Interactive Gaming
The pandemic has been the biggest change this year. For most of us, it was hard to adjust to the changes that the pandemic necessitated as we have not experienced a situation like this before. No public health emergency of this intensity was ever experienced by current generations. Therefore, turning to any recent experiences and role models was not possible.
However, while it was hard for adults, the coronavirus changes were much harder for children to understand, let alone adjust to.
The fear of getting infected, maintaining social distancing, experiencing quarantine, and continuing with studies through online mediums, were enough to steal the routine life from children. Instead, this monotonous living has generated loneliness and extended isolation for children.
Children are experiencing worry, fear, and anxiety in the pandemic. It has affected their socio-cultural development and has even damaged their mental health.
It has become highly crucial for parents to focus on keeping their kids engaged during the pandemic. It is also because the deteriorating mental state of children can lead to some serious consequences, that parents might not be aware of.
According to researchers, young people who face prolonged loneliness are more likely to develop depression in the future. Also, the impact of loneliness on young people’s mental health can last for 9 years.
Studies on Interactive Gaming
Interactive gaming is good for your children, as it helps them in combating loneliness. If you don’t believe us, then here is a study to understand the benefits of interactive gaming for kids better:
According to a new study, the term “lonely gamer” used for children who play interactive games is not right. Instead, the study challenges this stereotype. The study has concluded that kids who play interactive games with their friends combat loneliness.
This research study is from the behavioral psychologist Geert Verheijen who is a video gamer in the Netherlands.
Over a period of 3 years, Greet studied the gaming patterns and behaviors of 705 children in grades 7th to 10th.
Greet concluded that while the solo games managed to increase the feeling of loneliness among kids, the opposite behavioral pattern was observed in children who played interactive games with their friends online.
Moreover, the social psychologist Susan E. Rivers, in her interview with Health line, said that social plays require participants to refine and practice some social and emotional skills. However, she further added that these skills cannot be practiced or refined in solo play.
The research shows us that we can use interactive games as a major tool to help our kids fight the loneliness that they are developing in the pandemic.
Benefits of Playing Games During Pandemic
We are sure that by now you must have trusted the studies by experts in regards to the benefits of interactive gaming. Therefore, we are putting forward some more benefits of video games so that you aren’t too strict with these activities to your kids during a pandemic.
According to Rivers, playing games during a pandemic can help kids in reducing stress, help them in reducing feelings of isolation, and reduce the feeling of loneliness.
Moreover, playing games in the pandemic can eventually increase the feeling of competence, engagement, and empathy, which kids must be missing put on since they are locked in their homes and have limited activities to perform.
While interactive gaming is beneficial for kids, it still requires parental monitoring. It is because the online world is not as secure as one might think it is. Especially for young kids, having zero monitoring from parents while using the internet can cause major issues.
So, if you think that you cannot fully monitor your kids, you should put this interactive games method on hold. Instead, you can allow your kids to access cable TV at home. Letting them watch their favorite shows can help them stay entertained and engaged at home.
As far as monitoring the content is concerned, if you have a Spectrum cable TV at home, you don’t have to worry about that. The Spectrum cable TV with affordable cable TV packages such as Spectrum TV Silver allows you to choose your channel lineup. Therefore, you can make sure you only have kids-friendly channels in your cable TV packages. You can also use the parental lock feature to keep kids away from inappropriate content.
Conclusion
Kids are battling with anxiety, stress, fear, and loneliness in the pandemic. As a parent, there are lots of things you can do to keep you little ones engaged and entertained at home. We have given some ideas to help you out in this matter.
