The rest of the list, 5-10...
5) Improve Reading!The Cognitive Brain Research Unit at the University of Helsinki, Finland, found that videogames can be used to help sufferers of dyslexia. A group of 24 dyslexics - people who have trouble expressing language - were presented with a game that challenged them to match different shapes and sounds. Tests showed that the game stimulated activity in the brain's auditory cortex and, ultimately, enhanced reading speed and accuracy.
Researchers at the University of Delaware created a similar videogame, which was used to develop articulation skills in young children. Robert Morgan, director of the Computer, Space Science, Simulation, and Faculty Technology Training Center at University School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and founder of the Creative Teaching website (
www.creativeteachingsite.com), declares: "Playing adventure games forces you to read and read carefully. It's important to read carefully enough to get information that will help you solve problems. You can improve your reading by practice."
6) Stay Awake In School!"Have you ever wondered why a child can sit and read about their favorite sports hero or movie star for hours, but can't concentrate on schoolwork?"
Maybe because schoolwork is...boring.
This question, posed by the creators of a nifty gadget called The Attention Trainer, could lead to more help for the 2-8 percent of kids suffering from attention-deficit disorder - a condition that makes it difficult, if not seemingly impossible, for them to pay attention. Using some principles of Dr. Alan Pope's research at NASA, the Attention Trainer is a gamey way to help kids make it through a chapter on the Louisiana Purchase without drowning in their own snooze-drool. The Trainer is actually a sleek yellow cap that looks something like a cycling helmet. Plugged into an ordinary PC running a variety of customized games, the Attention Trainer adjusts the action onscreen based on how much attention the player is paying at a given moment. Zero in on the car race, for example, and it's easier to push the pedal to the metal. Zone out for a spell, and the vehicle slows to a chug. Dr. David Rabiner, a senior research scientist at Duke University, found that after such stimulation, "the participants who received attention training via feedback showed behavioral improvement upon follow up."
7) Prevent Seizures!For years, there have been reports that videogames - with their high-speed framerates and strobe-like flashing lights - can trigger seizures in players who suffer from epilepsy. In fact, warning labels now appear on many games. But neurological researchers at Brandeis University and the Children's Hospital in Boston found that videogames could actually be used to
help epileptics lead healthier lives. During a seizure, epileptics experience a flash of uncontrollable brainwaves. For the study, scientists measured the types of electrical bursts produced by gamers as they played a traditional maze game. After observing the results, the scientists found that the impulses that might lead to seizures seemed to originate in the temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for memory. Using videogames, the scientists say it's possible to help isolate these regions of the brain and possibly develop non-invasive treatment for the condition. "By playing videogames, these heroic teenagers are helping the kids of the future have happier, healthier, seizure-free lives," researcher Dr. Robert Sekula says. "With more work, we may be able to understand why the brain's rhythmic activity sometimes spins out of control. Our long-range goal is developing a cure for epilepsy."
8) Blow Off Steam!Rather than blaming violent games for inspiring violent acts, Gerald Jones, author of the book
Killing Monsters: Why Children NEED Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence, argues that adults need to understand the role make-believe violence plays in human development. "Exploring, in a safe and controlled context, what is impossible or too dangerous or forbidden...is a crucial tool in accepting the limits of reality. Playing with rage is a valuable way to reduce its power. Being evil and destructive in imagination is a vital compensation for the wildness we all have to surrender on our way to being good people." Sounds like Jones believes videogames are perfect for this kind "safe exploration" - something that researchers confirmed as far back as the 1980s, when a report in the
Journal of American Academic Child Psychiatry argued that games not only
didn't inspire aggression, but they actually released it. And despite all the studies that attempt to link violent media with aggression, such conclusions remain suspect. "Violence in film, in videogames, in music lyrics is disturbing to us all," said Dr. Stuart Fischoff, founder of the Media Psychology Lab at Detroit State University in Los Angeles, in an address to the American Psychological Association in 1999. "But because two phenomena are both disturbing and coincident in time does not make them causally connected."
9) Rehabilitate From Injuries!Wheelchair users, burn victims, and muscular-dystrophy sufferers have all benefited from videogame therapy, according to research by Dr. Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University who published the report, "The Therapeutic Value of Videogames." One occupational therapist developed three-minute exercise routines that used a videogame controller to increase hand strength for those recovering from hand injuries. Videogames have also been used for their powers of distraction - a versatile means of helping people deal with pain management. In one study, an 8-year-old boy was suffering from a chronic case of picking his face. According to Dr. Griffiths, "The child had neurodermatitis and scarring due to continual picking at his upper lip. Previous treatments, including behavior modification, had failed, so a...videogame was used to keep the boy's hand occupied. After two weeks, the affected area had healed." Whether games can cure a chronic nosepicker remains to be seen.
10) Make Friends!Now, there's proof that beating your friends' butts in
Virtual Fighter may be a healthy way to build social skills. For nearly two decades, scientists have used videogames to help developmentally damaged kids practice social interactions. As Dr. Jo Bryce, University of Central Lancashire, wrote in her study of gamers at live competitions, such in-person gaming events "offer [the] opportunity for conspicuous display and the challenge of skills developed through domestic gaming and practice to be applied to a public field of competition. Part of the attraction of public gaming events is not just to be challenged and compete, but to be seen to do so and make eye contact with other members of the gaming communities." And with games now offering online gaming, there's never been a better time for players to reach out and frag someone - all in the name of good health, of course.
