“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
- Shakespeare
Argue for the benefits of gaming to any parent of schooling children today and you’re likely to be scoffed at. Gaming nowadays is described as being a waste of time and a distraction from other more important things like schoolwork. Those of us who live with gamers might have witnessed their pleading ‘one last game!’ before being dragged away from the computer.
Games like Lights Out challenge analytical skills, and nurture problem solving abilities in children.
Too much of a good thing can be bad, but it seems that all the ‘good’ of gaming has been completely glossed over. Before one condemns gaming, let’s take a look at how they can help our children grow.
Learning through Play
“When a person is engaged in play, they seem to learn better. … There’s this feeling of mastery that can happen that sometimes kids don’t get to achieve otherwise.” - Psychologist Dr. Kourosh Dini.
Students would learn to problem-solve via cause-and-effect type of situations, rather than via traditional styles such as rote memorization.
The McArthur Foundation in the United States has endorsed a programme in two new schools which would promote a ‘gaming literacy’ in their curriculum, drawing inspiration from video games.
Gaming improves Visual Acuity
The gamer in our mind is a skinny, bespectacled boy hunched in front of a computer screen.
Researchers at the University of Rochester (2006), however, have found that gamers are 20% better at performing complex visual tasks than non-gamers. (Related Post: Losing Focus? Playing Games Could Help You Out)
Identifying a specific target amidst other visual distractions, tracking more than one object at a time and quickly processing a steam of visual stimuli are abilities all well trained while one is immersed in a game.
Scientific Study Shows That Gaming Reduces Stress
Besides being a means of escape from their rigid schedules, ‘casual’ video games have been found to be effective stress-busters. The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at East Carolina University measured participants’ heart-rate variability, brain responses, and mood states.
They found that Peggle proved the best game to play in times of stress, raising the participants’ moods by 537% as compared to the control group.
Surgeons Play Games Too
Parents, rejoice. Dr. James Rosser Jr., director of Beth Israel Medical Center's Advanced Medical Technology Institute compared the skills of surgeons who played video games and those who didn’t. It was found that gamers were faster and made significantly lesser errors during a laparoscopy procedure, which involved them watching a television screen while remotely navigating a camera inside the patient’s body.
Perhaps it is time we stop lambasting those who advocate the benefits of gaming. While gaming addiction is a real problem, parents should help to prevent this by moderating their children’s playtime from a young age instead of banning it completely. Who knows, you just might end up with an excellent surgeon with an eye for detail in the family.
Charmaine Ong
Charmaine is the Staff Writer here at MatchMove Games
