Video Games and Young Kids

[Waldo]

I'm sure NF is a friendly place for discussing parenting you little gamer.  Given how many gamers there are here, it seems appropriator to get a thread going.

 

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Our oldest kiddo is still young enough (pre-K, just turned 5) that we are sort of stuck at the moment; we really want to find other kids for him to play with (playing with an adult is cool and all, but its just different than playing with peers), but to this point have been stumped, he's never yet experienced playing with peers.  My wife and I both do not believe in limiting his playing (steering it though definitely); its far more valuable than watching TV or many other forms of play.

 

Among all his friends, our neighbors, and his classmates (whose parents we've met) there are only 2 types we've come across at his age:

- Kids that just don't get the concept of playing video games (outside of tablets and phones), sometimes from lack of exposure, sometimes not.

- Kids that aren't allowed to play video games yet (many "they rot the brain" parents still out there).

 

Now the problem is, even as other kids start to learn the rudiments, ours is so much more advanced that age peers just aren't gamer peers.  His learning as a gamer is if anything accelerating.  Ah well.

 

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What we've found with regards to games:

 

- I tried to start him on Mario 3 (the original, on a vintage NES). This seems to be a very common approach, other parents we know that are trying seem to start with this game.  He still really doesn't get this game, this isn't really a great starter game (though it seems it would be), its a lot more complex than it seems, and can be quite frustrating.

 

- The first console game our little one really got was Mariokart Wii (picked it up when still 3, but approaching 4th birthday).  In hindsight this seems really duh, but Mariokart didn't strike me as a simple game until watching how quick he picked it up.  The concept, win the race, is easy to understand, and driving is something they've watched plenty.  You can also do reasonably well in the game just holding A down to go and doing a good job steering (with the steering wheel).  Nowadays he understands the use of weaponry too, but it took a bit.  Still can't beat 'ol dad and mom, but at least is in the ballpark now.

 

- Once he got Mariokart down (we got him a WiiU to play the newest once he got the Wii version down), other console games started to come.  The next game(s) he really got were the 3D Marios; Mario 64 and Super Mario 3D World (walking Mario as he called them), games that are primarily exploring games, where its pretty easy to not die.

 

- We got him Disney Infinity which was a huge mega-hit.  He loves infinity.  It helps that he also loves Star Wars, he can play Star Wars in Infinity and collect the guys.  At first he only really wanted to play in the Toybox, but eventually he went through and beat the game part of it (so we also got him the other Star Wars games for it).  Playing the game part he started to really understand the "figure out how to do the task" concept with games, which is huge.  Building his own world never seems to get old; especially buying new things to build (the currency generated by playing the game, not real $$$).  I really wish he had peers for this game, building together with me is eh, we don't really build on the same plane.

 

- Lately he's been starting to play Minecraft too (on the WiiU).  Both modes.  Learning to build things in Survival is a work in progress (I'm learning too, not a game I ever played myself), but he does enjoy the building mode as well (kind of similar to the Infinity Toybox).  

 

- We tried the Lego Dimensions; it is way too hard for him to play by himself, one of us has to do most of the work, it just wasn't that fun.

 

As a parent I do really like both Infinity and Minecraft, the thinking and creativity involved in both games simply dwarfs almost all other forms of play (not to mention hand/eye coordination), and we can play with him at least vaguely as peers.  At his age I'm still very hesitant about violent games (ok with it in Infinity because there is a very good connection to the unreal world of Star Wars with its very strongly defined good guys/bad guys) and a lot of games are either too complex or require reading ability.

 

Anyone know of any other real good games for younger children?

[Trixie Falsae]

I started my kids on Wii play, carnival games, and other games that were basically a compilation of mini games. They had a great time with them and they could skip the games that were too complicated at the time. #3 loves all things Mario, and he has the  patience to keep playing Mario games until he figures them out, no matter how difficult.

 

Pretty much the only peers my kids have that are also gamers are their cousins. But when all of them are together, we usually turn the TV off and let them go play. 8 kids fighting over the Nintendo is just too much. We treat video games as a treat. It doesn't happen too often and doesn't come on when company is over.

