How Do Video Games Improve Hand-Eye Coordination?

“Stop playing those games and go outside!” These words are commonplace in many homes with children. Since the invention of video games, parents have worried about their influence on children. Video games are often blamed for ruining children’s eyesight and bad influence. In spite of the negativity that surrounds video games, there are positive aspects that are overlooked. Video games positively impact a child’s development by improving hand-eye coordination and social skills while also increasing problem-solving skills

Although hand-eye coordination does not sound like a useful skill to have it really is. Hand-eye coordination is when the hands guide the eye. When a person is playing a one-person shooter the hand is moving the screen so that …show more content…
This skill can be learned by playing video games like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Left for Dead’. First person shooters are games that have to do with guns. These games are easy to play and it helps you acquire hand-eye coordination. First person shooters are not the only games that improve hand-eye coordination. Games like ‘Geometry Dash’ and ‘Subway Surfers’ can help improve hand-eye coordination. Art Markman, the professor of phycology, states that play first-person shooter and driving games help people develop this skill. “The researchers contrasted young adults who play action video games (including driving games and first-person shooters) at least 5 hours a week for at least 6 months to those who play less than an hour a month. They tested them on a driving game in which participants had to keep a car in a straight line. There was a randomly varying crosswind blowing the car side-to-side.” What Art Markman stated was that when they performed this experiment the gamers had an easier time learning new hand-eye coordination. Human Movement Science, a group of people who study human movement, explained that it takes less for gamers to learn hand-eye coordination than a person who do not even play video games,”It takes normal gamers few tries on learning new hand-eye coordination tasks. They …show more content…
Not everyone who plays video games talks that much to other people. These people may be socially awkward. Video games can help children learn social skills. Tim Hodgson, the technologist, states, “Team-based games require communication to succeed. Not only do you need to understand the social language (each game has one), but you need to be an effective communicator. In the world of elite team gaming, communication is paramount and is finely honed after many hours of familiarity with other team players.” What Tim Hodgson stated was that when people play team-based games they have to communicate to succeed in the task. These games may include ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Portal 2’. His statement was supported by Isabela Granic, Professor, and Chair of the Developmental Psychopathology department in the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University. She stated, “When people play multiplayer games like ‘World of Warcraft’ or ‘League of Legends’ they get better at communicating with their partners in battle. This helps them talk more to people that have played it before” First-person shooters are not the only games that help children learn social skills. Games like ‘Pokemon Go’ can also help children and teenagers learn social skills. This was stated by Los Angeles Times, “During the study scientists found that games like ‘Pokemon GO’ encourage gamers to leave their home and interact with other people.” What they were saying