Teenagers sometimes need to be alone after a stressful day. In some cases, video games allow you to get past their aggressiveness, their frustration, notes Marie-France Haineault, psychoeducator at the Children’s. When used intelligently, video games can be a great educational tool. Now that Buy d2 items are there available, the children can get the best options for proper gaming.

• “Despite this, spontaneous outdoor play will always remain the healthiest choice for the physical and mental balance of my children,” says Anika Gaudet.

This opinion is shared by the specialists interviewed who describe the situation of childhood obesity (31.5% in Canada) as very worrying.

Video games in hospitals

Thanks to the Click (Child Life Interactive Computers for Kids) program implemented in 14 Canadian hospitals that are part of the Children’s Miracle Network, young patients have access to electronic tablets, video game consoles, software, webcams and other digital devices. Far from increasing their isolation, screens and video games help these hospitalized children to stay in contact with their family members, their school, their community. “It would be a mistake to deny that the internet and video games are part of the lives of young people today. It is up to us to adapt our strategies based on what attracts them and to benefit from the activity, ”said Maureen Jones, Click program coordinator and child specialist at the Children’s Hospital of eastern Ontario. Video games are used to distract and motivate children, but they are also used by therapists, especially to work on children’s fine motor skills.

Violence and education

Spurts of blood, cries of pain, decapitation, carnage. Video games are sometimes the scene of very realistic violent scenes. These games dominate the market and attract more and more young fans. Each time an unfortunate event involving a young person makes headlines, the debate resurfaces: should we put violent video games on the dock?

To date, no study has succeeded in proving beyond a doubt a causal relationship between video game violence and aggressive behavior among young people, reports pediatrician Emmett Francoeur. “Child abuse can be caused by a variety of factors such as temperament, health, family climate, family history, etc.,” notes the specialist.

The consequences that these games have on emotions, thoughts and behavior depend mainly on the sensitivity of the child, estimates for his part the neuropsychologist Francine Lussier.

• “There are children for whom these games are a source of excitability of anger, while for others, it is an outlet, a channeler,” she says.
• Anika Gaudet, who, with her husband, has six children at home, is concerned about the violence present in the games of their 16-year-old adolescent. “We only allow them when the youngest are in bed.”
• “Exposing a child to violence when the structure of his morality is not firmed becomes uneducational,” says orthopedagogue Nicole de Grandmont, specialist in game pedagogy.

Rather than prohibiting them, the physicist offers parents to take an interest in the games of their young people, as violent as they are. “If the adult gets involved, he will be able to manage this violence, put it in context, measure its impact on the child. Parents are afraid because the violence is excessive. But all the children played guns and war. It is the diversity of games that allows children to develop well, ”continues Dr. Lussier.