🫠Do you have a child who loves to play video games? And when they’re not playing video games, it’s all they want to talk about, think about, read about, or enact in their pretend play? Here’s what’s going on, and why it’s probably not a cause for concern.
🤔From birth, the way that we teach our kids is through repetition. We read our kids the same books thousands of times, show them animals and say their names over and over, and the message kids are getting is “the way I learn more about things that are interesting is by doing them over and over”. That carries into their lives as they grow. Once they discover their own interests, they want to repeat them over and over, because that’s how we’ve taught them.
🧠Additionally, it is completely developmentally appropriate for kids to have a interest to dominate all others. Many kids go through a space phase, an animal phase, a vehicle phase. When our kid wants to play cars for the 500th time, or starts reciting all of the names of the dinosaurs in taxonomical order, we think it’s great skill. . But as soon as that interest is knowing all of the Minecraft character names, we suddenly worry it’s a problem. It’s the same kind of focus, just applied to a different interest.
🤯And remember that video games can be an excellent way to help kids discover other things they may be interested in. If your child loves playing Minecraft, and all they want to talk about is their latest creation, ask them to draw it for you, make it out of Play-Doh, build it with Lego. Go on a hike and talk about which plants you think would make good food just like in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Tell your child that they can make their favorite Mario kart race track with hot wheels tracks in the living room. Sometimes our kids just don’t know how to pivot their gaming interest into real life, and we can help them do that and help them find other things they’re are interested in in the process.
