Still Enrolling for the 2024-2025 School Year. Click Here
Still Enrolling for the 2024-2025 School Year. Click Here
Children need to learn many skills as they grow up. Teamwork prepares them to be valuable members of the community and the workplace. The ability to problem-solve and think on their feet provides confidence and agility. Making friends teaches them the value of forging relationships.
This might come as a surprise, but video games are one of the best activities for teaching these invaluable skills. The key to capturing the benefits of playing video games is channeling your child’s desire to play toward productive screen time. While your kids are having fun, they won’t realize they are learning skills they’ll use for life.
If you’re not convinced of the advantages of playing video games, read on. We’ll explore associated benefits, as well as some pros and cons.
Video games can offer many experiences for kids, depending on the game they choose and their attitude toward gaming. When your child takes an interest in video games, you can keep the various pros and cons in mind to support their interests while keeping them healthy.
Video games can offer several benefits to kids looking for hobbies and pastimes. Some pros of this activity include:
Kids with interests in video games can also find communities of other avid players, helping them make new friends.
Video games also come with some considerations, however, which can impact the effectiveness of video games on young kids. Some cons include:
Why are video games good for you? It comes down to their power to exercise basic mental processes, such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making. Video games offer the brain a good workout. They can change and improve the brain’s performance and structure.
Video games require individuals to identify and react to stimuli, allowing kids who play video games to better recognize changes in subtle color contrasts and shades. Playing video games can also improve the competence of the part of the brain responsible for identifying visual and spatial relationships among objects.
Video game playing can even eliminate amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye.” This children’s condition in which one eye becomes nonfunctional. By covering the healthy eye and playing with only the weaker eye, some players achieved normal or near-normal functioning, reaching 20/20 vision or better.
Video gamers are better at finding a target quickly in a field of distractions, which helps make them better, safer drivers. Playing action video games has also been shown to improve cognitive functions, including attention. Players can also keep track of a set of objects moving around amid identical objects, like that old “shell game” of picking the hat that hides a walnut. Video games for kids also help players be less impulsive. And because games sharpen vision, they can help children cope with dyslexia— sometimes more effectively than training programs designed specially to treat dyslexia.
Multiple studies have shown that playing video games helps players learn to switch rapidly and accurately between tasks that have conflicting demands. One study found that gamers also performed better on cognitive skill tests that involved memory and impulse control.
Today’s video games are much more complex, creative, and social than games of the past. With their increased sophistication, there are a variety of social benefits of playing video games, and multiplayer online games are especially beneficial.
Think about the video games your children play. Often, multiple players are involved, all striving toward a shared goal. Other game modes can encourage cooperation, too. For example, games with a creative mode don’t typically involve a right or wrong path — instead, players are encouraged to exercise their imaginations. Kids playing these games with others can collaborate to generate new ideas and use their cooperative skills to make decisions.
This cooperation may increase the likelihood that players will cooperate or help others when they’re not playing video games.
Children who play video games regularly have higher cognitive functioning, stronger peer relationships, and fewer mental difficulties than their nonplaying peers. Social ties are strengthened because children are playing together, often in the same room or at a shared computer. Even when they’re not playing, games and gaming strategies give children something to talk about and plan.
Hand-eye coordination isn’t just for athletes. Much of what we do every day, whether it’s riding a bike, brushing our hair, or pouring a glass of milk, requires hand-eye coordination. Children need hand-eye coordination at home to fold their clothes and put away their toys. Hand-eye coordination is crucial to writing and working at a computer at school. Good hand-eye coordination comes from the development of fine motor skills that make our hands and fingers responsive to the demands we place on them.
Video games require individuals to move between buttons and toggles to move their players and control various actions. Some require a more subtle touch to get the desired result. Gaming requires individuals to refine their fine and gross motor skills to navigate virtual gaming spaces. They must also keep their eye on the screen to look out for changing stimuli, strengthening their hand-eye coordination as they continue playing.
As in everything, moderation matters when it comes to getting benefits from video gaming. You’re probably aware of the challenges, such as obesity, anxiety, and addiction, associated with too much screen time. Despite fears about the cons of playing video games, maintaining a balance is still important. Parents and students can reduce the negative impacts of video gaming and reap the benefits by paying attention to these commonsense time limits and safety practices.
Screen time can include watching TV and sitting at a computer, but for today’s children, playing video games accounts for a great deal of their weekly screen time. Unfortunately, all that sedentary activity keeps kids from getting the exercise that builds healthy bodies and minds. Too much screen time can keep kids from getting enough sleep, and it can lead to obesity.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children ages two to five have one hour of quality programming per day, while parents of older kids should set reasonable limits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adds that children from six through 17 should have one hour of physical activity— away from the screen — every day.
Although technology has delivered new worlds of learning to children, it also puts them at risk from those who would exploit them. Children should learn cyber safety to keep the door closed to predators who use social media and video games for access. Parents should teach children it’s OK to alert them if they see anything that makes them uncomfortable.
They can use virtual private networks (VPNs) to block intruders. It’s also important to teach children never to talk to strangers online, just as they wouldn’t open the door to people they don’t know. Children should learn to avoid using public Wi-Fi, where eavesdroppers can “listen in” on their conversations and activities.
CCA leverages technological innovation to deliver new and exciting ways to learn. That includes choices in clubs that are tuned in to the interests of today’s children, who live in a digital world. Among them, the CCA Gaming & Computer Club taps into the passion that kids have for games.
Students meet in tournaments, which helps them make friends, while they learn to play games in moderation. In the end, they get all the social, mental, and physical benefits of gaming, while learning to incorporate games into a lifestyle balanced with academics, physical activity, family, and friendships.
The Gaming & Computer Club is just one extracurricular program that allows CCA students to explore their interests and make friends. Children get excited about school when they pursue their passions on their own, and CCA’s array of clubs invites them to explore.
Through clubs, CCA students learn new skills, hone their talents in areas that lead to college and careers, and meet students from around the state who share their passions. CCA’s unique clubs, extracurricular activities, and educational opportunities delve into all the areas where a child wants to learn more. Just imagine the fun they can have while they explore art, theater, broadcasting, books, chess, coding and computers, the environment, or government.
All those clubs are woven into CCA’s philosophy of learning that nurtures the whole child. Personalized education plans are crafted to address each child’s strengths, interests, goals, and challenges. By the time they graduate, they are career-ready and equipped to function in a digital, global world, whether they choose college, career training, the workforce, or the military.
Learn more about the unique opportunities we offer to make learning exciting and fun for CCA students. Enroll today!
Still Enrolling for the 2024-2025 School Year. Click Here
