Electronic Games, Positive Uses of

Until very recently, most reported effects of video games on children and adolescents centered on the alleged negative consequences. These included video game addiction, increased aggressiveness, and various medical and psychosocial effects. However, video games have been used innovatively in a wide variety of therapeutic and medical contexts for children and adolescents.

For instance, case studies using video game play as a form of occupational therapy or physiotherapy have been used for diverse groups of people, such as those with learning disabilities, physical handicaps, and emotional disturbances. Innovative uses include the use of video game playing as a respiratory muscle training aid for a young patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and another involving a 13-year-old boy with Erb's palsy who used video game playing as physiotherapy for arm injuries. The playing of video games has also been used in exercise programs to increase hand strength and facilitate the rehabilitation of upper-limb burn victims (using a variety of small to large joysticks). The use of video games in almost all these differing contexts capitalizes on a number of interrelated factors. One of the most important is the child's motivation to succeed. Furthermore, video games have advantages over traditional therapeutic methods that rely on passive, repetitive movements and painful limb manipulation, because video games divert attention from potential discomfort.

[Page 280]One of the reasons video game playing has been used in a number of therapeutic studies is because video games act as “distractor tasks.” In one case study, an 8-year-old boy with neurodermatitis was unable to stop picking at his face (particularly his upper lip), and it was causing scarring. All conventional treatments had failed, so, to occupy his hands he was given a handheld video game to play (a Nintendo Game Boy). After just 2 weeks of video game playing, the affected area had healed. In addition to case studies such as this, a small number of U.S. studies have shown that video game playing can provide cognitive distraction for children who undergo chemotherapy for cancer. All these studies have reported that child patients reported less nausea prior to chemotherapy as a result of playing video games. This pain management technique utilizing video games has also been applied successfully to children undergoing treatment for sickle cell disease.

In randomized clinical trials, it has been reported that children and adolescents improved their self-care and significantly reduced their use of emergency clinical services after playing health education and disease management video games. The games have also been used extensively in comprehensive health promotions for adolescents in many areas (e.g., AIDS, alcohol, drugs, sexuality, and smoking).

It is clear that, in the right context, video games can have a positive therapeutic result on a large range of different subgroups. Video games have been shown to help children undergoing chemotherapy, children undergoing psychotherapy, children with particular emotional and behavioral problems (ADD, impulsivity, autism), and children with medical and health problems (Erb's palsy, muscular dystrophy, burns, strokes, and movement impairment).