![]() ![]() Kids also benefit from having periods of lower stimulation, away from technology, Rich says. ![]() He advises parents to watch that family meals, chores, and outdoor or in-person play do not get subsumed into game time. "What is easier to quantify - and probably more in line with what is developmentally optimal - is quantifying non-screen time." "Screen time is a hard thing to quantify," says Michael Rich, a pediatrician and director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital. Help kids prioritize offline activities so gaming doesn't subsume themĬhildren need some limits on their gaming, especially if it begins to crowd out other essential or healthy activities, many experts warn, like schoolwork and sleep in particular. It's doing that kind of coordinated work that's really useful for all sorts of things." "It requires thinking about timings and placement and good communication skills to coordinate with people. "It requires very kind of precise team-building," he says. Games that involve joint projects like a battle or a quest can help develop useful social skills, says Peter Etchells, a research psychologist at Bath Spa University in the U.K. A lot of games bring those feelings out in us, and they give us a space to play with those feelings." You can use games to improve your social connection, to practice feeling emotions we normally avoid, like guilt or grief or shame. In fact, Dunlap says, parents often overlook some benefits of games: "They're a tool. One reason for the difference in impact may be that social media is primarily about marketing, or comparing oneself to others, while gaming is generally about socializing with friends, solving a puzzle, or engaging in competition. "Research has shown again and again and again, time spent playing video games is not predictive of mental health outcomes," she says. Video games, in fact, do not show the kind of negative behavioral or emotional effects researchers correlate with social media use, says Kelli Dunlap, a clinical psychologist and community director for Take This, a mental health advocacy group within the gaming community. Kids study, play video games, use social media and watch videos on screens, but those do not all have the same developmental impact. ![]()
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