Do Video Games Enhance Selective Attention in Children?

Research Observing nipperren use gaming consoles can be quite entertaining due to their deep embedded interest and love for video games. Young boys in accompaniment seem to partake in the interactive environment that gaming allows them to join. Whether its Nintendo, Xbox, or Playstation, males of all ages always seem so captivated by the virtual world portrayed on their television set. When wholeness accentes on a specific aspect of a scene while ignoring separate aspects, such as focusing on the video game you ar playing in the same room as m all passel are speaking, a concept of selective economic aid is introduced (Wikipedia, 2006).A normal attention span seems to develop in three stages in children. First, the childs attention is said to be overly exclusive. This is a term use by psychologists to describe attention that is focused on a unity object for long periods while tuning out all other stimuli (Child Development Institute, 2006). Second, a childs attention develo ps to where it is overly inclusive. This refers to a wide span of attention that is constantly and rapidly changing from one object to another such as a toddler who is ravel from one toy to the next never able to stay with any one toy for any period of time (CDI, 2006).A child who is stuck at this stage might be diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder. Third, the child develops selective attention where he or she is able to shift the focus whenever he or she pleases from being inclusive to being very exclusive. This is considered a mature pattern of focus and concentration which is needed in a classroom setting. Some reasons a child may have woeful attention, concentration, and impulse control are due to anxiety, depression, slow psychological development, accomplishment disabilities, need of sleep, poor nutrition, low motivation, and especially boredom due to lack of challenge (CDI, 2006).Boredom due to a lack of challenge definitely cannot be a characteristic of video g ames to the male population who spend hours a day playing especially not the nine year sexagenarian Austin who I have babysat for or Brian, another boy I know who is ten years old. Video games were first introduced in the 1970s. By the end of that decade they had become a preferred childhood blank activity(Cesarone, 1994). Advocates of video games imply that they may be a complaisant way of introducing children to computers, and may increase childrens hand-eye coordination and attention to detail.