At loggerheards with DH about gaming. Anyone point me in the direction of research, books or articles that talk about the impact on child develeopment?

[AlasAlack]

I'm pretty old school and gaming depresses me. I understand that it's just part of the younger generation's culture, though, and so I allow our DS (in year 2) to do a certain amount of age-appropriate gaming (car racing games predominantly).

DH thinks I'm too strict about it and wants to give DS latitude to do more. I recoil against this because I instinctively feel it's not great for DS's development or for his concentration skills.

I'd be grateful if people would send my way any good articles/research etc on the subject that they might've come across. Thanks

I can't help because personally, I don't get all the hate towards gaming, it can actually aid development, concentration and social skills. I'd much rather the kids gaming than sit watching other kids open toys and eat food on YouTube - that I DON'T understand.

If you're concerned, look at games with more of a skill element, like Minecraft. It's not all mindless stuff.

My sons had access to games like Minecraft, the lego franchise and Terraria. It did actually help with reading, planning and spatial intelligence.
No shooting games though. Everything in moderation!

I used to think as you do, but gaming is so much more social than it used to be for one, plus my kids like puzzle/quest type games which are pretty complex and take some considerable thought. Would much rather gaming than standard screen time as the last poster says.

I think research has shown gaming to help with problem solving, spatial awareness, reading (no links, just my understanding from what I've heard over the years). Everything in moderation as long as age appropriate. As kids get older there is also the social element - not just playing online with friends but the chat at school etc.

I think there's info to show it helps some developmental areas.... fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, problem solving, spatial awareness etc

We're a gaming family though so I'm probably not the right person to ask.

In my opinion it's important to allow your children to live in the time they are in. You may be old fashioned/old school but your son isn't.

I definitely recommend Minecraft - all three of my kids play it and they also use it in school. You can get applications like code kingdoms that teach coding via Minecraft - so sneakily educational.

Following. Does anyone have any game recommendations?

You won't really find decent research saying what you want it to though.

Too much gaming, obsessively doing it to the exclusion of socialisation, physical exercise etc will have detrimental impacts.

Gaming at a healthy level, will not.

It can improve concentration etc.

Why do you dislike gaming so much?

Depends on the game really. There are a lot of very good games which are entertaining but also educational and skill development. Kids really shouldn't be on the mindless shooting (or similar) games, but there are plenty of others that really develop skills.

My son played a lot, he played Lego at first, then moved onto Club Penguin (challenges, etc) then Minecraft (world development, programming etc), all alongside simple programming recommended by school such as creating race tracks where basic physics was needed (curves, banking, ramps for jumping gaps etc). When he started secondary school, he moved onto FIFA (building teams, manager simulations etc), and a city building game where you had to design infrastructures, build business to earn money for facilities, etc, so was like a basic economics game.

So he spent a lot of time on gaming, and we did despair at the time as to how much time he spent and how he wasn't interested in anything else. But it's not harmed him. He got straight 9s at GCSE and A*s at A level and currently doing a Maths degree at a top 10 Uni, where he has loads of friends in real life, joined several sports teams/societies etc. He still does a lot of gaming and has lots of online friends via the games he plays, as well as F2F friends at Uni, many of whom he plays online games with in their Uni flats!

To the OP, I'd suggest you steer him towards the educational and skill development type of games and I'm sure he'll be fine.

Games like Minecraft etc. have a lot to teach and your husband and DS can play those together. I know my DH is champing at the bit for when DD is old enough to play Minecraft with him

Also how old are you?

Gaming was part of my generation (almost 40) and my older brother spent alot of time gaming in his teens. Obviously, it was different during to no online gaming. But he was quite obsessive and spent a lot of time gaming. Most of his spare time.

Its not really that new.

My feeling is that age appropriate games are fine but the key is what else they'd be doing with that time. If you think they'd be reading, playing sport or drawing etc and the game takes them away from that then limit it. But if they're keeping up at school, are involved in a range of activities and do other things at home (like readin, drawing, Lego building) then gaming is no problem.

It becomes a problem if nothing else entertains them and schooling starts to drop.

I'm not a big fan of gaming either, but I agree with PPs that there's a huge difference between different games. Minecraft is great. However I found the free app type games that you get for phones/iPads can be very addictive.

We let our kids game on the computer on games weve researched so that we know it's safe and age appropriate. We only let them game on the iPad if we're on holiday. We don't have a console and no plans to get one, though I'm sure the time will come. Gaming on a desktop or laptop computer can be very educational as they learn how to operate the computer and how to search online for hints.