Playing Smarter in a Digital World: A Guide to Choosing and Using Popular Video Games and Apps to Improve Executive Functioning in Children and Teens

Playing Smarter in a Digital World: A Guide to Choosing and Using Popular Video Games and Apps to Improve Executive Functioning in Children and Teens

A book to help parents to make their children's digital playtime educational Digital play, when used appropriately, can be a powerful tool for learning skills such as planning, time management, cooperation, creativity, and digital literacy. The book’s clearly articulated strategies help parents use digital media in a more effective manner and, at the same time, set effective limits and implement a healthy “play diet” for their children. A section devoted to exploring specific strategies for using digital media with children in specific populations—such as children affected by ADHD, autism spectrum and learning disorders, and other mental health and educational issues—is also featured, as is a list of specific games, apps, and tools to make game-based learning most effective. Randy Kulman, PhD , is the founder and president of LearningWorks for Kids, an educational technology company that specializes in using video games to teach executive-functioning and academic skills. For the past 25 years, he has also been the clinical director and president of South County Child and Family Consultants, a multidisciplinary group of private practitioners that specializes in assessment and interventions for children with learning disorders and attention difficulties. He is the author of Train Your Brain for Success and is the coauthor of a chapter in the book Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques, and Frameworks . He lives in Wakefield, Rhode Island. Playing Smarter in a Digital World A Guide to Choosing and Using Popular Video Games and Apps to Improve Executive Functioning in Children and Teens By Randy Kulman Specialty Press, Inc. Copyright © 2014 Randy Kulman, Ph.D. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-937761-15-8 Contents Preface, 1 Parenting in a Digital World, 2 Digital Play and Learning, 3 Digital Media and the Development of Executive-Functioning, 4 Video Games and Learning, 5 Generalization: Transforming Game Skills into Real-World Skill, 6 The Need for a Healthy Play Diet, 7 Developmental Guidelines for a Healthy Play Diet, 8 Technology Time: How Much Is Too Much?, 9 Planning, 10 Working Memory, 11 Flexibility, 12 Focus, 13 Self-Awareness, 14 Self-Control, 15 Organization, 16 Time Management, 17 Video Games and Apps for Children with ADHD, 18 Video Games and Apps for Children Affected by Autism, 19 Parenting and Educating Digital Children, Reference, Footnote Reference by Chapter, Index, CHAPTER 1 Parenting in a Digital World Our children are growing up in a digital world. They are surrounded by technology in their living rooms, classrooms, and playrooms. Their playtime is increasingly dominated by video games, apps, texting, and social media. Sometimes it may seem as if most of their free time is taken up by screen-based technologies, and it definitely feels as if they know more about the digital world than you do. There is no question that kids are learning from their digital-technology play, but what are they learning? How does their immersion in screen-based technologies affect their brains, social relationships, and capacity to problem solve, create, and learn? And what does this mean for parenting in the digital world? Playing Smarter in a Digital World will help you understand your child's life with technology. Rather than focusing on the many risks and dangers of a digital world, this book will show you how to use game, app, and technology play for teaching the executive-functioning and 21st century skills that are needed for your children's future success. While I will not prescribe a one-size-fits-all strategy for the role that digital media should have in your child's life, this book emphasizes that parents need to be actively involved with and participate in their children's digital world. When you think about it, most thoughtful and supportive parents would choose to be knowledgeable and involved if their children were spending seven to eight hours a day on the newest dance, diet, or yoga craze. Yet these same parents often take a "handsoff" approach to their children's digital-media use. Many children spend as much as seven or eight hours a day on screen time, and harnessing even some of this digital time would provide a tremendous opportunity for learning and skill building. As with any activity, parents need to be informed, know how to set appropriate limits, and perhaps most importantly, find ways to make the most of their children's interests. With these things in mind, we can make children's favorite activities both productive and healthy. This book will help you to achieve these goals. We still have a great deal to learn about the positive and negative impact of digital media and technology on our children. The first section of this book provides the science and research about "why" parents need to understand the power of digital media for learning. It also stresses the importance of improving children's cognitive and problem-so