Electronic games or traditional games?

They should not be seen as villains. Recent studies have already proven that electronic games bring a series of benefits to child development. “They facilitate the learning of various cognitive skills, such as reading, writing, calculating and even motor skills”, says psychopedagogue Rebeca Lescher, director of the Associação Brasileira de Psicopedagogia/Seção São Paulo.

The risk appears when fun on the small screen starts to monopolize the child’s routine, to the detriment of traditional games – something increasingly common, as the expert points out. In her office, where she works with students from private schools, and at the NGO Colmeia, where she receives children from public schools, Rebeca has encountered many similar situations. “When children are not offered other options, electronic games, with all their charm and fascination, end up becoming the only distraction. And that is a big problem.”

Although the virtual world is challenging, just playing in the real world, explains Rebeca, the child broadens his view of the world and of himself and has the chance to develop skills such as body, temporal, spatial and laterality awareness, fundamental in the process of learning. Games with pre-established rules, for example, are extremely important for the development of notions of justice and ethics. “Participants can experience a variety of emotions and exercise control over contradictory and satisfying feelings,” she explains.

Traditional games, such as symbolic games, singing games, journey games and making toys, are also a powerful tool for increasing vocabulary and help the child to understand the other’s thinking. “In addition, they stimulate the ability to remember, go through the past and foresee the future, which makes it possible to anticipate, plan and make decisions, making reasoning faster and more flexible.”

The big question, according to Rebeca, is finding the balance point. And the competition seems really unfair: how to make a child of the 21st century interested in ropes and marbles if electronic games are increasingly complex, attractive and, even, easy to carry everywhere? Bringing the world of games into the universe of traditional games is a creative solution. For example, your child might enjoy building their favorite character from the online world out of scrap metal.

According to the psychopedagogue, however, it is not possible to escape the control of the time dedicated to virtual games. “Parents should be aware that it is necessary to impose limits so that their children can exercise other skills and discover new ways of having fun”, she says. With the little ones, it’s usually easier. With them, the ideal, suggests Rebeca, is to negotiate periods of 15 minutes, interspersed with other activities. “But it all depends on common sense. It is good to remember that young children have a lot of energy and need to expend it.”

As they grow and gain more autonomy, control becomes an even greater challenge for parents. From pre-adolescence, playing online with several friends, each in their own home, becomes such a common habit that it can consume hours at a time. There, the healthiest thing, argues Rebeca, is to limit virtual games to two hours a day, preferably in the afternoon – at night, you need to slow down in favor of a good night’s sleep. “All games are valid, as long as there is common sense and limits”, ponders the specialist. “There needs to be time to run, to play sports, to learn to play an instrument, to play and, above all, to talk to colleagues outside of social media.”