[Elennare]

My 4.5 year old doesn't play with peers, either, mostly because there aren't any particularly close to us.  His little brother isn't quite old enough to get the hang of it yet, though he does enjoy "playing."  By which we mean pushing buttons on an unplugged/batteries-removed controller.

 

I think he really started with Nintendoland.  Lots of games you can play by waving the controller around with minimal button pushing.  He's also a big fan of Super Mario 3D World and Hyrule Warriors.  If we can find it/get it to work on the Wii U (I think we may have had issues last time we tried to pull it out?), I think he'd really enjoy Boom Blocks as well.  That one would be great for building some hand/eye coordination, since it's all about moving/throwing things.

 

I have some learning and puzzle games on my computer the boys like, too, though it sounds like you're mainly talking about console games.

 

We also try to make sure there is a healthy balance between screen time and physical toys/running around outside.  Our view is that knowing how to use those sorts of things are fairly important to learn, given that they're something that's going to be in their lives even more than they were for me growing up, but doing stuff with their body or thinking about things not on a screen is just as important to learn.

[skinNbones]

Our oldest loves the Wii but we do limit it to 1 hour or 2 a day or he can get ill.

Nintendoland is definitely a good game for groups of kids. He also really likes the pikmin series which is quite good at scaling difficulty.

Tom: Well... the television said that's the right thing to do.

[BarefootDawsy]

Mine are obsessed with Minecraft and Roblox... They would play them all day long given the chance. While I agree that gaming is better than TV, we're finding a real need to limit the amount of time they spend in these games as it seems to have a detrimental effect on their behaviour and interest in areas outside of the gaming worlds.

Gamifying exercise for them has become a logical extension though, and tying bit in with what they're doing in the games keeps them interested. We've been Geocaching and building stuff outside which they are loving at the moment.

[skinNbones]

That gamification sounds good.

One thing that we've always found funny about our kids. Because they are gamers, even when they are playing outside they talk about ' pausing the game' and 'which level they're on'.

"They know we're in here now!"

[Kvedulf]

My little one is only 2, so a bit younger by the sounds of it and he doesn't play games. That said, he understands the concept already and understands that the controller makes the TV do things. He loves and is utterly obsessed with dinosaurs so I bought Ark survival evolved and he happily sits on my lap and watches me tame dinosaurs. I try to make it a bit educational as well, by asking him to point to the triceratops/stegosaurus etc or asking him where the T-rex's teeth/feet/hands/tail etc is. He loves it and I love it because I love dinosaurs just as much. Like father like son

 

I'm hoping he likes gaming but looking forward I'm liking @BarefootDawsy's idea of doing things like geocaching or building outside. Making their gaming fun into IRL fun.

[Thrillho]

Minecraft and Roblox until the computer shuts off for my youngsters. Or at least they would, but they do get some limitations on the computer if they're just playing games. However, both girls are also very much into Photoshop, Gimp and even MS Paint, and they will watch minimized Youtube art tutorials in the corner of the screen and try to imitate this.  This is an actual skill and a pretty great artistic learning tool, so I am much more lenient if they just need to finish a few more drawings.

 

My oldest kid is perhaps (*cough*not perhaps at all*cough) addicted to video games, particularly anything with aliens, laser guns and things exploding.  X-COM 2, Star Wars, Warframe, Star Wars, Star Wars... I don't even know all the Star Wars games he has. He was huge into Minecraft when he was younger but now he just needs to leave mounds of corpses in his wake.  But at that age I'm not super concerned about it (especially when he is probably the nicest and least aggro 14 year old I've ever met). The problem is he is very, very, VERY single-minded when it comes to video games, in that his second favorite activity is waiting to play video games, and his third favorite activity is asking if he can play video games.  Way, way, way down the list is schoolwork, chores, exercise and hygiene. 

 

So far the girls haven't really shown any signs of this, but we're on the lookout.

[Kiki Dee]

I'm going to follow this thread with interest!

 

Husband and I are both gamers and think it's important for our kids to acquire the skills early on (along with all the other skills they have to pick up along the way!)

