with advancing digital literacy among children. For example, whenever they would be looking for places to get homework help online, they would know to first check out essay writing services reviews, which would help them make an informed decision.

German scientists S. Kuhn, T. Glech, W. Lidenberger, R. Lorenz, and J. Galinat conducted a study of the effects of the game “Super Mario” on the brain. A team of young people played each day for 30 minutes for almost a season. Afterward, the researchers found an increase in the density of gray matter in areas of the brain associated with landscaping, strategizing, memorization, and micromotor skills.

Learning Games: What Do They Train?

Although entertaining games were not exactly designed to amend learning skills, it turned out that their effectiveness is slightly higher than learning games. Video games for learning are commonly designed to develop one precise skill. For example, learning letters, a certain mathematical operation, or memory improvement.

Also, during the learning games, you can see the results of transferring skills to the educational process. After games for the development of memory in children, the level of performance of mathematical problems and reading improves.

Although learning games are inferior to entertainment in many respects, they still have an important advantage. Among the learning, games are those that help improve the learning skills of children with disorders. For example, many US schools are actively using games to develop memory in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. There are also games for reading in children with reading disorders and for the development of hearing attention in children with speech disorders.

Remember – There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing

Sometimes there is a negative reaction of the adult generation due to children’s interest in video games. But seniors often see new tech utilized by young people as bad. In particular, reading is seen as a good hobby, despite the fact that it is not a social-based pastime.

But it is possible that hundreds of years ago, young people also said that spending a lot of time on books is not useful. If you compare reading and games, the latter is more social, although communication takes place over the internet.

It is incredibly important to understand the effect of games because of their addictive nature. However, parents need to remember that games for leisure have their downsides as well as their benefits. And the biggest downside to video games can be extremely dangerous. Here it is important to teach the kid to allocate time responsibly and not to forget about parental control.

Author’s Bio: I’m Diana Larsen, I hold a Master’s degree in English literature, and I’m a former college lecturer. I founded this site – https://topswriting.com/ – to help all college students find a great service where essay writing help is reliable, cheap, and doesn’t miss deadlines.