My son LOVES video games. He has an Xbox, an Xbox 360, a Wii, a Nintendo 3DS and a Kindle Fire that I lovingly bought him to read on....(good job, mom. Get him another gaming device!) Not to mention the multitude of computers around this house...the kid is more wired than R2D2!
I know many of us out there struggle as parents to set limits to the amount of TV time our kids consume. But I find the harder struggle for myself and our family is the amount of game time in general. Being a nurse, I have read a lot of literature on the subject of television for young children. It floats across my desk on a fairly regular basis. (I subscribe to several publications on pediactrics). But they usually limit their researching to just that, young children and Television. Not kids and video games. So I did a bit of Internet researching to see what I could find on the old net.
There is actually a lot of research out there on this topic. I was surprised at some of it. As a parent, I KNOW that video games aren't always good for kids. It's inactive activity for one thing (sitting on your duff and staring at the TV) and it doesn't lend itself to using your own imagination. But what I read in these studies goes beyond that: Video games can create a temporary state of "mental unbalance". Whoa. That doesn't sound good, does it? Let's look at that further shall we?
So what happened in the brain to create this unbalance? Once researcher found: ...his three hundred participants into three separate groups: people who seldom play; players logging just a few hours each week and heavy gamers, who played several hours a day. Alpha waves appear when the brain is in repose. Beta brain waves, on the other hand, signal animation and stress in the prefrontal region of the brain. The study exposed a larger reduction in beta waves correlated with more time spent playing video games. The players in the heavy gamer group showed a near constant absence of beta brainwave activity.
So, what does that mean? The brain is not reacting as it should to the stimulation of the game activity. In fact, this reduction of beta activity continued even after the game was turned off in heavy gamers (people who play several hours a day). They still don't know what this will mean for long term but this portion of your brain largely works on your autonomic nervous system (where your heart rate and breathing are regulated.) This sort of long term/ongoing study of gamers is just beginning and will need to go on for years, but the initial findings are definitely something to consider!
It has also been found that playing video games can affect your child's sleep patterns, putting causing them to not be able to fall into those deeper levels of sleep that are needed or to stay in them as long as needed. It also has an adverse effect on verbal cognitive performance. (This is also been found true of television.)
So, wow. None if this is good news, is it? So what are we to do? My son is 12 years old and all his friends friends and their grandmothers play video games...you know that argument right? We here have decided that cutting the games out entirely is just not practical. (Though trust me, I'd LOVE to.) So we set some hard limits on the amount of game time that can happen during the week. Our rules are: No gaming during the school week. Games can happen from Friday evening after school and supper until Sunday afternoon and only for 1 hour at a time on those days. No gaming can happen after 7pm (he needs a "wind down" time.) I stuck to the "no gaming on school days" rule through the summer, keeping the games only through the weekend and the TV off until after dinner. (MOST days..I do relax the rules SOMETIMES).
For my son, this seems to be an "okay" balance. With his autism, he tends to obsess heavily on video games so knowing exactly when and for how long he can play them cuts out a lot of the stress. I also didn't make playing them contingent on some completion of an act (like chores or reading) because it was just to stressful for him. He would melt down when he thought me might lose game time and this didn't help his behavior any at all. The game time is just part of the routine. It happens and then it's done until next weekend.
I do wonder, all the time, if even this amount of playing might be to much for him, but as it's something he obsesses over, it's not something I can at this time take away. He got his game systems and games all from relatives and all as presents and it's just one of those things kids these days have all over. It's hard to have your child be the "only" one not participating. Still, I think heavy monitoring and strict rules and limits is a must. What are your thoughts on this? I know many parents relish game/TV time as it affords them a few moments of quiet, a few precious moments of a totally engaged kid who is not wandering off acting on impulses. Still, kids, especially kids who are already struggling with something like autism, just don't need anything else working against their growth and development. It's a hard line to walk! It's one we struggle with here and I know there are others out there facing these same decisions. What do you do? What are your rules and limits on video games and/or TV time and/or computer time? What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to know!
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