In the 21st century, there are a ton of fun and age-appropriate online games that can help nurture your child’s creativity significantly. Among them are games that involve virtually taking care of a pet like a horse, puzzles, or building cities. Other popular games include Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Little Big Planet, and Big Brain Academy. But before you introduce your child to any of these online games, you need to take into consideration their interests and get them to play what they like. In case you are debating whether to introduce your child to gaming, here are four items to convince you:
1. Leads to the creation of ideas
Online games help children become more engaged and motivated to learn and participate in a set of tasks. A majority of these games are built on the concept of limitations which automatically prompt players to think outside the box to make a head start. This kind of design works to influence your children’s cognitive processes to help them analyze, respond, and react to a given problem. Their ability to come up with a flourishing action to win the game is what leads to the development of new ideas. Additionally, online games also stimulate your children’s problem-solving strategies which can be translated to real-life challenges. Stimulating their young brains to solve underlying issues is a better brain workout as it helps enhance cognition.
2. Promotes imagination
Online games such as virtual and augmented reality remove geographical barriers allowing wild adventures and imaginations to feed into the minds of your young children. When children are able to play freely, they develop creative thinking that they can use to develop amazing things. They also get to learn from being able to visualize complex concepts and processes for example such as how volcanic eruptions take place which is important for them to understand geography. Virtual and augmented reality games also provide children with an immersive environment that offers them a multi-sensory experience. Having been engaged in such an immersive setting, they become part of the story and can share their experience with family and friends. This helps them hone their storytelling skills.
3. Opens vast opportunities
Some games allow children to create whatever they want. For example, in virtual reality, children can color, build, draw, and paint which helps them unleash their artistic sides. There are numerous virtual reality apps such as Jaunt VR, Second Life, Jurassic VR, Assetto Corsa, and InMind that can entertain your children while prompting them to create. It is important to note that you need to keep your children safe as they engage in online gaming. This is because they are at risk of downloading malware such as Trojans that can infect their devices. They are also at risk of online predators who are known to lure and groom their victims. Such predator’s windup sending inappropriate messages to children which in the long run results in sexual exploitation. Fortunately, you can use Virtual Private Network (VPN) to ensure that your children do not fall prey to such dangers. All you need to do is learn more about VPNs, particularly the type that is ideal for you, how to install and use them. While at it ensure that you often monitor your child’s online activity!
4. Stimulates critical thinking
Teaching children critical thinking helps them make better decisions and understand the consequences of the actions that they take. Online gaming has made it easy to instill such critical life skills in the minds of young children by putting them in situations where they have to make the best possible choices. Studies conducted have shown that there is a strong relationship between playing games and high levels of creativity. Similarly, online games leverage design elements to engage children in goal-oriented activities which challenge them to think critically to achieve a particular goal. Critical thinking also encourages curiosity by allowing children to experiment, test theories to better understand how the world works.
Hopefully, once the situation with Covid-19 clears up, children could attend gaming competitions in different countries and meet other kids who are passionate about games. To make the best experience for your children, start planning and researching from now; which places to visit, what cities are the best game competition attractions, or whether you will need an international driving permit to travel or not. There is no doubt your children will feel thankful towards you.
Conclusion
Online games also help children develop communication skills and promote experiential learning which is important in school. Allowing your children to play online games is also a powerful way of promoting creative thinking because games take down the barriers of established routines and behavioral norms. In turn, they provide your children with new realities and new perspectives of approaching issues in life. So, get your children playing but ensure that they do so under your supervision.
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