Worried that your child spends too much time launching angry birds or foiling online zombies? It’s time to exhale, advised Pamela B. Rutledge, PhD, of the Media Psychology Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
While no one is advocating endless hours of gaming, video games do impart numerous benefits to children, said Rutledge and other speakers at the Friday APA Annual Convention symposium “Innovations for ADHD – Video Games and Digital Media for Improving Academic and Executive Skills.”
“Game play is where we learn,” said Rutledge. “You have to learn to play, and when you learn, you make progress.”
Video games improve kids’ executive skills by forcing them to plan their attacks and use the right tools to advance through game levels, the speakers said. Games also improve kids’ self-efficacy, expand their identities, boost their cognitive flexibility and self-control, encourage their intrinsic motivation and build social connections.
“Joy of mastery and really positive emotions can come from gaming and when you are a kid who has experienced a lot of failures, this is important,” said Rutledge.
Plus, of course, video games are fun. That’s why psychologists are developing ways to tap into gaming as a way to help children with learning differences. One such psychologist is Randy Kulman, PhD, who has launched the website LearningWorks for Kids, which he hopes will show parents and teachers how to use video games and other media to improve children’s critical thinking and academic skills.
“We want to provide activities that connect the game-based skills with the real world,” Kulman said. “We want to target the skills these kids need and develop games for them.”