We are living in a world full of technology. We are dependent on technology not only for our routine tasks but also we used to play video games to spend time. Even video gaming has become a part of leisure time in modern childhood and every kid wants to have his own gaming laptop to play online modern games. Children love to play video games, and day by day, there is advancement in video game graphics. Video games have become more realistic, and it fascinates kids more.
Many parents still think video games spoil their kids as they waste time playing them. That’s why they believe that they get no advantage from it and that it is a time and financial waste. Playing different video games, especially instructional ones, can help kids gain long-term beneficial skills and information.
Experts disagree on the effects of video games on children, but there is no doubt that they can provide many beneficial skills and experiences. For example, video games can help children learn problem-solving abilities, teamwork skills, and critical thinking skills.
Video games can have both positive as well as negative effects on children. However, they can also be a powerful tool for developing life skills. Learning about the benefits can help parents choose games for leisure time and help the gaming industry to create games that teach different soft skills to the children.
Here in this article, we are going to discuss some soft skills that kids learn while playing video games.
- Strategizing
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Hand-eye Coordination
- Logical Thinking
- Creativity
- Promotes Healthy Competition
- Leadership qualities
- Financial Planning
Strategizing
In many video games, players must learn basic game mechanics to progress. A child can obtain this knowledge by recognizing the basic mechanisms. In other words, most games are puzzles that require some strategic thought.
For instance, to survive in the game of Minecraft, players must consider the most fundamental survival strategies. Players must learn how to construct homes to protect themselves from night predators, learn different sustenance methods, and much more.
Kids develop positive habits when they play games that demand them to learn essential principles to play a game and plan a course of action for winning different levels. Once it becomes the habit of the child, then this behavior continues in various future situations.
Problem-Solving Skills
Almost every video game involves problem-solving. Video games can help in the development of the brain of a child. When a child is playing a game, he has to search, plan and try different strategies to win the different levels of the game. The searching and planning that a child does to win a level develop a skill of problem-solving in the child.
Video games enhance problem-solving abilities since they let you experiment with different ideas without risking anything. For example, players may keep trying different methods in a puzzle game until they find one that works. It is interesting to figure out how to solve a puzzle or find the fastest way out of a difficult situation. When children are actively involved in these activities, they develop problem-solving skills.
Hand-Eye Coordination
It is scientifically proven that video games are a great source that can help in hand-eye coordination. Real-time movements and quick reflexes are needed while playing a video game. Even if you are playing a game by using your finger on a touch screen, these movements still help in hand-eye coordination. Suppose a child’s hand-eye coordination is improved. In that case, it can help in many life situations, like if a child becomes a surgeon in the future or while cooking, cleaning, and many other routine tasks involving hand-eye coordination.
Logical Thinking
To play video games, one must have a special level of logical thinking. Video games can help children develop critical thinking skills. They must look at the current situation and consider all the tools they have at their disposal in order to come up with a solution to win a game. As we know that video games train kids to think about the current situation; therefore, they can be useful for kids in real-life situations where you must think calmly and logically about what to do to solve a problem.
Creativity
Creativity is something that is natural. No one can teach creativity, but a talent that someone owns must be discovered and should be polished. Video games are a great source for detecting and discovering the creativity that a player has.
Research published in Creativity Research Journal discovered a connection between some video games and creativity. There were 352 players, some of them played with instructions, and some of them played without instructions. The researchers observed that the participant that played Minecraft without any given instructions completed the task more creatively because of the freedom to think and play with their own solutions.
Promotes Healthy Competition
Playing games promotes joyous competition between kids and it is healthy and normal to have an entertaining competition among the kids for acknowledgement and recognition. People normally love to play games, compete and win.
Video games are the best and safe platform for healthy competition and can give chance to the children who are good at playing games.
Leadership Qualities
When video games are played in groups, it gives one of the players a chance to become a leader and lead the rest of the team. The one who has better leadership skills can get the chance and lead the followers. Guiding and demonstrating games is good for developing leadership qualities such as motivating other players and resolving disputes. And in multi-player games, no one cares about the player’s age. If he has leadership qualities, he can guide the other players and lead them to victory.
Financial Planning
Most games have different currencies by which players can purchase different needed equipment. Most people don’t consider the fact that kids can learn the mechanism of purchasing things by using money or currency which that game has. Kids practice the mechanism by earning, saving and spending currency according to their needs without any real-life loss of money. Children who play games with currency mechanisms will surely learn about real-world currencies.
Ending Note
Games are kids’ favorite activity to spend time with, but parents mostly think that gaming is just a waste of money and time. They think that child is not going to learn anything from games. But actually there are some benefits of playing games of which parents are not aware. In this article, we have discussed in detail that gaming can develop different soft skills in kids that will help them in their future lives. For instance, kids can learn how to think logically, plan strategies, and learn joyous competition and leadership qualities. Video games create healthy and entertaining competition among kids. Playing video games develops the skill of problem-solving in kids. Parents can consider these skills and add some appropriate games in the kid’s leisure time to entertain and teach different skills for their future.
There are programs available about engineering that involve games and STEM concepts that allow kids to enjoy and learn at the same time about science and technology.
