A Nice Story About Video Games and Learning

So I have a nephew who is just over 2 years old. It seems like every time I see him he's a little different because he's constantly learning so much so quickly. Plus that learning is usually a culmination of several different things all coming together to form one whole. So it's rare for me to see him not only learn something but to see him learn it from a direct interaction with a specific thing.

Well yesterday I finally got to see such learning take place. My sister has added a few game to her i-phone so that my nephew can play with them. What he likes to do is take the phone to someone and play two games with that person; Angry Birds Space and Temple Run. Yesterday was my turn to play those games with him.

So he ran over to me phone in hand, jumped on to the couch next to me, plopped the phone in my hands, and urged me to play. The first game we played was Angry Birds. He pulled up a level that he knew how to beat and showed me. Then he got a level he couldn't beat and couldn't figure what to do. All of the level prior to this new level required him to shot the bird left to right and didn't rely too much on gravity from other planets. This new level required him to shot right to left and use a planet's gravitational pull to whip the bird around the planet to hit the pigs. His problem was he kept shooting left to right. So I showed him the concept of shooting right to left and using gravity (by doing it myself with one of our birds). Once he saw me do it he figured it out and then, in subsequent levels, applied shooting in all direction and gravity to hit the pigs. It was amazing. One simple example was all he needed to grasp a pretty complex concept for such a young kid.

He then pulled up Temple Run. Basically he knew how to jump but he didn't know how to slide or turn left and right. He also didn't have the timing down at all. He just kept jumping over and over. So I showed how to jump, slide, and turn left and right and associated those actions with words ('up', 'down', 'left', 'right'). I then gave him the phone back and, as he played, said the words with the right timing so that he could react appropriately. He got it right away. He had to act pretty fast too and he did it really well. Then I stopped speaking and he kept progressing through the game with his newly attuned timing.

What was the coolest thing about this experience was seeing how much fun he had while he was learning at the same time. Plus we got to spend time together which we both liked. I've been playing games for a long time. I was playing the Colecovision when I was not that much older then my nephew. So I know that they have had an effect on how I think and perceive the world. But this was the first time that that correlation was made so explicitly clear to me. It was also great to see how much fun these games can be. I think that as I've gotten older I've taken games more and more seriously. Which is fine and I'm happy that the medium has grown to such a degree that I can do so. But it's kind of nice to remember that games can also be a ton of fun too. I guess I just needed a 2 year old to remind me of these things.

appreciate the nice story, (with the lieu of craziness out there, this was refreshing, ill get back to posting in the forums once they are back on the front page)

nice to see its really just us older internet folk that take games toooo seriously and the younger generation are having those pure moments of fun with videogames (and especially games like temple run and angry birds which draws ire from us internet folk) that we had back in the day with the classics, like for your nephew, id imagine stuff like temple run and angry birds are gong to be their version of "super mario world"

makes you think for a bit, with all those stories last year saying how game sales are soo on the decline, and then the inverse in how games have become a lot more narrative focused and mature,

maybe games are not clicking with people as they used to anymore as in they dont have that pure fun arcade-like appeal like they used to that draws in mainstream people to it, (it gets much ire these days, but it makes perfect sense how call of duty became so worldwide popular with the mainstream crowd, as it had that pure fun arcadey appeal as its sort of really accessible, id like to think league of legends is the same way,)

its gonna be really interesting to see next gen, as games keep going down the narrative and mature path, if sales will pick back up,

@mrfluke:

It makes me wonder how my nephew will think about games, if he even continues to play games or not, as he gets older. I personally really liked more arcade-like games until I was about 6-7 then it was all about JRPGs, games with more atmosphere, and so on. It's only been relatively recently that I've lightened up and started to enjoy arcade-like, simpler games again. I think I've found that I enjoy games the most when I have a mixture of a variety of games. I think that us, here on game forums, forget to find that balance and just start to feel overwhelmed by things like 'narrative' and forget about things like gameplay.

