As facilitator with The WRITE STUFF Kids Club, one of the things I put a lot of emphasis on is giving children and young people a ‘voice’. This is simply allowing them to have their say on everyday issues and be allowed to voice their opinion.
Technology and screens, including video games, is something we parents all try to keep our children away from as much as possible. In doing that we work off our own initiative and sometimes we forget to ask what playing these games means to the child/young person in question. Certainly it’s very important to only allow age related games but I am guilty of trying to steer away completely from video games when my boys were young.
Here our young TY student gives his voice to video games and technology in general. And he’s making a lot of sense. Sometimes listening to our children teaches us so much. Great advice here young man, thank you.
Video Games
Most parents have a set idea when it comes to technology with their children and it’s the basis that they shouldn’t be on it very much. Every family has their different rules and outlook on things so it would obviously vary from family to family. Usually though the thought of technology with teens is that they shouldn’t be on it much at all.
When it comes to technology there are multiple parts of it that extend out such as video games, watching videos and social media. There should be a limit when it comes to any of them, no doubt about it, but they shouldn’t be viewed as completely negative when it comes to letting your kids use them. When it comes to video games it can take you away from whatever that’s happening in life just like a book would do. It also can help social skills by talking to friends online and just having fun with them in general if not possible to meet face to face: say if it’s raining or like the recent situation being in a pandemic. Technology has helped greatly during these times for young people as it helped take their mind off things and still have contact with their mates.
It also helps with things such as basic motor skills and memory. In a study taken at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus in Berlin, Germany, found that playing video increases grey matter (basically, the size of your brain) and helps refine learned and hardwired skills. They also help hand-eye coordination and work as some sort of therapeutic quality for others.
Of course limit the amount on these to an extent but don’t overshadow them with thinking that they are only negative and would harm your child, they benefit too like any type of food, they just need to be used moderately.