Is Playstation really that bad?
August 19, 2008 by tracey7
Jane’s article “But why can’t I play on the computer all day? ..” was very relevant to me as I have a 9 year old son who’s every waking moment is spent wanting to play on the playstation.
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But then I think about my own childhood and think about the number of hours I spent sitting in front of the TV! I can sing you the theme songs from “Gilligan’s Island” and “Astroboy” and know all of the names of the Brady Kids. Admittedly these can be useful at trivia nights, but very little else.
At least with the playstation the child is thinking about strategy, making decisions and using (very complicated) fine motor skills. In fact, according to Dr James Rosser Jr, director of the Advanced Medical Technologies Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, “Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster, he says, basing his observation on results of tests using the video game Super Monkey Ball.”
So I am off to buy my son a copy of Super Monkey Ball!
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Tracey,
OK you got me to search further….!
The Austin Group did a review of video games.
See http://www.videogames.agigametoys.com/
(iGames and Toys).
Apparently Dr Rosser is known as the “Nintendo surgeon”.
Also further findings in this study were:
“Rosser does point out that surgeons perform better with just three hours of video game play per week … to that child out there that thinks that they got a free pass to play video games carte blanche, I say ‘Nooo, sadly mistaken.”
Jane