Gaming Is Good For Child Development

Gaming or playing video games has often been painted as a negative impact on younger children, hindering social growth and, in some cases, promoting violent tendencies. For the most part, these claims could hardly be further from the truth. In reality, there are a lot of developmental areas in which gaming can greatly aid the development of children.

Type Of Games

When allowing a child to play games, one of the most important parts is deciding which games to choose. While the idea that games can cause violence in children is mostly a myth, it still isn’t a good idea to let children play games which depict extreme levels of violence.

Fortnite is a good example of a game with a 13-year-old age restriction, yet a lot of parents still let younger children play it, unlike the online slots in Sri Lanka that are clearly for 18s and over. There is no visible gore like blood and death is handled in a way that is somewhat far detached from reality. While Fortnite may be okay for some children, other games in the shooter genre can be explicit or put a real weight on a potential death, making them far from ideal for a child. It’s generally best to check a game out first or spend some time watching your child play a game before letting them continue on their own.

Social Development

With multiplayer and co-op games being ever on the rise and making up a large portion of the gaming industry, kids will inevitably gravitate towards games that let them play with others and make friends. Letting children play with random people they meet online is not always a great idea, but there are fantastic communities run by parents to make gaming groups for children to join. In these gaming groups, a child will be able to play with like aged and minded children, making friends and getting more social interaction along the way. Moderation in these groups is usually done by parents, allowing for a safe and positive environment.

Developmental Benefits

There are a lot of benefits associated with gaming, some of the more prevalent are;

• Reading – It may seem simple, but studies have shown that children who play video games often see a boost to reading skills. Video games often have a lot of reading inside them.
• Problem-solving – Problem-solving skills can be greatly benefited by the right kinds of video games.
• Science – Science and maths may not be true to all video games, but some like Kerbal Space Program can give a huge insight to science and space while still remaining incredibly fun and engaging.
• Spacial skills – Games like Minecraft can greatly aid in increased 3d perception and spacial skills.

Other than these direct skills imparted by certain video games, there are a litany of other skills children will pick up while playing games. Skills like coordination, creativity, object manipulation and many others.