Kids and Games

AL][EN

Apologies if this is in the wrong fourm but im not really sure where else to post this,

I have a question/concern regarding games and children. Allow me to explain a little. My 4 year old son is very much into Computer games. Its my own fault really Im somewhat of a geek myself and am very much into all things shiny and electronic, I own a PC, and Xbox360 and my son has a Playstation 2 and a nintendo DS. at 4 years old he can play all the game consoles and even the PC with no problem.

My question is this, do PC games effect childrens concentration and ability to learn? We've just had our first parent/teacher meeting as my son is in junior infants and while he excels in things like maths and logic etc he is very poor at written english and he still cant recognise written words like "if" and "like" or assoicate sounds or words with the words written down.

He also is very poor at writing. I have considered some options like taking the games off him but i wont do it unless i know they are interfering with his ability to learn. Does anyone know what this sounds like or could offer some advise on what to do?

Thanks.

Susannahmia

Dyslexia maybe?

jam_mac_jam

If its junior infants I think you have plenty of time to fix this and fair play to the teacher for pointing it out. Similar thing with my own child but a bit older before it was noticed. I would read with him or to him as much as you can. Half an hour every night will make a difference.

It made a huge difference with him, english would be his best subject now (he is 12 now.)

Dizzyblonde

I really doubt that computer games have anything to do with it. I raised two daughters with every games console and lots of pc games in the house and neither ever had a problem.
It's my opinion that exposure to computer games from a young age benefits children - of course I don't mean shoving them in front of it and leaving them for hours.
As someone else said, your son is very young yet and if it doesn't improve it would be worth having him tested for dyslexia.

Pegasus15

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

It's my opinion that exposure to computer games from a young age benefits children

I agree 100% with this. Children learn skills such as hand-eye co-ordination (especially if playing the Wii), puzzle solving skills (in certain games anyway), patterns, etc. and this actually could be why the OP's son is good at logic and maths.

Nevyn

Yes but they still need to develope the motor skills which they need for writing, so crayons,
playdough, cutting and sticking and lego are needed to work those muscles.

Batman lego AL][EN you know you want to!

I had the same with my son and it took lego and drawing and colouring sessions to work up his muscles and it took reading with him and him playing a game with a lot of text in it and both parents refusing to read it for him to get him to improve.

The dr seuss 'I can read with my eyes wide shut' was also a good help.

AL][EN

Thank you very much for all your replies. I'll definatly take on board some of the suggestions above.

I suggested to my partner last night that we try and encourage him to read a little and i even went out and bought one of those edcuational CD/DVD Rom jobbies you can get. I kind of figured the games werent effecting him but i just want to be sure. And as one poster suggested his hand eye cordination is very very good.

ohh oohh batman lego!! COOL i am so gett.... (COUGH) i mean yes batman lego what a good idea, i'll buy some right away and it only makes sense that i play the lego with him to eeerrrm help....yes help develop his motor skills.

Thanks again everyone
Im greatful.

di11on

Hi Allen,

I know this isn't directly relevent to the issue here, but it's worth bearing in mind.

Reading the thread below was a real eye opener for me... the impact games and tv violence can have on kids is really profound. We're the first generation of game playing parents to face this problem... it's new and I don't think many realise how much of an impact it can have on young kids.

See this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=55056930#post55056930

AL][EN

Thats quite an eye opener i can tell you.

Actually he used to play a few games like that about a year ago. Games i wouldnt consider violent but for a child would be extremely bad. And i did notice a spike in his agression levels even so much when he started school. since then I've weened him off those games like that he only has games like... scooby doo, cars, spiderman and spongebob square pants. Granted the only game i would consider violent would be "transformers" but even then the most your doing is shooting other big robots. he seems to enjoy it and i wont take that off him.

I plan on hiding all my xbox360 games from now on and telling him that there all broken hopefully i can get him playing just the PC (world of warcraft which i sit down and play with him) and his playstation.

Thank you for the heads up next thing is to sit down with my partner and talk about this as like me she probably doesnt realize how these kinds of games effects children.

Kernel32

I will probably get myself into trouble for saying this, but personally I think the idea of justifying computer games because it will improve eye hand coordination is simply a bad idea and also false. This is coming from someone who lives and breathes computers, has three desktops, two laptops among other things.

I painted a bird house with my 5 year old last night. That will also improve eye hand coordination and allow you to interact with your child. I'm not trying to say I am some how better than anyone else because I have struggled with the whole thing myself but I do recognize the difference it makes when you sit down with your child without some beeping box and do something, versus having this third party electronic box of tricks do the work for you.

