Whether you’re an adult looking to improve your skills or a youngster seeking to improve your social skills, online games can help you. From learning to control your emotions to improving hand-to-eye coordination, these games can help you become better.
Improves social skills
Developing social skills is an important life skill, and video games can play a part in the process. It can help children develop friendships, build relationships, and learn about kindness and cooperation. But it is also important to know how to keep kids safe while they are playing.
A study involving a team of researchers found that playing video games boosted the social skills of kids. It also found that playing certain games may be particularly beneficial for children with social difficulties. For example, an empathy game study found that greater connectivity was seen in empathy-related circuits of the brain.
A similar study led by Muniba Saleem found that kids who played a prosocial video game tended to do a better job of helping others in real life. This is especially true if the game was played early in the school year.
Helps children manage emotions
Using games to help children manage emotions can be a great way to help them improve their social skills. Some games are more effective than others, depending on the child’s personality.
Some games can help children understand their emotions while others can help them learn how to manage their anger. These games are meant to make emotional health and management fun and easy for kids.
A new app called Wisdom: The World of Emotions has been developed by Better Kids to help parents and teachers engage children in social-emotional learning activities. The app includes meditations, hands-on activities and interactive digital games. It’s available in English on iOS devices.
A team of Harvard psychiatry professors led a study on video games. The researchers found that children who played a game called Space Invaders had a better chance of regulating their stress levels than children who didn’t play the game. The study was small, but researchers hope to replicate the findings on a larger scale.
Increases grey matter in the brain
During play, action video games have been shown to increase grey matter in the brain, according to researchers from Australia and China. Grey matter in the hippocampus is associated with memory, speech, and muscle control. Research also indicates that lower grey matter in the hippocampus is a biomarker for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The researchers randomly assigned 33 adults, aged 55-75, to one of two groups: a Super Mario 64 video game training group, or a computerized piano training group. The video game group engaged in six months of training on 3D-platform video games.
In the video game hl88vina group, grey matter in the hippocampus increased, and short-term memory performance increased. The hippocampus is a major brain area involved in spatial learning, memory, and decision making.
Researchers also observed that the video game group increased grey matter in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. The hippocampus and cerebellum are regions that are important in motor control and balance.
Enhances hand-to-eye coordination
Having good hand-eye coordination can make a person better at playing video games. According to a study by the University of Toronto, the more people who play video games, the more likely they are to improve their hand-eye coordination.
The study involved 18 gamers who played first-person shooter games at least three times per week for two hours in the last six months. The participants were divided into two groups. One group had little to no video game experience and the other group had played video games regularly.
The video game group (VGPs) performed better on a rotary pursuit task than the non-game group. They made 37 percent fewer mistakes. This suggests that playing video games can improve the hand-eye coordination of surgeons. The researchers also found that gamers improved more rapidly than non-gamers.