 

Our daughter is 4yo.  She started off playing "her" games on the iPad when she was about 1.  (Interestingly her 15mo brother has no interest yet.  He's much more... boisterous!)  The touch screen interface made it really easy for her and there are a million toddler-friendly apps.  She's mostly been attracted though to games/apps focused on building literacy and numeracy skills, which is fine with us!  She then moved on to the Xbox (our console of choice) - I was interested to read @Waldo's experience, as she's really gotten into Lego Dimensions in a big way!  She definitely did need to play along with Daddy for much of the actual game, but she would happily spend hours running around the adventure worlds on her own.  (Cute story:  whenever she switches into Batman's body, she puts on the gravel voice and says "I'm Batman!")  She's got the hang of movement with thumbsticks which is great.

 

Her current obsession is a PC "game" (really a gamified reading program) called Reading Eggs.  She will quite literally spend three hours solid playing this.  And she has started to read, so... yay!   But importantly, she's all over the point-and-click interface - no adult assistance required.

 

We're on the lookout for an Xbox game that would be suitable for her to play on her own.  No luck thus far, so if anyone has any ideas we'd be wide open!

[Waldo]

On 4/29/2016 at 4:49 PM, Elennare said:

I think he really started with Nintendoland.  Lots of games you can play by waving the controller around with minimal button pushing.  He's also a big fan of Super Mario 3D World and Hyrule Warriors.  If we can find it/get it to work on the Wii U (I think we may have had issues last time we tried to pull it out?), I think he'd really enjoy Boom Blocks as well.  That one would be great for building some hand/eye coordination, since it's all about moving/throwing things.

 

Yeah he got Nintendoland right away, especially the hide and seek game.  That one in particular is nice because it takes zero gaming skill to play, he was playing it with his very non-gamer grandparents at Christmas (which oddly enough made for a very balanced competition).

 

I'm thinking I'm going to try Civ 6 on the computer when it comes out this fall.  It'll have to be a game we play together though I'm sure.

 

17 hours ago, Kiki Dee said:

Our daughter is 4yo.  She started off playing "her" games on the iPad when she was about 1.  (Interestingly her 15mo brother has no interest yet.  He's much more... boisterous!)  The touch screen interface made it really easy for her and there are a million toddler-friendly apps.  She's mostly been attracted though to games/apps focused on building literacy and numeracy skills, which is fine with us!  She then moved on to the Xbox (our console of choice) - I was interested to read @Waldo's experience, as she's really gotten into Lego Dimensions in a big way!  She definitely did need to play along with Daddy for much of the actual game, but she would happily spend hours running around the adventure worlds on her own.  (Cute story:  whenever she switches into Batman's body, she puts on the gravel voice and says "I'm Batman!")  She's got the hang of movement with thumbsticks which is great.

 

Her current obsession is a PC "game" (really a gamified reading program) called Reading Eggs.  She will quite literally spend three hours solid playing this.  And she has started to read, so... yay!   But importantly, she's all over the point-and-click interface - no adult assistance required.

 

With Dimensions, he just doesn't get the "figure out how to do the puzzle" concept with that game, he ends up just being the guy switcher and little else.  He didn't really get in to exploring in that game, he already had Infinity and 3D Marios, which are more developed in that respect.

 

Yeah, both the Nickelodeon site and PBS kids site he can play for hours with no assistance. Took a while though to stop hitting right click instead of left.

 

He's definitely starting to pick up math from Infinity; undertstanding the whole $$ aspect of the game, that you get $$ from killing bad guys and breaking things in the story games, which then is used to buy stuff to play with in the toybox.  At first I helped him out with that quite a bit, but its been a while since I helped at all, now he's able to look at the numbers and know if he has enough $$, and if he really wants something, he'll go earn enough to get it.  He's totally on his own on the buying stuff aspect and now generally just shows me the cool things he's bought when we play together.

 

I usually try to use any instances of naming something to practice spelling things (savegames in minecraft for example).  He can type in his name pretty good (writing his name was drilled into him in pre-k, so that was easy), now we are working on other words.

