by Rhonda Twitty

Created on: January 19, 2009

Are there any medical uses for video games? I will answer a whole heartedly, YES! I have heard about them using computer games to help people with hand and eye coordination. I beleive that there are other benefits as well. Let me tell you about my son, who benefited from playing video games.

Daniel was born a healthy 7lb baby boy. He developed normally. He was walking at 9 months and getting into everything. He was a very active little boy. I didn't think that anything was wrong because I had always heard that boys were a handful. But when Daniel started preschool at the age of 3 the teacher noticed that something was wrong. To make a long story short, Daniel was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 4 and placed on medication. The school district, at my request, tested Daniel's academic skills. At the age of 4, Daniel was testing at the level of an 18 month old. Most of his disabilities was in the area of communication skills.

Daniel picked up video games and fell in love with them. He would play those games 24/7 if I would l let him. So I started looking for some educational games that he could play. Daniel really enjoyed them. These games incorporated fun and learning. I was completely amazed at the strides that Daniel made academically. Yes, it helped his hand/eye coordination which in turn helped him with his writing and fine motor skills. But the best part about these games it that they made learning fun. One such game, he had to add him adding in order to jump across a ragging river filled with crocodiles. At times he would ask for my help if he couldn't figure it out but most of the time he worked until he got it. Some of the simpler games had him spelling words in order to get across a bridge. He couldn't get across the bridge until he spelled the word correctly.

As he got older and the games he played got harder. Daniel had to increase his reading skills in order to play these more mature games. The games would offer tips within the game so Daniel had to read in order to know what to do. At first, it kind of bugged me to have him constantly spelling out words to me that he didn't know but I helped him out when he needed it. Eventually, Daniel stopped asking for help because his reading skills had matured enough to where he could read the tips by himself.

When Daniel was 10yrs old he was diagnosed as having PDD, which is a mild version of Autism. But Daniel is with his class. He hasn't missed a year of school. He does still get some help with his reading comprehension but he is doing very well. I accredit a lot of Daniel's success to those early days of computer playing. The video games and early intervention helped my son succeed academically. I strongly agree that video games do have some medical uses.

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