Dizzyblonde

Kernel32 wrote: »

I will probably get myself into trouble for saying this, but personally I think the idea of justifying computer games because it will improve eye hand coordination is simply a bad idea and also false. This is coming from someone who lives and breathes computers, has three desktops, two laptops among other things.

I painted a bird house with my 5 year old last night. That will also improve eye hand coordination and allow you to interact with your child. I'm not trying to say I am some how better than anyone else because I have struggled with the whole thing myself but I do recognize the difference it makes when you sit down with your child without some beeping box and do something, versus having this third party electronic box of tricks do the work for you.

I completely agree with you, we spent a lot of time with our children doing all sorts of things, but this included computer games - we mostly played them together. This is important, because too many kids are shoved in front of the TV and left there. Also, my children never sat in the house playing computer games rather than doing outdoor stuff with us or their friends.
But I've also seen a lot of kids who were never allowed to have computer games and I think that's a bit harsh - and the same kids would literally kill to get a go of one in a friend's house.

beer enigma

Strange that this topic should be raised as my wife & I have just been discussing it.

Mine are 7, 5 & 3 & we decided not to go down the DS Lite route at christmas despite the pressure from other kids in school getting them.

Dont get me wrong - I'm 43 now & have great memories of playing pong on a ZX81 (if you know what that is...u too are old ).

We decided to get my old Playstation 1 out & let the kids have fun with that - it very quickly became a favourite & they'd crowd round after school taking turns. Problem is, we noticed a change in their temperament, my 5 yr old started waking from nightmares & arguments started ocurring over small things.

Just in case it was to blame, we decided to limit their usage to a few hours each weekend as a treat & hey presto, everyone calmed down again - my 5 yr old stopped getting nightmares.

I'm not saying it was 'extreme' but we certainly noticed a pattern between their video games useage & their behaviour.

Andi

di11on

Andip wrote: »

...but we certainly noticed a pattern between their video games useage & their behaviour.
Andi

This generation of parents really needs to face up to this new issue. It's a pity that many of us are finding out the hard way (me included). It really does have a huge and deep impact on young children.

What worries me is that for those few consiencious parents that make this discovery and share and/or learn from experiences here, there are 100 more parents blissfully unaware of what they're doing by sticking their kids in front of tv/games consoles.

I feel very strongly that this issue needs to be highlighted... not just here, but beyond.

SarahMc

Funnily enough I was at a conference recently where academics were presenting initial findings from research on this topic.
Scary stuff.... children (pre-schoolers) cannot distingush fact from fiction after a continuous 20 min gaming/tv session, so short sessions are better.
There was also very scary findings about prolonged TV/gaming interfering with a child's cognitive hard wiring at what is a crucial stage in child devleopment.

Although research is still in its early stages, I reckon we will be horrified at what is confirmed in the next 3-5 years.

di11on

SarahMc wrote: »

Funnily enough I was at a conference recently where academics were presenting initial findings from research on this topic.
Scary stuff.... children (pre-schoolers) cannot distingush fact from fiction after a continuous 20 min gaming/tv session, so short sessions are better.
There was also very scary findings about prolonged TV/gaming interfering with a child's cognitive hard wiring at what is a crucial stage in child devleopment.

Although research is still in its early stages, I reckon we will be horrified at what is confirmed in the next 3-5 years.

That's really interesting. Do you have any links? I'd be REALLY interested to get my hands on the papers.

I think everyone could have guessed that gaming isn't fabulous for kids, just like sticking them in front of the TV does them no favours, but you're right, I think we will be truly horrified at the impact gaming has on very young children - our kids are really the first generation to experience this, because they're the first generation to have gaming parents.

Dizzyblonde

We're mad into our games in our house and we started with a Sega Megadrive when our daughters were very young - admittedly the games for the Sega weren't violent though. Since then we've had literally hundreds of games for the consoles and pc. Our daughters are in their twenties now and I can honestly say they haven't been affected negatively by gaming - maybe boys are more inclined to be?
We also didn't leave them in front of the box for hours either. A lot of the games seem to be more violent now so maybe that's a factor.
Parents of young children these days have a much tougher time, with all the stuff the poor kids are exposed to.

di11on

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

... Sega Megadrive ...

Ahhhh... the memories! We had a megadrive too as kids. How old were your daughters when they first had one?

You're right very young kids are exposed to so much more than we ever were. There's so much that's even directed at them. From what I've read, the period from 0 to 5 years is a critcal stage in a child's development. A child's personality is pretty much developed by the age of 5. From what I understand of SarahMc's post, research is showing that gaming can interfere with this critical developmental process... i.e. it's literally personality altering!

