Is Video Gameplay Actually Good for Kids?

Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By Colleen Rowe
Video gameplay isn’t completely bad, depending on how you look at it, reports Medline Plus.
As an aunt, it is important to be aware of the healthy video gameplay timelength for children. According to a recent researchers’ study, published in the journal of Pediatrics, “kids who played video games for less than one hour a day were more likely to be happy, helpful and emotionally stable than kids who never grab a controller.” However, the study also shows that excessive video gameplay, for more than three hours, will have an “opposite effect.”
Dr. Paul Weigle, pediatric and adolescent psychiatrist in Mansfield Center, Connecticut, presents the idea that children can learn problem-solving skills from video games. According to Weigle, video games create social connections among children and their peers. Kids will have more to talk about with their schoolyard friends if they are all playing similar games.
Adults who are concerned about a child’s development would benefit by “grabbing a controller and sitting down next to them,” says Andrew Przbylski, an experimental psychologist at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford in England. Here, there is a combination from real-contact social interaction and utilizing available video games. By imitating a child’s actions and becoming a part of the virtual worlds they’ve grown to love, aunts are able to understand their nieces and nephews on their terms.
Published: August 20, 2014