Also I think my nephew really dug those games because they are still so fresh and new. As we all get older it's harder and harder to find that new, exciting 'thing' out of games which is why I think we like to get so cynical about games. It's refreshing to see the pure excitement and joy in someone experiencing what is great about games for the first time.

@jasonr86: I really liked this blog. The capacity for video games to assist in the development of kids' minds is still very underrated. Your nephew was learning to adapt and solve problems; video games were actually helping to make him smarter.

Thanks dude. It was really cool to see it first hand.

It's a fun experience, I'm currently playing through Castlevania with my son.

That's awesome. How old is he? Have you had that moment where the light-switch switches and he gets something he wasn't getting before? It's how imagine teachers feel when they see their students 'get it'.

exactly, as a forum person that talks and complains alongside other forum people, its refreshing to hear about kids (part of the outside perspective) are having pure naive fun with stuff like angry birds and temple run,

makes me kind of miss the pure naive days where something like super mario bros can come out and be the great platformer series that it is, and not be dissected as a point of contention for a "feminist" and her soapbox vids.

to your point of your nephew thinking about games when hes older, i think its gonna depend on what the landscape of games will be by the time he's older, and where his tastes slant towards, whether it be he wants simple pure fun entertainment that resembles stuff like angry birds and temple run or if he will prefer the thinking man's form of entertainment or if he will swing for both.

personally i actually ventured into a bunch of genres when i was 5-8 during the end of the snes era and in the playstation era, messed with a bunch of genres, never read any reviews, and i slanted more towards the fantastical nonsensical stuff than the story heavy stuff, and slanted towards fighting games and 2d-3d action adventure games (only rpg i played back in that time was FF7 and FF9, im only just recently playing those old final fantasy games through ios emulators ) and it was like halo and MGS3 that actually got me interested in narrative in games to be honest with you

so maybe he will find his special game that will sway him into liking the more narrative focused stuff.

i agree in that we gaming forum users, are getting too hanged up on dissecting narrative in games and have forgotten about enjoying gameplay. because gameplay is ultimately and obviously the thing that sets games apart from movies, and i find that sacrificing the fun, the naiveity, the fantastical in games in favor of more self serious games rather than trying to attempt the balancing act is a bummer.

(its part of why platinium games is one of my favorite devs in the business, as those guys are traditionalists that favor a good time over telling a big serious story and like asuras wrath is one of my favorites this gen as those guys are just made the game they wanted to make and it strikes a great balance between fantastical and self serious )

Good blog. I personally am not too fond of the idea of kids playing video games too much. Especially nowadays when games are so accessible to anyone on phones and tabs, I see too many kids opting to play video games instead of playing with the other kids, or just plain playing around outside. Maybe I'm too constricted on my views, but I just don't think its healthy. I myself am an avid gamer, but I only got to play video games regularly when I was 10 (though I did get to occasionally play educational games like Math Blaster, strictly for educational purposes of course). My parents were pretty strict when it came to my pastime activities.

What I'm trying to get at is that I'm concerned with the changing times, how our values change with progress. But I suppose this is where parenting skills need to accommodate for these changes as well. With all things, there's always a good and a bad side. Moderation is where its at. Its always amazing to see how fast kids learn and adapt these days. Again, good write up. Thanks for the story.

You gotta get em young!

@megalombax:

I hear you. But he's 2. He's got the attention span of a gnat. If he isn't messing with an i-phone game he's playing with trucks, throwing a football at everything and everyone, playing counting games, and on and on. I think at this age he's taking in so much and is so active that everything he ever does or consumes is in moderation because he switches between things so quickly. Because he's 2.

Sometimes games still give me a sense of learning, when I figure out a puzzle, or master a character's move-set, etc. Phooey to anyone who says that all games are mind-numbing. Video games in the classrooms - I say!

It really is awesome to watch toddlers and young kids play video games and learn new skills. As I struggle with learning the guitar, I often think "Man, if I were four or five, I'd be nailing this already".

That's funny you mention teaching as I used to be a teacher! He's six years old and yes we've had many moments like that. My favorite one so far involving Castlevania was when he discovered that you could bypass an entire screen by getting hit and "flinching" onto platforms above you.