The frustrating thing is, that it will probaly be some time before the issue is documented well enough for any action to be taken. People get upset about junk food ads targeted at kids, but this area has the potential, I believe, to cause much more damage.

Dizzyblonde

di11on wrote: »

Ahhhh... the memories! We had a megadrive too as kids. How old were your daughters when they first had one?

My daughters were 5 and 8 when we got it, I'm not sure it'd be too good for under 5s though. Time enough when they're older. I also think a lot depends on the individual child too, whether or not they'll be affected.

SarahMc

di11on wrote: »

That's really interesting. Do you have any links? I'd be REALLY interested to get my hands on the papers.
.

No probs, I'll dig out the details in work tomorrow, if I have no links, I'll PM you and post hard copies.

tulipandthistle

SarahMc wrote: »

Funnily enough I was at a conference recently where academics were presenting initial findings from research on this topic.
Scary stuff.... children (pre-schoolers) cannot distingush fact from fiction after a continuous 20 min gaming/tv session, so short sessions are better.
There was also very scary findings about prolonged TV/gaming interfering with a child's cognitive hard wiring at what is a crucial stage in child devleopment.

Although research is still in its early stages, I reckon we will be horrified at what is confirmed in the next 3-5 years.

I would also be interested in links for this.
I have worked with children for 16 years and I found that there is a HUGE difference in children's concentration who watch a lot of t.v and those who don't. Because of this we have only recently let our 2 year old watch clips from you tube for about 15 mins troughout the day. One of these clips was a modified lawnmower which could "mow" a watermelon, bottle of juice and a christmas tree.After our wee man saw this he started "mowing" his toys with his car. It took us a while to figure out what he was doing... I also don't want him to get into the commercial brands from tv, there's plenty time for that, when he's older he will get into that, he won't be denied it then. He will also no doubt get right into the computer, games consoles etc, because we are total games junkies (well not right now coz we don't have time).
Dr. Winston from "A Child In our Time" also did an experiment with seeing and copying violence with the children when they were aroun 2 or 3 years old. It was very interesting.
I feel that children have so many life skills to learn that they miss out on a lot of things if they are watching tv, playing consoles etc. Ooops, I didn't mean to go on......;)

lizzyd66

My daughter is 7 and is fairly self regulating with computer games (we have a PS2 and a DS). My son who is 5 would play for hours if I let him. Noticed it did affect his behaviour - played lego star wars mainly which isn't mega violent , but found that he would get very emotional and irrational if left playing for more than an hour, enough was never enough. We now have rationed him to 20 mins of DS after dinner when in his PJs and playstation for an hour a day on Saturday and Sunday. We use the timer on the oven, also use it as a bit of a bribe as take minutes off for bad behaviour and occasionally add minutes on for good. He accepts the rules and so far so good.

Creachadóir

I don't think that computer games are great except as a treat, just like I think that it isn't great to watch the t.v. too much. There is a very good educational website that has reading games on it. It is very suitable for Junior Infants. It is used for homeschooling in America, and many Irish primary school teachers use it. Many consider it better than reading software that you can buy. I don't think that I can give website names out here...but it can be found if you google starfall.

The cat in the hat, books by Julia Donaldson (lots of rhymes) and Usborne books are great for developing an ear for pattern in words. There are some nice Oxford reading tree books out there too. Remember to read and learn all the old nursery rhymes also. Go to the library regularly and allow him to pick out books he thinks he would like. There are themes for all tastes out there! I spy with my little eye something beginning with i....etc is also good for identifying initial letters. Slowly sound out short words eg. p - i- g and see if he can hear what the word is (other good words are hot, car, can, tin, put, tan, hen etc.

If his handwriting is poor, get him a triangular shaped pencil, I think they're called tripod pencils. You can get them in any of the educational shops. They make it easier for a child to have the correct pencil grip. Activities that involve using his fingers will improve the strength in his hands. Lego, duplo, threading beads (maybe not so popular with boys...) hamma beads, pinching clothes pegs etc. will help. See if you can get him to make jig-saws. The small pieces will facilitate him using his hands, and the activity will help his concentration.

"like" is a difficult enough word in junior infants. Magic e makes the i say its name and all that. However, if he is having difficulty with the word "if", you need to sit down with him every night and go over the alphabet sounds with him. Sound out words together. When you have sounded them out, use magnets on the fridge to make them. Try writing them too. Going over the words in as many different ways as possible means that the word is more likely to be brought to fluency. Some children have a good memory for words, some do not. If a child doesn't have a good memory for words, they need to have the skills to sound out words. Some children find sounding out words easy, some do not. If your child is finding reading difficult, you must keep sounding out words with him so that he will have the skills to sound out new/unfamiliar words.

Good Luck!