[imagesource:unsplash]

This might be one post that you wouldn’t want your child to see. Not because there is nudity, violence, or the possibility of Leonardo Dicaprio finding your IP address, but rather because a long-held threat that every parent has relied on since Atari days, has been proven wrong.

According to new research findings published in Neuroscience News, there is no proof of any cognitive decline in children who play video games, regardless of the type of game, or the duration they sit hunched over the remote. Told ya, not the kind of science you want to share with your little one.

Regardless of the game type or length of time a child plays a video game, there is no correlation with a decline in cognitive ability.

The research was conducted by Jie Zhang, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Houston College of Education. Researchers examined the gaming habits of 160 diverse public-school preteen students, most of whom played video games an average of 2.5 – 4.5 hours a day.

The team looked for association between the students’ video game play and their performance on the standardised Cognitive Ability Test.

According to May Jadalla, professor of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University and the study’s principal investigator, found no evidence to back up the long-held belief that video games negatively impact a child’s ability to concentrate. This proves several other studies done in recent years. Again, don’t tell your kids.

Surprisingly, researchers found that certain games actually help the development of cognitive function among certain teens.

Certain types of games were described as helping children build healthy cognitive skills.

Of course this does not mean that your Xbox is a better babysitter than Annemarie from down the road. Too much game time takes children away from other crucial aspects of their development, such as physical activities, learning to climb a tree, and cultivating interests beyond the flat screen in their bedrooms. Kids still need to play in the real world where they learn to form relationships IRL.

[imagesource:pexels]

“When it comes to video games, finding common ground between parents and young kids is tricky enough. At least now we understand that finding balance in childhood development is the key, and there’s no need for us to over-worry about video gaming.”

The study was published in the Journal of Media Psychology, but hopefully, your little gamer only reads Minecraft manuals.

As a parent, my advice is to ignore this post and stick to your guns. Just know that the next time you yell at your precious one to ‘switch off that blerrie game, your brain will rot’, it’ll be fake news.

Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.

[source:neurosciencenews]