How do video games help children in learning better?

One learns best when they’re having fun; if you are enjoying the process of learning, you are more likely to process the information efficiently. Research shows us that humour in the process of learning can enhance knowledge retention. In fact, when students experience enjoyment in the classroom, it helps them achieve higher levels of understanding and cognition.

Aside from its ability to engage students, playful learning - especially with the use of video games - is also known to confer a wide range of benefits outside of teaching academic subjects.

The practice of introducing play into education is also known as gamification, which is seeing a surge of interest by educators and researchers alike. Click here to read our article on gamification in education.

How gaming helps to facilitate education

On a surface level, some video games do teach players academic subjects like English and Maths in an indirect manner. Depending on the game played, there might be lots of reading required in order to progress through a game (which teaches them proper sentence structure and grammar), or the player might be required to earn money to buy helpful items that they can use inside the game (making them use their maths skills to manage their budget).

But the primary advantage of video games is that they also teach players soft skills that they normally wouldn’t be able to learn in the classroom, such as logical deduction, reasoning, problem-solving, perseverance, critical thinking and creativity, among others. These might not be tested in exams, but will prove to be invaluable in the real world.

Let’s take a deeper look at some of the most popular video games today and what they can potentially teach while entertaining your child.

Minecraft

In Minecraft, players enter a world made of blocks and with nothing but just their hands for tools. As soon as it begins, they are given complete freedom to find a way to survive and thrive in this world: build a shelter, find food, mine for resources and make tools to build cottages, castles or factories if they so wish.

Aside from giving them a chance to explore and survive by encouraging problem-solving and logical thinking, it also offers a blank canvas for players to exercise their creativity and persistence. This is not a game where they can magically summon a mansion out of thin air, after all; they will have to work to make it a reality.

By doing so, they will learn the value of perseverance and hard work when they undertake difficult tasks in the real world.

Among Us

One of the more recent games to explode in popularity, Among Us is a social deduction game where everyone is an astronaut in a spaceship… except one or more of the crew are secretly monsters that are out to eliminate the rest.

Players don’t necessarily perform difficult tasks or are challenged with maths and science problems in this game, but they are actively encouraged to communicate with one another and cooperate to win the game, whether they are one of the friendly astronauts or part of the team of monsters.

As parents with day jobs, it’s impossible to understate the importance of knowing how to communicate and collaborate with peers to succeed in life. This game is one such way of learning this skill.

Portal 1 & 2

Good puzzle games aren’t very common these days, but if your child loves video games, they will no doubt have heard of this series before.

Portal is a first-person perspective puzzle game where you play as a person in a laboratory that conducts physics experiments with futuristic portal technology. In it, players are presented with a series of levels that they will need to complete by skillfully using portals, which can create solutions to otherwise impossible puzzles.

To be successful, players will need to put on their thinking caps and be ready to test their own theories - just like a science experiment. As a bonus, some puzzles involve basic physics concepts, too!

Roblox

The ever popular Roblox contains a whole metaverse of minigames, from silly ones to exciting, even brain-cracking ones. In fact, Roblox is so big that very likely features games that imitate the ones that were just mentioned above - that’s because it also features a game creation kit that allows its players to make any game they want.

Because of that, it’s impossible to condense what Roblox contains in just a few sentences, but its popularity amongst children and teenagers is undisputed.

Interactive learning with Geniebook

Geniebook’s suite of online learning tools aren’t exactly games, but they are nevertheless packed with lots of interactive features that make learning more engaging.

One example is our AI-personalised worksheet generator GenieSmart, which automatically configures questions to make each attempt a decent challenge. Our live lessons on GenieClass are also packed with engaging demonstrations and experiments by our teachers, and our chat platform GenieAsk connects students with teachers, allowing them to ask academic questions related to their syllabus.

Together, these three products form a flywheel of improvement that assists to boost your child’s learning at their convenience.