How to Make Video Games Work to Your Child’s Advantage

 

Video games have often been criticized as detrimental to our children’s health, mental to be specific. In fact children with learning handicaps attributed to video game addiction are branded as Vidiots. If we really have their best interest in our hearts there are ways we could make this video games work to their advantage. Here are some ground rules you should lay before allowing your kid to while away his time playing with the vidiot box:

 

·         For the little ones who are still in the pre-learning process, make it a point to start them off with educational video games. There are a lot of these in the market nowadays since educators have become aware of the fact that these video games can be a good medium for learning.

 

 ·         Put down a house rule for playing time and playing limits. You can adapt it to your time, either when it is your busiest or during your resting hour. 

 

 ·         From time to time, be there to guide them in the learning process so that they will not lose interest in case things get beyond their comprehension. Once they get the hang of it they will be able to manage the games on their own and you can go back to doing your chores as usual.

 

 ·         You will have much to talk about with your kid during moments when he or she is not playing with the video console. Drill her with what she learned from the game, like alphabets and numbers until she gets to memorize them. Soon enough even at a tender age of three you can start teaching her how to read.

 

 ·         Make them interested about the words that appear on the screen as they play. Word such as: Go, Stop, Play, Level, Round, Win, Lose and many others which frequently appear on the screen. Through a repetitive process they will recognize these words and will learn to read them through visual recognition.

 

 ·         As they progress lay down another ground rule. Impose a study schedule which should be done before they are allowed to play their video boxes. To avoid any resistance, give them enough pep talks on how too much video and too little knowledge can make vidiots out of them.

 

 ·         Focus their study on reading; follow the patterns of the words that they already recognize. An example will be: Go, introduce new words by replacing the letters into No or So then slowly progress by affixing another letter God, cod, nod, sod.  As the child recognizes how words gets to be formed, replace each letter or add another letter with the ones she can already read. As soon as you have tapped their interest in reading they will initiate the reading process on their own.

 

 ·         As they get to advance with their games, they will encounter new words which you will help them to read. Later, make it a point to have them read the game instructions on their own to promote their comprehension skills.

 

 ·         The more words the child learns to read and comprehend, the more fascinated they will be with their reading ability. Words will no longer be limited to the video games but they will begin to explore the words they find on cereal boxes, groceries, detergents and the commercial ads they see on tv.

 

 ·         As they get to discover more things, their interests will expand into something more, to books, to word puzzles and everything that present challenges on their reading ability. In fact they will easily lose interest on games that tend to be repetitive and boring and will seek for something more challenging.

 

As a parent you will reap the benefits of the advantages that they developed through the use of the video boxes. It may entail some form of resistance at first but remember that it is only a matter of your will as a parent or their will as an innocent clashing here. Try not to be soft but don’t be too hard either. Just remember that it is first and primarily for their own good. Soon enough, they will be out of your hair but this time in more productive ways.   

 

 

Tagged with: Advantage • Child’s • games • video • video games • work

Filed under: Video Games