[Intro:
The other day I posted a part of a paper I wrote as a student. I decided to modify it a bit, and post the whole paper. Enjoy reading a students point of view on a different side of video games.]
1]Skills developed via video games
Social skills
In many situations, video games have made kids who are not so popular among their classmates, finding common interests with kids that also play video games, while the communication between them appears to be easier and much more interesting. In addition, playing a video game with your friend is a chance to get to knoweach other better. Moreover, nowadays, most of the games offer either co-op or online features, where you can play against other players by using the internet. Going against the belief that gamers are unsociable nerds, it is a fact that gamers who use these modes, have showed advanced social skills and prosocial behavior that had an effect on their life outside the games. Also, players of communal games, are more likely to gather people with whom they share same thoughts and beliefs, for a common cause, like raising money for a charity or any other good cause.
Education
Children playing video games will, also, have to learn some basic things like: reading, counting, chatting, and much more. When a child starts playing a game and sees, ‘Start’, ‘Play’, ‘Continue’, ‘Save’, ‘Load’, ‘Quit’ and much more, they will have to know what each of these words mean. As they will continue playing the game, they will find many unknown words. Therefore, they will be forced to search and learn all of those words’ meaning and that will significantly improve their vocabulary. Moving forward, almost every game has a scoreboard, so, the kid has to know how to count in bigger scales in order to be able to compete with the other players and reach the highest positions of the leaderboard.
Emotional Benefits
“Gaming may be among the most efficient and effective means by which children and youth generate positive feelings”. This sentence summarizes the whole paragraph. Studies have showed that playing certain types of games, the player is relaxing, enjoying it and getting relieved from anxiety. But games generate much more feelings such as satisfaction when the player wins a game, loyalty when the player belongs to a team.
History learning
A lot of strategy games are based in real historical events. In this games the players must learn what really happened so they can understand they gameplay and continue playing, as video games keep them focused and concentrated. According to , many experiments have been done in students. For example, in an urban lower school, students were divided into two groups. The first group was playing a video game about Ancient Egypt while the other group made a completed a research with the same subject. In a test given after this the first group did much better than the second one.
Video games in school
More and more teachers nowadays are looking for interesting ways in teaching. One of them is video games. “Math video games can enhance students’ motivation to learn, but it may depend on how students play, researchers at New York University and the City University of New York have found in a study of middle-scholars.”
Healthcare
Games designed for diseases It may sound odd, but games improve, indeed, your children’s mental health. There are many instances of that. One of them is the Re-mission game which was distributed among young cancer patients. This game teaches them how to adhere their cancer treatments. The game is still considered a successful treatment approach. There are many similar software, helping not just children to overcome their diseases. “Packy and Marlon” (diabetes), “‘Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus” (asthma self-management) and “Rex Ronan” (smoking prevention) are some of them that are available through ‘Click Health. (www.clickhealth.com)
Games and Dyslexia
According to kidshealth.org, dyslexia is a learning problem that kids face. Dyslexia makes it difficult for them to read and spell. It is a problem located inside the brain. Nevertheless, scientists teamed up to develop a game that “rewires the children with dyslexia and activates those areas of the brain critical to reading skills. With intensive remedial training, their brains begin to function more like those of normal readers.” The game is called Fast ForWord and provides the dyslexic kid with tasks, which, when completed, the kid moves forward to more complex ones, while being monitored by professionals who check their progress. The results are impressive: years of treatments reduced to a few weeks.
Videogames in special needs group
Video games also help a lot of kids with special needs. They were used to train children with multiple handicaps to make scan and selection responses. Moreover, researches showed that children with learning disabilities who have used video games, were helped with mathematics and problem solving exercises. What’s more “an autistic 7-year old son reported that although he had serious deficiencies in language and understanding, and social and emotional difficulties, videogame playing was one activity he was able to excel. This was ego-boosting for him and also had a self-calming effect.”
2]The other side of video games
This paper is written to highlight to good effects of video games but since there is also a lot of examples of children addicted or developing unwanted behavior towards their family, friends or teachers. In addition Children should always been supervised by someone capable of doing that while they are playing. Also the parent should know what type of games his kid is playing and check the story before the kid starts playing.
Negative Emotions
We have learned by now that video games can generate positive feelings for the player. But on the other hand a game can be stressful and disappointing. If a players gets addicted to a game, and for example tries to complete a level, failing to complete this level can generate negative emotions such as anger and depression. Furthermore. schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortunes of others) is a feeling that players can get if they try too hard to be the best player of the game.
Bad Behavior
Two recent researches showed that players of violent games tend to behave more aggressive than non-players. According to the research for the players of violent games their answers to questions like “Compared to the illegal things people do, taking some things from a store without paying for them is not very serious” and “It is OK to insult a classmate, because beating him/her is worse.”
Critic and personal arguments
I chose this topic because I wanted to make a point about video games: that they can help children. Many researches showed that video games help children and adults to overcome their problems and diseases. Scientists alongside with game companies should focus on this aspect in the future, and create more games that will help people. Moreover, parents and teachers should not treat games as a waste of time only, because the players love spending time playing video games, and in many cases, as stated above, games help them resolve personal matters and health issues. What I see in the foreseeable future is that video games will help more and more people and everyone should understand that video gaming is not a childish activity anymore. Just like movies, TV series, music etc. video games are equally important.
Conclusion
Taking into consideration everything stated above, anyone can understand that video games are a major part of our lives. We must learn how to use them wisely and get the best out of them. Children should be supervised, and adults should be able to understand when they game stops being a game and becomes an addiction. In addition older people who did not grow up with video games should understand that video games are not just games. Playing video games is a way to have fun, relax, get away from your problems and most importantly, is a way of educating and improve your health. And that’s a part that doctors and teachers must never forget.