5 Skills Children Can Develop Playing Video Games
In a digital age, it is natural for parents to raise concerns about the role of technology in the lives of their children. With childhood obesity rates just continuing to rise rather than decline, parents are even further concerned about the time children spend in front of screens.
However, computers and other tech gadgets have become an almost inextricable part of our lives. Tech giants like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others famously put strict limitations on their children’s technological interactions, yet they did not ban them entirely.
As a parent, there is nothing wrong with limiting your kid’s interactions with tech, but it is also essential to recognize some valuable lesson games can provide.
Here are five valuable skills children can develop playing video games.
1. Critical thinking skills
Once thought of as “soft” skills, critical thinking skills are becoming one of the most sought after traits in the business world.
When children play video games, they often make choices that lead their characters or avatars to “die.” Thankfully, in video games, unlike in real life, you get an unlimited number of lives.
What “dying” in the game does, however, is teach them to make better choices. Game designers will often present two very obvious solutions or paths. Many times, going down path A leads to “death,” but so does going down path B.
What children have to learn to look for is the much less obvious path C or D.
This ability to find a much less obvious solution is the very root essence of critical thinking skills.
2. A better understanding of cause and effect
If a child places their hand on a hot stove, they learn to approach stoves with more caution. Of course, no parent wants their child to learn things the hard way or in any way that causes them pain. One of the great things about video games, therefore, is that they are immersive.
Children (and even adults) identify to some degree with their avatars and can also experience certain things through them.
Most video games offer good and bad choices, with either benefits or consequences to both.
Learning lessons in a digital environment where there are no real-world consequences helps them become more confident about their real-world choices.
3. Better learning skills
Most adults who have spent much of their life in school may forget that learning how to learn is a skill.
Learning isn’t just about reading or understanding - it is about retention. Retention generally comes from repetition, but rote repetition may be one of the most painful ways to learn.
Gamification makes learning fun, and there is ample evidence that having fun is a critical element in learning.
The more fun you have when learning something, the more likely you are to retain that knowledge.
Video games teach kids that learning can be fun, which is a great skill to carry into adulthood.
4. Persistence
Throughout life, your children will encounter many obstacles and challenges. How far they go in life may come down to nothing more than just how persistent they are.
Another word for persistence is resilience or the ability to overcome obstacles, problems, challenges, and even failure. In fact, “failure” is nothing more than just quitting when you didn’t succeed.
One thing you may notice about both children and adults that play video games is how they can become nearly obsessed with a game that they will play for months and months on end. They may even become so frustrated with the game that you may wonder if it is unhealthy.
Sometimes, it may not be, and you, as a parent, will have to make that judgment.
In other cases, however, the game may be teaching them a critical life skill.
People get frustrated with a video game because there is a level they can’t beat or a problem they can’t solve. With persistence and determination, however, they may find the solution or answer that allows them to move to the next level.
While you certainly should help your child set boundaries around video games and the role they play in their lives, that doesn’t mean you should simply encourage them to quit if they get frustrated.
5. Social Skills
Fifty years ago, children used to play board games with their peers. Today, they play video games.
While the means of playing a game may have changed, the valuable social skills that playing games teach have not. All of the same social elements involved in playing a board game are also inherent in playing video games.
Children still have to learn how to take turns, to share controllers, and even to sometimes play a game they don’t want to play, but their guest does. There are even ways to cheat at video games the same way there always have been with board games, which also holds some valuable lessons for your children.
Video games are nothing more than the digital equivalent of the same tools children have used for learning and entertainment for decades. All of the same principles apply.
As a parent, you need to help your children set proper boundaries and be more mindful of the role that technology plays in their lives, but that doesn’t mean you have to make technology the enemy. Video games are not only entertaining, but they can be valuable learning tools as well.
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Michelle Laurey is a freelance writer who enjoys fitness, relaxing in the fresh air, trying to live a healthy life. Her best ideas and problem solutions appear while she’s riding her bicycle. Her superpower? Vinyasa yoga! Talk to her on Twitter.