 

 

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Mariokart is a great idea. 2 functions, go and steer, the later of which they watch mom and dad do. Weaponry isn't needed. It's like Catan being my favorite introductory "complex" board game to introduce to my friends because it can be as simple or complex as you make it.

 

Minecraft was HUGE for my little brother when he was in elementary school, just build mode. He played survival after that.

 

If he likes the building aspect, do you have access to Viva Piñata on your consoles? we've got it on the 360. Super simple to start, has the "figure out how to do the thing" component to it in getting different animals, has a building/design component that Minecraft skills will carry over to. Might be a good one to try.

 

We're just starting simple Elmo game son the kindle with our toddler. She loves it and is just starting to actually be able to accomplish the goals they set for her, so I'll be following along to see what you guys figure out.

[skinNbones]

Our kids have always struggled with Mario kart strangely.

"They're coming to get you Barbara!"

[pseudophyte]

My younger boys started playing a couple years ago (4 years at the time) with their older brother.  Games included Skylanders and all the LEGO titles on Xbox.  Easy to move around and mash buttons to defeat the bad guys.  I like the LEGO games because they cannot "die", unlike the Skylanders titles; however, thanks to Grandma, we have plenty of figures to play with, so they always make it through before running out of chances.  They also enjoy Roblox on the computers and Minecraft on both desktop and Xbox systems (usually the build mode).  They both really like playing The Sims 3 and 4, but it's only recently that they'd been able to play without assistance.

 

They are super addicted to a game called Katamari Damacy, in which you roll a ball around collecting misc objects.  Levels are super tough (time limited) and the gameplay is very repetitive; however, they've played the game through in entirety multiple times, each time restarting and sacrificing their progress.  The challenge for them is collecting ALL the usable characters and presents hidden within the levels.

 

On our WiiU, they play Super Mario Maker, SM Smash, Mario Kart, and Mario Party with the family.

[Plazmotic]

I don’t have children but my SIL’s kid is 5 and well-initiated into the ways of gaming thanks to his parents. He likes watching his dad play games like Dragon Age or Final Fantasy. But he prefers playing games on their iPad, usually puzzle games or games where you have to tilt the tablet to roll a marble to an end goal. Or he likes runner games like Subway Surfer and its million incarnations. His latest obsession is a Kingdom Hearts game, he will show me his most recent boss battle every time I see him.

 

Thanks to video games, my nephew views everything in life as an opportunity to Level Up. He even says things like “I’m only at level 1 in math” when he’s talking about his skills in school.

[Butternut]

My 12 year old is obsessed with terrirea and skyrim. 

 

We limit it it but I also understand an hour is not enough sometimes so once in awhile I'll let him play longer.

 

But I've realized he then thinks and talks about them more. Even asks more often if he can play. As a parent it concerns me because video games really don't benefit real life at all. You do t get skills from them or real life experience.

 

the other day I told my son he has so much brain power, is smart, creative, and has a lot of potential, but he's wasting that brain power, that brain space on video games when he could be using it with other things, learning new skills, building something, etc. That when he's playing all the time, he's brain stays on video games and not real things in life. 

 

This was about a week ago and he has been working on he's programming, rollerblading again, and finding more time with the dogs. 

 

I know he'll always love video games but I just want him aware that real life and video games need a balance because video games can suffocate real life experience. 

[Waldo]

On 4/9/2017 at 8:37 AM, Butternut said:

But I've realized he then thinks and talks about them more. Even asks more often if he can play. As a parent it concerns me because video games really don't benefit real life at all. You do t get skills from them or real life experience. 

 

This is just not true.  AT ALL.

 

Action video games have been shown repeatedly to have a huge effect on thinking on the fly.  Things like driving, flying a fighter plane, and surgery show marked skills improvement when action video games are introduced.  Multi-thread thinking in a moving environment is really not trained well traditionally (certainly not something you learn in a classroom), but action video games excel for training the mind to think this way.  Action video game players can parse more data while maintaining focus than nonplayers.

