The brain development stages
Before you consider letting yourself and/of a child play a video game, it is very important to make sure that you understand what stage your brain is in. Understanding the different stages is crucial because it gives you a chance to understand what is going on in your head and whether that type of game has the right content and style that your should be learning. Each person has a specific time that they need to learn certain traits and also how they take in the information. Lets take a look at the various age groups and what they should be learning at the specific moment in time.
Infancy
Obviously, every person goes through the stage of infancy. This is the time from your moment of birth to about 18 months. This time in your life is the most crucial moment anybody could ever go through. Also, how you are taugh these traits are also very important as well. At thispoint in time, this individual is learning coping, trust, and basic needs. They are leaning how to walk and talk, and if you don't learn the basic communication skills at this age, it will be harder to gasp them in the future. The child is also learning how to trust people, so if they have issues trusting someone at this age, they aren't going to want to trust people when they are older. People do not understand that this is the most crucial spot in a persons life because they are learning how to integrate into society. Your best option of teaching is through interpersonal communication. If you do use technology, use limited and make sure it is based around language and trust other individuals.
Early Childhood
At this point of a persons life, they are starting to go to preschool, starting to be integrated with society. They are learning interpersonal communication skills and are very impressionable. What they see is how they are going to act. These children are learning how to communicate with each other and are starting to learn different cultures and norms that have been passed down through the family. The children are learning the difference from right and wrong, and how society views the difference between right and wrong. This is the time where interpersonal communication is crucial because these children value being in a group and doing things themselves or else they will feel helpless and lonely. If you use video games that this point in time, focus on communcation and they culture of the individual. Make sure the content doesn't have any warped people or objects because some ething that doesn't look normal scare the children easier. Make sure the game have values and distinct the consequences between right and wrong.
Middle Childhood
This time frame ranges between the ages of seven and twelve. At this point the child has learned how to be in society and are mingling around with different children their age. They are still learning about their culture and communication skills and also how they should act in public. The children are learning how to trust and forming very close relationships with other people. This point in their life, learning critical thinking, problem solving and motor skills is very crucial. Another element they are starting to pick up is stereotyping groups by race, gender and ethnicity. Your child is still very impressionable at this time of their life, so watch the content that they are playing. If you let them play a game, try to focus on content that shows integrated cultures, making sure that the game doesn't focus on one specific group as the dominate, powering, and good and another social group as lower, passive and evil. Make sure they game has a good amount of patterns and critical thinking so they can learn skills that will benefit them later in life. Make sure the game virtually or realistically does not contain to much violence or a specific group is causing the violence. They need to make sure that they understand that all groups are equal so they stereotyping and discrimination doesn't occur.
Puberty adolesence and late adolesence
I am merging adolesence as a whole because they both focus on one crucial element, Identity. At this point the children know how to act in public and understand our culture. They now are starting to figure out where they fit in in their culture and social groups. Cliques are extremely important to them in middle and high school because they wnat the feeling of belonging in a group. The need the feeling of belong to continue and succeed in life. At the early stages, they are going through puberty. This is a very important time because this is the point there the body is developing both inside and outside. Playing video games at this point can damage their motor skills because playing games doesn't use the frontal lobe. If you do not continue to use the frontal lobe, it won't be alerted when it needs to be used later in life. If you do play games at this time, focus more on strategy games and critical thinking games. After the puberty point of their life, their body and brain are starting to slow down on developing they are still learning who they are, so communication is still a key element. Playing video games at this time shouldn't be damaging, but can still benefit them due to the content that they are playing.
If you would like to learn more information, please click here.
Infancy
Obviously, every person goes through the stage of infancy. This is the time from your moment of birth to about 18 months. This time in your life is the most crucial moment anybody could ever go through. Also, how you are taugh these traits are also very important as well. At thispoint in time, this individual is learning coping, trust, and basic needs. They are leaning how to walk and talk, and if you don't learn the basic communication skills at this age, it will be harder to gasp them in the future. The child is also learning how to trust people, so if they have issues trusting someone at this age, they aren't going to want to trust people when they are older. People do not understand that this is the most crucial spot in a persons life because they are learning how to integrate into society. Your best option of teaching is through interpersonal communication. If you do use technology, use limited and make sure it is based around language and trust other individuals.
Early Childhood
At this point of a persons life, they are starting to go to preschool, starting to be integrated with society. They are learning interpersonal communication skills and are very impressionable. What they see is how they are going to act. These children are learning how to communicate with each other and are starting to learn different cultures and norms that have been passed down through the family. The children are learning the difference from right and wrong, and how society views the difference between right and wrong. This is the time where interpersonal communication is crucial because these children value being in a group and doing things themselves or else they will feel helpless and lonely. If you use video games that this point in time, focus on communcation and they culture of the individual. Make sure the content doesn't have any warped people or objects because some ething that doesn't look normal scare the children easier. Make sure the game have values and distinct the consequences between right and wrong.
Middle Childhood
This time frame ranges between the ages of seven and twelve. At this point the child has learned how to be in society and are mingling around with different children their age. They are still learning about their culture and communication skills and also how they should act in public. The children are learning how to trust and forming very close relationships with other people. This point in their life, learning critical thinking, problem solving and motor skills is very crucial. Another element they are starting to pick up is stereotyping groups by race, gender and ethnicity. Your child is still very impressionable at this time of their life, so watch the content that they are playing. If you let them play a game, try to focus on content that shows integrated cultures, making sure that the game doesn't focus on one specific group as the dominate, powering, and good and another social group as lower, passive and evil. Make sure they game has a good amount of patterns and critical thinking so they can learn skills that will benefit them later in life. Make sure the game virtually or realistically does not contain to much violence or a specific group is causing the violence. They need to make sure that they understand that all groups are equal so they stereotyping and discrimination doesn't occur.
Puberty adolesence and late adolesence
I am merging adolesence as a whole because they both focus on one crucial element, Identity. At this point the children know how to act in public and understand our culture. They now are starting to figure out where they fit in in their culture and social groups. Cliques are extremely important to them in middle and high school because they wnat the feeling of belonging in a group. The need the feeling of belong to continue and succeed in life. At the early stages, they are going through puberty. This is a very important time because this is the point there the body is developing both inside and outside. Playing video games at this point can damage their motor skills because playing games doesn't use the frontal lobe. If you do not continue to use the frontal lobe, it won't be alerted when it needs to be used later in life. If you do play games at this time, focus more on strategy games and critical thinking games. After the puberty point of their life, their body and brain are starting to slow down on developing they are still learning who they are, so communication is still a key element. Playing video games at this time shouldn't be damaging, but can still benefit them due to the content that they are playing.
If you would like to learn more information, please click here.
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Chart 1-1: Understanding how your brain develops and the different stages
