Help Your Child Learn Better Problem Solving With These Video Games
If you haven’t picked up a controller for a while, you might consider your kids’ video games as pointless entertainment or as their reward for cleaning their room. But video games can be so much more. By immersing themselves in the virtual world, kids can learn how to solve complex problems – a skill they will need long after they run out of lives on screen.
Julianne Miner, author of the new book Raising a Screen Smart Kid , tells me that the best video games can help kids practice strategy, improvisation, resource management, collaboration, and situational awareness. “Kids may not realize that collecting coins and choosing how to spend them with maximum value in play actually teach some valuable lessons about resource allocation,” she says.
Your kids may be too busy to know they are learning – and that’s okay – but as a parent, you can help them dive deeper into their lessons by talking to them about the games they are playing. If you don’t know how to do this, Miner suggests doing a little research on the internet. For example, there is an entire website dedicated to Portal 2 educational first-person tutorials . And to really understand what skills games teach, you need to get over yourself and play them .
Here Miner shares some of the best video games that can help your kids solve problems better.
For young children (under 10 years old)
Lego games
There are tons of Lego games out there – Lego Marvel Super Heroes , Lego Batman , Lego Harry Potter , Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on – and they remain incredibly popular. Miner says: “These games can teach kids how to improvise and devise strategies to reach their goals by learning how to progress through each level. Another problem-solving lesson these games can teach is how to use failure productively. In these games, losing a life brings you a lot closer to completing the game, but it also forces the savvy player to learn from their mistakes. If your character dies while falling off a cliff, you will find another strategy to avoid this fatal error. “
mine craft
Much has been written about the educational benefits of Minecraft : in classrooms, the game is even used to help students prepare for future work . “In creative mode, kids will be faced with design problems that they need to solve in the process of creating things,” says Miner. “If you’ve ever watched a kid play Minecraft or take a tour of the world they’ve built, they’ll show you how they built and then demolished and rebuilt the same structure several times, altering design features to get them into just right. In survival mode, kids also have to tackle problems as they arise – dodging the creeper, finding shelter, and creating weapons of self-defense. ”
Super Mario Odyssey
The miner explains that when playing in multiplayer mode, Super Mario Odyssey enhances the co-op gameplay as it produces better results. “This game is also a good example of problem solving learning about resource allocation,” she says. “Players are required to collect coins and moons and must strategize about how and when to best allocate these resources.”
Games for older children (from 10)
Fortnite
Yes, Fortnite . Despite being incredibly addictive, Stanford experts say a multiplayer shooter can enhance skills such as “teamwork, collaboration, strategic thinking, spatial awareness and imagination.” “With so many kids playing and enjoying Fortnite , the lessons in it have real value,” says Miner. “The most frequently cited skill to learn is the value of collaboration. Players are more likely to survive and succeed by working together. Success and survival are also enhanced when children can solve problems on the fly. Just like in Minecraft’s survival mode, players need to find shelter, loot and weapons while dodging enemies. “
Portal 2
Miner says, “My teenage son describes the puzzles in this game as’ amazing ‘and Common Sense Media gives them a plus for educational value, citing that they teach kids how to solve puzzles and problems through’ observation, deduction and hypothesis testing ”. The game encourages co-op play and is considered by many to be insanely fun. “
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Developed for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo WiiU, Miner says the game encourages players to try new strategies to succeed, risk failure, and learn from mistakes, according to Miner. Players must make decisions in order for the noble hero Link to survive in the vast open world. As Common Sense Media’s Chad Sapega writes: “A storm in the distance? It is better to store something made of metal so that Link is not struck by lightning. Is the mountain on your way? No need to go around. The link can climb almost any surface (provided that it has the necessary stamina and does not rain, which makes the surface smooth). All players need to guide them is common sense and curiosity to seek and discover. “