As parents, you may think that playing video games is a waste of time and makes your children neglect their duties. Actually, there are also positive impacts of playing video games for children. It is normal if you worry about the impact of video games on your children, considering that video games can cause negative effects, such as sleep disorders, addiction, and triggering violent behavior. However, video games can be a fun learning tool for your children if done right.
Read also: Signs of Online Game Addiction and How to Overcome it
The Positive Impacts of Video Games for Children
Here are some of the positive impacts of video games for children:
1. Train problem-solving skills
Train ability’s children to solve problems is the positive impact of video games for children. This is because to complete a game in a video game, the children must plan, try different approaches in order to move forward, and make decisions quickly and accurately in a short time.
2. Adding new knowledge
In fact, some video game content provides information about various things, such as the history of a country, culture, geography, types of living things, or knowledge about space objects. This will encourage children’s interest and find out more about the information that interests them.
3. Enhance creativity
One of the positive impacts of video games for children is that they will be able to improve their creativity and skills, including drawing, coloring, and story writing skills.
4. Exercises emotional control
Also, playing video games can encourage children to reduce anxiety, improve their mood, and make them more relaxed when facing a problem.
5. Builds an unyielding character
When playing video games, usually children must go through various challenges to get to the next level, so that the children tend not to give up easily. In real life, this will be useful for the children to stay strong in the face of failure and keep trying until they succeed.
6. Develops social skills
The next positive impact of video games for children is to develop social skills. Now, playing games online with friends can help the children to socialize and release stress. The form of interaction in playing video games can be in the form of cooperation in completing a mission. As parents, you can accompany your child to help strategize with their friends, while teaching them how to have a good team discussion.
7. Strengthens the relationship between children and parents
Another positive impact of video games for children is to strengthen the relationship between children and parents. As parents, occasionally, you can join in playing video games with your child. In addition to monitoring what your child is playing, playing together with your child is also a great way to strengthen the relationship and communication between you and your child. That way, your child will get used to telling you various things.
As parents, you can help choose the type of video game which is suitable for the age of your child to maximize the positive impact of video games for your child, so that your child does not play video games for adults that may have violent or pornographic content. Also, you must always pay attention to the portion of time playing video games. Ideally, to avoid the adverse effects of gadget addiction, children should play video games for 1.5 hours or no more than 2 hours per day.
If your child has shown aggressive behavior as a result of playing video games too often, such as irritability, hallucinations, or even experiencing physical pain, such as eye pain, body aches as well as being overweight, you must approach your child in a friendly manner and then limit his/her time in playing video games. If you find it difficult to overcome this, do not hesitate to take your child to a psychologist to get the right treatment.
