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Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

nida.nih.gov

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Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#91

Post by marmot777 »

andrewmutz wrote: post #35
darkteflon wrote: post #14

My son started playing games (with me) at 4 yo (partly because we were all locked indoors for months on end). Anecdotally - and providing you use some discretion as to choice of game - I’ve found it absolutely fascinating to watch both the pace of development of problem-solving skills, and some of the frankly astounding leaps of logic and intuition young kids are capable of. I vividly remember one rock-moving puzzle…

What games do you recommend for kids of that age?

Starting at around 5 or 6, Minecraft is fantastic.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#92

Post by bcrosby95 »

ianbutler wrote: post #78
noduerme wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar upbringing. Video games and TV were blamed for bringing down our grades, and were extremely restricted. We never had a console. Dad would come home and put his hand on the TV to see if it was warm, and ground us if it was. I was allowed to spend time on the computer if I was writing BASIC or playing something "educational" (like Carmen SanDiego, or Oregon Trail). The occasional Sierra game slipped in.…

It's funny how different circumstances shape people so differently. I had access to a lot of video games and I decided I wanted to make them as a kid and that started my programming experience around 11-12. If I didn't have video games I probably wouldn't have become a programmer!

Same for me and most of my high school friends. We were all dorks that loved video games and most of us ended up going into technical jobs largely because of video games.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#93

Post by marmot777 »

etiam wrote: post #8

Careful now. Self-assortment into those who don't play at all and those who play at least three hours per day? There's good reasons to think those weren't otherwise equivalent populations in the first place. I'm buying "associated" but any sort of claims about effects from the games are going to have to come from elsewhere.

It’s true that correlation isn’t causation but I think, in moderation, games do improve cognitive skills. If it becomes something the kid does all the time, then I think the lack of balance does more harm than good. Moderation is all things.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#95

Post by [deleted] »

fragmede wrote: post #64
imran-iq wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Video games are like the cheapest way to keep a kid busy for low income working parents Source on that? Video games (console or pc) is very expensive and not something low income folks can generally afford for their kids.

Maybe not for the truely destitute, but the $350 for a Nintendo switch and another $150 for some games is way cheaper than private piano lessons or math tutoring where the sky's the limit. The cheapest is probably Roblox on a school-provided Chromebook, both of which are close to free.

[deleted]

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#96

Post by fragmede »

ransom1538 wrote: post #27

My son (6) is allowed to only play one game. https://play0ad.com/ . It has been a surreal experience. He is able to gather resources, launch campaigns, build cities, he now creates complex strategies to defeat the enemy (me). The game has great LAN game play so we can attack each other . The next step, he wants to know "how do we change this?" Code. Compare this to watching tiktok?

I'm sure your son could find a way to play the game in a way you disapprove of if forced. Kids on TikTok are learning social skills and creating things in order to star in their own videos, learning to harmonize with all sorts of music and being movie editors. There are even foreign language and math lessons to be had. I'm not sure why you have to dismiss the platform as a whole. Time spent with a an active and participating parent is going to be better for the child, no matter what toy is used.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#97

Post by locutus1686 »

andrewmutz wrote: post #35
darkteflon wrote: post #14

My son started playing games (with me) at 4 yo (partly because we were all locked indoors for months on end). Anecdotally - and providing you use some discretion as to choice of game - I’ve found it absolutely fascinating to watch both the pace of development of problem-solving skills, and some of the frankly astounding leaps of logic and intuition young kids are capable of. I vividly remember one rock-moving puzzle…

What games do you recommend for kids of that age?

My son loves the various Lego games (Lega Batman, Indiana Jones, Avengers, etc).

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#98

Post by doubled112 »

yucky wrote: post #86

Kids are playing more and more video games than ever before, and test scores across the board are way down to some of the lowest levels recorded. We conclude video games are helping kids. Something tells me they'll not be able to replicate this.

Correlation does not equal causation?

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#99

Post by bcrosby95 »

dubeye wrote: post #60

My kid is 3.5. Would love to game with him but had assumed it was years off.... Any tips on games or consoles? I think I have an ancient ps4 in the attic somewhere but very open to buying new kit

Mario Kart. The great thing is you can turn off the handicaps for yourself to make it a little more challenging to play with them. I regularly play with my 7 year and twin 4 year olds - we bought the switch about a year ago.

Re: Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children

#100

Post by jacooper »

civilized wrote: post #71

Since I see we're using this as an excuse for general video-gaming-and-parenting discussion... I'm currently very conflicted about video games for my son (7). He loves them but mom hates them and insists on a limit of 10 minutes per day. I am not sure she is wrong. I played a lot of games as a kid and I probably could have done better things with my time. Not that I got any guidance as to what those better things wou…

> He loves them but mom hates them and insists on a limit of 10 minutes per day.

Come on this is ridiculous! 10 minutes is nothing!.

Maybe 2 or 3 hours, but 10 minutes? It will take him a full year to finish the first part of a game!, and will never allow him to discover games with depth and stories(my favorites), so he is going to play quick mobile games, which IMO are the worst.

> I am not sure she is wrong. I played a lot of games as a kid and I probably could have done better things with my time. Not that I got any guidance as to what those better things would have been, but still.

Games in my experience are a gateway to most of tech, for example my first interaction with networks and servers was when trying to create a Minecraft server to play with my friends.

Like everything, doing it moderation is the best, I think 2 or 3 hours would be fitting(not that I had them personally),

But please make sure there is actually something else for him to do, because otherwise he is going to spend the whole day waiting for these three hours.

> At the same time, it seems like a lot of dads are bonding with their boys by playing games, and I wonder if I am missing out.

Probably, your kid is also missing out on playing with his friends online.

To this day gaming is one of the biggest ways to keep in touch with remote people for me.

But that's just my own opinion.

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