The Advantages to School Age Children Playing Video Games

Hi Everyone! As you all know I am a registered Early Childhood Educator and over the past few blogs we have been discussing the benefits to school age children playing video games. After sharing all my research and knowledge with you guys, I would like to now discuss how it will impact me as an educator who works with school age children. I am going to completely honest with you all! I truly believe that with the advancing of technology, video games can be an amazing educational tool that can help children with all learning types have a better understanding of what being taught to them. With all the different learning styles that children may have now a day, it is crucial to acknowledge the importance of "knowing [the] children's learning style and finding [the] appropriate ways to create or enhance learning environments such as choosing appropriate game type for each style of learners will increase the student's learning success"(Rapeepisarn, Wong & Khine, 20...

HI Guys!!!! Welcome back! Today we will be talking about the cognitive benefits of school age children playing video games. There are many beliefs that playing video games causes children to be intellectually lazy but after conducting some research, there are many cognitive skills related to playing video games (Granic et al, 2014, p. 68). It is stated that children who play video games have shown improvement in Spatial skills, controlled attention, problem-solving skills and enhanced creativity (Granic et al, 2014, p. 68). Games genres like shooting, strategic, racing, fighting and puzzle games all display an improvement in one or more cognitive skills for children (Granic et al, 2014, p. 69). Research states that " video games can promote problem solving skills, such as when games encourage players to stop, thoroughly explore different possibilities, and consider new strategies and goals before moving on" (Adachi & Willoughby, 2013, p. 1041). It is important for chi...

Hello Everyone! Today I will be discussing how making video games apart of experiences within the classroom will provide school age children with a more engaging environment. With the increase in children using video games, teachers have shown an interest in using them as educational tools within the classroom. (Del Pozo, Gomez-Pablos & Munoz-Repiso, 2017, p. 2). Research states, "... both pre-service and in-service teachers perceive that using video games is an effective way to enhance learning, motivate students, and to incorporate visual representations into educational practice" (Del Pozo et al, 2017, p. 5). Teachers have realized that using video games like Minecraft in their classroom provides children with an online learning experience that engages them in learning activities as well as encouraging them to take an active role in their learning (Kruger, 2016, p. 1). When children play video games they are sometimes faced with challenges and are not a...

Hello Everyone! Welcome back to my blog, today we are going to be focusing on how school age children playing video games encourages socialization. How you ask? What many individuals do not realize is that video games that children play now and the games they played 10-20 years ago have changed greatly (Granic, Lobel & Engels, 2014, p. 72). Many believe that video games are just "electronic babysitter" to keep children busy but when in reality there is a very complex relationship between children playing video games and building on their socialization skills (Bassiouni & Hackley, 2015, p. 130). Over the past few year, video games have evolved into online worlds where children can play and communicate with other children playing the same game. Research states, "[o]ver 70% of gamers play their games with a friend..." (Granic et al, 2014, p. 73). Video games like World of Warcraft, Minecraft and Farmville give children the opportunity to build on social s...

Welcome back everyone! In today's society the amount of time children spend playing video games has increased tremendously. Though I could not find find a set number of hours a child plays video games, the average Canadian spends about 10 hours a week playing video games (Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2018, p.2). According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 39% of male kid gamers ( age 6-12) most often play on consoles, while 66% of female kid gamers (age 6-12) most often play on mobile devices (2018, p.7). This shows us that Canadians, including school age children are spending a large amount of their time playing video games. The first thought that comes into most peoples minds when they think of video games are probably that they are useless, non-educational, a waste of time and have bad affects on children development. But what a lot of individuals dont know is that there are many advantages to their school age children playing video ga...

Hey guys welcome back! As you guys know, video games don't necessarily have the best reputation when it comes to school age children and their development. A lot of people in today's society say that there are no benefits to children playing video games. That's why i'm here! Though out my research I have found that there are quite a few benefits to school age children playing video games and that they can help them in many ways throughout their development. For example, the other day it was -17 degrees outside so it was too cold to take my  school age class out to play, and the gym was being occupied by a volleyball tournament. I then decided to take out the Nintendo Switch as my last resource. I used the "Just Dance game" as a form of physical activity within the classroom environment. Using the Nintendo Switch was a fun and different way to get all children involved and participate in the activity. Children got to dance, jump around and follow the charact...

Hi, thank you for joining me. My name is Analisa and I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator. I graduated from the ECE program at George Brown College in 2016. I am now working at a before and after school program while continuing my education at the University of Guelph-Humber for my degree in Children Studies. Based on my experience as an ECE and some personal experience, there is a topic I would like to discuss with all of you. Video games! Personally, I am not a fan of them. I find that they made my brother very dependent on them and super lazy! He always gives my mom a difficult time when it comes to doing house chores because "he's in the middle of a game!" They also cause him to get really aggressive because he always sounds like he's having a yelling match with someone. BUT...  Having these negative views on video games made me want to look deeper into the effect it has on school age children. Surprisingly after conducting research, I realized that th...