Rising Storm StudiosIf you are worried about the potential harm that video games can present to your child, that’s good! That means you’re a great parent, looking out for your child’s best interests and safety, but please understand that there are many good things about video games too.
Improves Concentration Ability
Most gamers learn to block the outside world out to get a higher score. This ability can translate into being able to study even when there is noise and learn to focus no matter what is going on around them.
Improves Critical Thinking Ability
When you need to analyze your moves to stay alive in the game or to build something logically during gaming, it helps develop critical thinking skills. You learn that doing A causes B and you start to think of backup plans, just in case.
Improves Decision-Making Skills
Getting to start a game over – either from the beginning or a last save – and play it again based on what you learned during a previous playthrough is a great way to improve decision-making skills. Because of their experience making choices, including the wrong ones, they become more skilled over time.
Improves Goal-Setting Skills
Reaching a goal requires the ability to first set goals, and then follow through with the plan. Gaming helps kids practice this skill as they set up strategies to get to the next level of a game.
Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
As they say, practice makes perfect. Whenever you use something a lot, it gets better, including hand-eye coordination used in gaming. Even the military is interested in what gamers can apply their skills to.
Improves Motor Skills
The skills you use in gaming are often considered fine motor skills. That just means that they can use their finger and thumb together to accomplish a task. Gaming improves these skills exponentially.
Improves Problem-Solving Skills
Games put problems right in front of the gamer that they solve. When playing the game, they need to figure things out, resolve conflicts, overcome roadblocks, and make decisions to be successful in the game.
The experience of solving a problem and getting a reward by moving up a level or getting points or something of value really helps increase those types of skills.
Improves Social Skills
It might seem like it’s not true, but otherwise introverted kids who in the “old days” would be stuck up in their room reading books, are now actually socializing with their friends via the games. Something that actually helped during pandemic isolation.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Many games are team-focused, which means that your child has to get used to working in groups. Sometimes they have great teammates and sometimes, well, things can be a bit rocky. Just like in the business workplace.
Of course, every single benefit and positive effect of gaming comes with the clarification that achieving these positive effects means that as a parent you’re involved, you talk openly to your kids, and you are paying attention to what is happening with gaming – including how gaming ratings, limits, and parental involvement help improve the positive effects experienced by gamers.
