The Leapster video game system is designed for kids aged 4 and up. The Mobigoanother handheld computer game systemis aimed at kids as young as 3 years.
I can understand why parents are interested in exposing their kids to such technology. The games are supposed to be educational, and several aspects of the video game format engaging graphics, the factor, the continuous feedback help kids learn. It also seems reasonable to think that the gaming experience prepares kids for using computers.
The down side? Some child development experts worry that video games divert young children from developing skills in the real world.
Still, the sorts of preschool video games I’ve seenon Leapster, for instancearen’t violent . Nor do they seem to feature the «fast edits» and flashy graphics that are suspected of causing attention problems.
My biggest concerns about educational preschool games are these:
1. Some kids seem to be prone to a rather obsessive overuse of video games. How can a parent predict if her child is one of those types? Giving a preschooler a game system seems like opening a can of worms.
2. Many games intended for preschoolers seem designed for people who can read and who are good at manipulating fancy game controls. To navigate the game, kids have to learn to read lots of commands and menu selections. And if the game controls are tricky enough, a little kid may never even get to play the game.
3. Most games aren’t nearly as flexible as human tutors. When a child offers a correct, but unexpected, answer to a question, the game may not recognize that answer as valid. This could be confusingespecially if he’s playing alone and you don’t notice the problem.
An example of this comes from some educational software used in a public school several years back. Educational psychologists in which kids were asked to pick out fish of various shapes. In one session, a child was asked to find a fish that looked like a square. She chose such a fishone which was rotated so that its corners pointed straight down. The game told the child her answer was wrong. «That’s not a squarethat’s a diamond!»
I not sure what to do about concern 1. But the other concerns seem to boil down to this: We got to investigate each game ourselves before we let kids play on their own.
Image by Belinda Hankins Miller
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My husband and I came to an agreement long before we had kids that we won have video games of any sort for any age in our house. Our computers are distracting enough (and if we really must, we can always play games online). Plus there is some serious video game addiction in my family. My mom has 4 gaming systems at home, plus a computer, and plays almost every waking hour that she isn at work. And when she visits with us, she brings along her Nintendo DS. I don want to end up chained to a game like that EVER and I want to keep my kids away from them as long as I can.
I agree with Butter Mama. It really scares me to see kids as young as my daughter (1.5) playing games or watching videos in their strollers as their parents walk them to the park or sometimes as they attempt to walk (blindly) themselves. Now before I sound super judgmental, I recognize that there are times when I will give my daughter almost anything to keep her calm (like church, a library, the grocery store) including my blackberry (it is generally locked, she pushes a few buttons and then pretends to talk on it). And I don pretend to know the parents reasoning, which I am sure is right for them. But for me, I don want my kids to be more interested in engaging with a screen than with real people. Honestly, it creeps me out and makes me flash to that movie Walle.
I used to not have a problem w/ video games and the likes for kids. But since having my LO, I feel like I animal jam code generator fighting a constant battle. She would want to watch it for 45 min or more. Sure, she knew her alphabet by 18 months, but she had this crazy dazed look on her. I allowed her 3 DVDs for her to watch and we try never to have the TV on while she awake (a very difficult feat). But this one Sunday morning we had this very scary image; my husband had the football game on, LO was watching one of her allowed DVDs, and I had my laptop open. Once we noticed that, we shut everything off and went for a bike ride. We can so easily slip into digital world, why make it even more tempting for our toddlers while we still have control.
If you want to see the dangers of video games in action, come over to my four year old nephew house. This kid used to be so sweet and caring.
Now, after playing video games for a year, he is angry all the time, violent and disrespectful, has no attention span, except when watching TV or playing video games, refuses to listen share this site or follow the rules, won share any of his toys with anyone, antisocial, obsessed with video games, hates going to the park or outside, talks incessantly about shooting and killing people, especially if someone tries to discipline him or otherwise him, and shows a complete lack of empathy for anyone. Couple that with the sugar, TV, and lack of rules and discipline and you get a kid that no one can stand to be around. It very, very sad and I can only see it getting worse.
I think anything in excess is a bad thing, especially when it http://www.dominationshackcheatsz.xyz/dominationshack/ comes to video games. About a year ago, I was dating a guy who had a 6 year old daughter. She was allowed to play as many video games as she wanted, even watch ANY movie she wanted (I won get into that, but it got my blood boilingto say the least). She was playing Kung Fu Panda, which is a hard game for even an adult to play. Every time she played it, she would whine for help and throw fits if she couldn beat a level. Her father would respond by helping her, but it was a constant battle. She would throw the worst tantrums over this video game. Not only was it difficult to watch, but it was also difficult to date someone who didn hold the same values as I did when it comes to parenting. The father also spent hours a day playing video games and everything else that needed to be done that day was put on the back burner. What really got me is they lived out in the country, had horses, chickens, hiking trails, bicycles, an overabundance of books, and even a recording studio filled with instruments.
Needless to say I eventually broke up with this guy because I couldn handle the behavior from either of them.
My son is 3 1/2 and sometimes is allowed to play video games, but only for very short periods of time. My thing is this if they are whining and complaining about a video game, they are not allowed to play it. Getting frustrated at something of such unimportance really gets to me. My roommate has a 3 year old boy as well, and they spendI kid you notup to 8 hours a day in front of the TV playing video games. We live in Oregon and it very rare that we have a day that is sunny outside. Today it is beautiful outside, and they are both inside playing video games. It hard to watch.
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