Gaming and Teenage – Strike A Balance

“Make no mistake; adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.”

This quote by Harlan Coben, an American author, might seem funny at once, but it has a strange reality attached to it. Adolescence is indeed a time when a child changes mentally and physically, for better or for worse. Every parent needs a proper rulebook and guidance while dealing with a teenager in the house. The rush of hormones and changes in mind and body may impact the child in different ways. Every parent deals with these changes differently – you can go soft on your kid, or you can go harsh on your kid, but what is suggested is to have a perfect balance to maintain a good and healthy relationship with your kid.

Children are always attracted to video games. They might see the games at their friend’s place or in a store, and it easily catches their attention. Teenage is a time when you might find your kid getting involved in a lot of gaming on their phones or laptops. While many parents see gaming as a harmful thing and banish their kids from playing games, they fail to understand the positives of gaming. When your kid is involved in something to a greater extent, you need to know the pros and cons of that thing. What is important is to strike the perfect balance between everything. Here are some pros and cons of gaming for your adolescent kid.

Positive Impacts

Better Cognitive Skills

Good cognitive skills are an important part of the overall development of a person. It involves basic functions like reading, learning, thinking, concentrating, remembering, etc., which are necessary skills in day-to-day lives. Gaming helps you to improve your cognitive skills as it improves your memory, decision-making skills, visual processing skills, and perception.

Better Problem-Solving Ability

Good gaming skills help in improving cognitive skills, which results in helping your kid to have better problem-solving abilities. Strategic games can help a kid understand different tips and tricks to solve different kinds of problems.

Improves Multitasking Skills

Gaming involves being omnipresent with your mind and body movements. While your one hand might be on the mouse, the other might be controlling the keyboard, and your brain might already be thinking about the next strategy. It improves the multi-tasking skills of a person.

Improves Dexterity

Dexterity is the skill of performing tasks efficiently with both hands. To have multitasking skills with both hands, you need to have active hands that can perform any task. Online gaming can improve your hand movements.

Improved Hand and Eye coordination

Gaming is not just a simple source of entertainment. It requires all your senses to work in coordination to have a good game. In many games, the player is required to process the scene in his/her brain fast and react with their hands in order to save the game. It requires good vision and hand movements and perfect coordination between the two.

Better Communication Skills

Adolescence can be a difficult period. Your extrovert child can become an introvert, or vice versa can happen. It is an amazing period when your child grows and learns different things. It is important to have good communication skills during this period. Your introverted child can learn a lot of life-changing skills from gaming, including better communication skills. It can boost their confidence and help them interact with the real world easily.

A Side Hustle

Though your child might not need any kind of financial aid, gaming can help the kid earn some extra pocket money. Many online gaming platforms like https://topcasinosearch.com/ can get them rewards which they can save or spend according to their wish. But it is important to track their activities on all gaming websites.

Negative Impacts

Addiction

The issue of addiction is real in every sense. Even adults can get addicted to gaming; it is very easy for a child to get addicted to online gaming if not tracked properly. It is important to give time slots for gaming to your adolescent child.

Aggressive Nature

Many online games involve guns, fighting, shooting, and other negative things, which are easy to inculcate. Your child might inculcate from these online games, which might result in an aggressive nature in your innocent child. Make sure to check the games for violence.

Poor Academics

Long durations of gaming may impact a kid’s study hours, which might result in bad academic performance. You can simply reward them with extra playing hours after good grades or a good day of study, which will maintain a perfect balance between the two.

Physical Health Issues

Continuous hours of online gaming and no physical activity might lead to the most common health issue in the form of obesity. Insomnia and weak eyesight are the other health issues and all the physical health issues that might lead to mental health issues after a certain point.

Mental Health issues

It is equally important to address mental health issues like physical health issues. Excessive gaming can lead to stress and therefore result in depression.

Anti-Social Behavior

Your child might prefer to stay at home and not go out to play or meet up with real friends because of their addiction to gaming. This might lower their communication skills with real people and break their confidence levels.

Hamper Relationships within Family

When a kid overtly involves himself/herself in gaming, he/she might find less time for the family. Even if you scold the child, he/she might end up showing aggression and isolating themselves. It can lead to a negative impact on the entire family.

Conclusion

Technology has changed our lives in every possible manner. While it brings us closer to our family, it also sometimes distances us from our loved ones. When you have a teenager in your family, it is important to handle them with love and affection and a few scoldings here and there. Adolescence can be a crucial time for you and your child, and it is important to build a beautiful relationship with your kid during this period and not mess it over with a simple game.