Should your Preschooler play Online Games?

Kids and games go together like cheese and crackers but most parents aren’t exactly enthusiastic about their kids’ gaming habits. Many find it worrisome that kids are picking up gaming at an increasingly younger age. And since online games tend to be blamed for everything, from identity theft to anti-social behavior, it is natural for parents to be upset when their 4 year old gets hooked to preschool games online. 

While it is easy to overlook or dismiss the educational value of games, a lot of research conclusively shows that good online games for preschool are designed to boost your child’s learning potential through effective pedagogical principles. 

Online Games and your Preschooler – The Benefits 

Here are some of the top ones:

1. Problem solving skills: Many free online preschool games impart problem solving skills to players – skills that help your child find his place in the world of digital information. While there are hundreds of explicitly educational online games for preschool, even the most primitive shooting games teach players to process huge amounts of data and think logically and clearly. This is definitely more useful than blindly memorizing facts and formula in a classroom setting or passively absorbing content from various media. 

2. Social interaction: One fact about free online preschool games, or ANY online games for that matter, is that they encourage kids to be socially active and participate in thriving online communities. The stereotype of the pallid unsociable teen playing computer games in his room is just that – a stereotype, and one that’s as hopelessly outdated as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Online games for preschool today have vibrant online and offline communities that revolve around the game. Members get a chance to interact with fellow players around something they share a mutual passion for. In a word, online kids’ games are social. 

3. Positive reinforcement: One of the most important things your child learns through online games is that it is OK to fail a few times until you get it right. Preschool games online encourage players to come up with innovative solutions and out-of-the-box thinking to notch up points and move up levels or defeat their opponents – basically, do whatever it takes to win the game. A traditional classroom setting does not offer this kind of flexibility or freedom to learners – kids are sometimes too afraid to take risks because failure often means humiliation among the peer group. 

And that’s not all. Online games for preschoolers have loads of other obvious and not-so-obvious benefits. Do you know of any that haven’t been listed above?