There is growing scientific evidence to indicate that playing video games may actually be beneficial for a child’s brain development. Games such as Super Mario Bros., which were widely considered violent, have in fact shown benefits in terms of developing a child’s sharp responsiveness and creative activity of the brain.
On the contrary, there has been little scientific evidence to link such video games with an increased tendency of violence or other anti-social behaviors. Violent behavior is more associated with family environment and wholesome upbringing of a child.
UC Berkeley Study on Children’s Brain Development
A recent study conducted by the scientists at University of California, Berkeley and published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience showed that the brains of children belonging to low-income groups responded poorly in terms of problem solving and creativity. In stark contrast, children belonging to more affluent backgrounds showed superior brain development and sharper response of their pre-frontal cortex, the portion of the brain that is crucial for logical thinking and analysis.
W. Thomas Boyce, the British Columbia Leadershp Chair of Child Development at the University of British Columbia (UBC) explains that children growing up in resource-poor environments have a definitively poorer development of the pre-frontal cortex of the brain.
Dr. Boyce, who is a pediatrician and a developmental psycho-biologist leads a research program jointly conducted by UC Berkeley and UBC which evaluates children’s basic neural development in childhood. This research program in fact examines the results of video games and other such tools in inducing the activity of the pre-frontal cortex.
Role of Video Games in Brain Development
The role of video games in improving hand-eye coordination has been widely recognized in scientific circles. However, new scientific evidence actually points out to superior brain development of children who have the privileged access to technological tools such as sophisticated video games. Such games enhance skills such as problem solving ability, inductive reasoning, recognition of patterns, accuracy of estimations, hypothesis testing, resource management efficiency, quick thinking, sharper memory, mapping and logistics, and judgemental analysis.
Video games do not necessarily need to be viewed as anti-social tools. Instead of blaming the video games, the blame should be accepted by parents who are unable to provide sufficient quality time to their kids. Excessive exposure to anything is bad, and video games are no exception. But a disciplined lifestyle and a balanced approach to playing video games can only result in all-round positive benefits for the child’s mental and psychological health, happiness and development.
There is a typical pattern of children who are exceptionally skilled with video games are more confident, alert, quick-witted, efficient in their school and home work, and more comfortable with making new friends and constructive relationships. It adds to the overall personality development of a child when he or she is exposed to innovative and child-friendly technological gadgets such as video games.
References:
National Geographic Report on Benefits of Video Games
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