QUESTION—

Do you think video games have an affect on a childs attention span?

I'm curious about that myself. I have been asking around about AD/HD today. (Coincidental?) My son cannot sit through a whole cartoon or sit through a movie. But, he can sit and play video games. Not all day, but longer than watching a 15 minute episode of Spongebob, and he loves Spongebob. I'm very curious about this subject myself!

i notice it when my son is doing his homework...he drifts off quite easily..but can stay focus on playing a video game for hours. I am so close to cutting his video games out all together

Video games are a great way to get your child to do homework! "When you are finished with homework, you can play your games for x amount of time."

But I understand, when I say that my son whines the whole time anyway! I know they focus better on the games, which is sad. That's why we (as parents) need to set limits. So much time on games, homework, a family meal, and hopefully for some parent/child interaction inbetween. Like catch or making dinner together. It's hard for me to impliment this because I work swing shift. It's all a balancing act, isn't it?

you are so right...sometimes the videos games give the parents some free time to theirselves. Im concern though..I dont want him to slack from doing homework. His teacher is complaining that he is off task a lot.

His teacher is complaining that he is off task a lot.

Same here. How old is he? Mine is 6.

I agree Bling, as long as it doesn't take over their lives. They should be played constructively.

I totally agree on the games with the problem solving....it's helps them to think and figure things out on their own. With a sense of accomplishment.

"But I think that some of the more mentally challenging games can benefit,ie ones with puzzle solving in them or parts where they need to remember bits from way back in the game to progress..."

The "Monkey Island" series kicks ass in that department.

Strategy games and and Football Manager are also good.

my son is 6 too

Fantasy/roleplaying games I think are alot better to make them think more than other genres of video games.They're just more time consuming than like sports games or whatever cause your looking at the least a few hours of playtime to go straight through and missing half of the optional stuff.

Otherwise,think its just lack od disipline instilled by parents that I see as the problem with kids and video games,if they aren't taught to not sit in front of the TV 24/7 its unlikely they will on thier own.Consequences for the actions of not being around sucks huh?You maybe could give them the idea of school work is good for video games and inform them that if they get good grades they could grow up and make thier own video games.And it's actually true so you won't be lying or whatever if they find out from elsewhere the truth about it!🙂

i don't have kids...altho i do have nieces and nephews

i don't think it's coincidence that attention spans have shortened in the most recent generations coz they've all grown up with TV. TV shows have commercial breaks every 15 minutes so minds have been trained to only focus for 15 mins then take a break. i've even found my own attention span and tolerance has also shortened over time.

with TV being a passive activity it would seem logical that kids' attention spans can be captivated for longer periods of time when their input is needed and they are involved (e.g., video games).

my niece (4) & nephew (3) can sit still through an entire disney movie. maybe coz my sis & bro-in-law haven't let them watch shows on TV? they watch DVDs of disney movies, or a whole episode of a commercial free shows on DVD like Backyardigans etc. then they move on to something else, like painting where one parent is usually sitting down, engaging and participating with them for a half hour or so.

oh, and my nephew seems fairly obsessed with Thomas the Train - he can play with his trains for literally hours....seems to be a good thing for now coz it activates and encourages his imagination. but it's good he's started pre-school last week, so he can interact and socialize.

just thought i would pass along what i've observed first-hand with these toddlers...

LOL i kinda went off point there...see what i mean about my own mind wandering?

my point to that whole thing is that since their minds are being trained to focus for longer periods of time, they seem to have the attention span required to be engaged even during passive activities.