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Video Games: A Therapeutic Analysis

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I truly enjoy playing video games and hope to encourage others whom are not already playing.I narrowed my focus to the possible therapeutic effects of using video games as a treatment for chronic illnesses such as autism. I am personally interested in this topic because for the majority of my life I have been told time and time again video games are horrific for kids. Yes, there have been several outdated studies linking children who played violent video games with more aggressive behavior. But these studies were not very scientific and did not take other factors into account. For example, they compared the violent tendencies of people in combat and contact sports, like football, MMA, etc, with similar problems in video gamers. …show more content…

many people who play video games possess acute reflexes and are able to deal with problems more quickly than the average person. This enables the 1.4 billion people who play video games every day to have that much of an edge over those who don’t. For people who lack social ability video gaming has created its own subculture that tends to support itself better than some. Parents and researchers alike say that video games often provide a better sense of community for their child than their friends. A place where this often is helpful is for autistic children. Due to anonymity, an autistic child could easily fit in on online games much better than in sports or clubs. A common myth about gaming is it often makes kids more aggressive or directly causes ADHD. Yes, video games have been proven to raise aggression in some children but many kids were already irritable and the aggression roots from frustration with the games themselves, not because they are fulfilling their fantasy of being extremely violent in a simulation against other players. Where this theory has facts, it is presented as a blanket that covers all. Maybe if parents weren't so aggressive with their children, they wouldn't follow in their footsteps. Lastly, causing ADHD: In this situation correlation does not imply causation. In other words, it's more common now days that children develop adhd because of overloaded schedules and a variety of other

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