What do children learn from gaming?

During my childhood in the 1990s, I wasn't allowed to play video games or use a computer because my parents thought they were harmful. Instead, our family passed the time playing card and board games. When I later started doing yoga exercises and playing tennis with a game console, I thought: «That can't be harmful, it combines fun with physical activity!»

As a developmental psychologist, I have often wondered whether games – especially the often-maligned video games – have any measurable benefits or harms. So I investigated the relationship between gaming and children's cognitive development. The media – and thus also research – tend to focus on the potential harms rather than the possible benefits. But we owe it to children to find out more about both aspects.

Different fields of study

Playing promotes child development. During play, children have the opportunity to make discoveries. They experience first-hand how they build the skills they need in the world. Although fun is the primary focus of play, it is also a natural way to learn.

When children take turns while playing and have to wait until it is their turn again, they improve their impulse control and learn to manage their reactions. This helps them develop the ability to regulate their desire for immediate gratification. Role-playing games, on the other hand, teach them to view situations from different perspectives – an important foundation for empathy and social understanding.

Moderate video gaming does not pose a risk to children's development. It even seems to have certain advantages.

Playing also allows children to practise communication and behaviour regulation. They learn that it is unacceptable to throw game pieces or the console around in a tantrum. Dealing with frustration when they lose a game helps them develop cognitive skills – for example, remembering rules, developing strategies or staying focused. They also learn socio-emotional skills, including self-control and empathy. Different types of play are useful for different skills.

During the second half of the 20th century, researchers focused on board and card games to assess a child's home learning environment. Parents' information about games at home provided insight into how children learned numbers. According to parents, the more games there were at home, the better the early childhood understanding of numbers.

From board game to exergame

A recent development in the gaming market is what are known as exergames. The term is a portmanteau of «exercise» and «gaming». Exergames are computer games that require focused attention, quick decisions, competition, coordinated movements and agility. They demand a wide range of cognitive and sensory skills while the body is in motion.

Given the variety of formats available, it is impossible to say definitively whether video games are beneficial or harmful for children. An estimated 75 per cent of all children today play exergames or other video games. It therefore makes little sense to advise against their use altogether. Instead, it is important to recognise that these games have become an integral part of children's everyday lives – and should be accompanied by appropriate educational support.

Children benefit from having a wide selection of different games to choose from.

My research team and I wanted to investigate the influence of different types of play on the cognitive development of nursery school children. We asked the parents of 97 children how often they played different types of games at home. We also tested the six-year-old children at nursery school and then again 18 months later.

We used various tasks to assess key executive functions: impulse control, the ability to shift attention flexibly, and working memory, i.e. the short-term retention of information. The children in our study played for about 30 minutes each.

Surprising study results

As expected, the study found that the more often children played classic board and card games, the better their impulse control was. However, another result was surprising: children who played digital puzzles such as Memory or Tetris particularly often performed worse in terms of their ability to shift their attention flexibly.

This means that they had more difficulty switching between different activities. In contrast, children who played more exergames at the age of six were better at shifting their focus of attention 18 months later.

How can this obvious advantage over digital puzzles be explained? While digital puzzles require a more consistent level of concentration, exergames combine physical movement with cognitive effort. They challenge children both mentally and physically. In comparison, digital puzzles may be less demanding in terms of flexible attention control.

For other types of video games – especially those in which children have to move around in three-dimensional worlds or balance objects – we found no correlation with impulse control, attention shifting or working memory.

No risk to development

Parents will be pleased to hear that moderate video gaming does not appear to pose any risk to children's development. In fact, it seems to have certain benefits. These benefits could be even greater if children play a wide variety of games that require different skills. For example, solving a puzzle can improve spatial awareness, a board game requires thinking before acting, while an exergame requires new movement sequences.

Given the media reports on this topic, I understand why my parents didn't want to allow me to play video games back in the 1990s. But today we know that games can even be beneficial for children of nursery age. They are fun and children can learn new skills while playing them.