 

(Younger) Video game players have also been shown to be able to read and understand the information a good bit more advanced than what tests on paper would indicate.  Video games provide a motivation (be good at the game) to push reading beyond current skill level, and in bite size chunks.  This is especially true when the players go beyond the game itself and into guides and message boards about the game.  Buying a kid a guide for his/her favorite game is waaaay more effective for teaching reading than a grade appropriate workbook that you force them to do.

 

As gamers grow, they tend to go down one of two very useful paths.  

 

One is social.  Within any group of gamers, there is always the best, the top tier players.  These players often take on a leadership and mentorship role, showing other players how to play.  This important life skill translates well beyond the games themselves.  Schools often try to teach this skill, but they usually end up failing.  Its not an easy to teach skill.  Social gamer groups do it naturally.

 

The other path is the creator/modder.  Once the basics of many games have been mastered, the world of modding opens up, customizing the game for yourself, creating new possibilities with the game.  Not all players are into this, but for those that are, again, it is very valuable.  Creating a world within the confines of the game design is more or less pretty much what engineering is.  An engineering education merely teaches you the rules.  You actually don't do any engineering (or very, very little) in engineering school.   Building a world in minecraft or custom maps in Civ, is pretty much the EXACT same skill producing an engineering design.  In fact, CAD software and 3D modeling is moving toward Minecraft because it is a very intuitive interface.

 

The last point I see day to day all the time as an engineer.  Older engineers, who clearly have never played a video game (esp a 3D game) in their lives, often aren't great drafters, struggle with 3D models, and don't visualize designs on paper particularly well.  Lifetime gamers (very few over 40) tend to be notably more comfortable moving between reality, modeled space, and design space.  Kids nowadays though....  I'm comfortable in 3D games and have played them since the very first iterations (such as Mario 64), but my 6 year old is way, way more comfortable.  I get lost at times in massive 3D worlds, my little one is seemingly never lost.  Modeled 3D space is just totally intuitive to him now.  This is a very useful skill for many fields, esp architecture/engineering.

[fanbrits johnson]

Wow, your kid is smart. Maybe it's his calling, you know. He sure is passionate about  video games, and he might become a computer genius one day. My son is playing slot Panda lol and that's the level for him

[Barbs]

Hi,

Just joining in this convo.  My little man will be 4 in March.  Most of his gaming has been on phones, usually with words or numbers.  As we've been in China for last couple years, his Chinese is better than his English, so I kind of love these just for introducing words I feel like he should know but doesn't (Christmas isn't big here at all, so even though we celebrate it, he's not familiar with it.  He actually thinks 'Christmas' means 'snow' as I discovered this week every time he asks to 'Go play in Christmas' )

 

I have most of his TV shows and movies on my computer connected to the Xbox.  He can find those all by himself without issue, so has good handle of the controller.  He has played a couple odd arcade games on the Xbox as well, but I haven't actually gotten around to getting anything for him on it yet (watching him play Fruit Ninja with Kinnect is hilarious though!).

 

Also, when I first started playing Persona 5 (by friend recommendation, I hadn't come across the games before), I let him play for a bit...though thankfully he skipped through all conversations as I later discovered some of the content is pretty inappropriate for him.  What I did love about this small experience though was I basically taught him to always take cover until he was behind an enemy, and then since it was set to easy mode for him, he could just select any attacks to eventually win.  A couple weeks later when we were walking to my office at school, I noticed he was ducking behind every column and looking out around it before dashing to the next - he was keeping in cover in RL 

 

I have Infinity somewhere, so will try pull that out and give it a go with him again after the holidays.  Plus he just got some Minecraft Lego for Christmas, which he's been loving, so I'm hoping to get that setup on tablet for him during the holiday too.

 

On 5/27/2016 at 6:24 AM, Kiki Dee said:

Her current obsession is a PC "game" (really a gamified reading program) called Reading Eggs.  She will quite literally spend three hours solid playing this. 

 

Kiki Didi we've just started on Reading Eggs as well!  Does your daughter still like it?  He loves spending ages on it, and it is definitely opening my eyes to how many "day to day" words don't get said around him since there are a bunch of pictures he just doesn't know what the English is.

 

~ Barbs