Grover, Elmo give video games the thumbs up

Often demonized by parents groups, video games just got a high-profile child-advocacy supporter.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop has issued a report detailing the potentially positive effects of games in helping to educate children and promote their well-being.

The report urges educators, the government and even the healthcare industry to launch research and development initiatives in the industry, so they might learn to maximize the impact video games can have on kids.

“Despite their reputation as promoters of violence and mayhem, digital games have in fact been shown to help children gain content and vital foundational and 21st century skills,” the report reads.

The increase in active participation in gaming (as found in many Wii games and the upcoming Project Natal by Microsoft) is pointed to as a paradigm shift in the industry, moving it away from its sedentary reputation. Beyond physical fitness aspects, games can also be used to promote a healthy lifestyle, says the report.

Among the other things children can learn from games, according to the report, are:

• Content (from rich vocabulary to science to history)
• Skills (from literacy to math to complex problem-solving)
• Creation of artifacts (from videos to software code)
• Systems thinking (how changing one element affects relationships as a whole) 

Of course, the report notes that children who play games should do so with adult supervision – and, obviously, it’s not talking about M-rated titles.

“We know enough about digital games and how they work to recognize their promise,” says the report. “Now we need to invest time and resources to turn this promise into a real “game changer” for America’s children.”