How Digital Games Help Kids with Disabilities

Digital games have earned both bouquets and brickbats from parents and educators. Owing to the high level of engagement it offers and its popularity with kids, it is a great tool that can be used to involve kids in learning. It also helps kids with disabilities as it takes away the pressure of traditional learning in classrooms that can often prove to be frustrating.

The online world offers a variety of games for kids. From strategy games to educational games, the variety is endless. There are also games that are designed for specific learning disorders. While certain iPad apps can be used to teach kids diagnosed with autism and dyslexia, those with fine motor skills disability can benefit from activities and games for kids that allow them to practice these skills.  There are also games for kids with vision impairment, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome and others.

“Toca Boca” by tocaboca is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Why Digital Games?

Digital games can provide teaching and support outside classrooms with educational and developmental benefits. Though disabilities may differ in nature and severity, games allow for the element of fun which can relax kids and open them up to learning.

Learning through online games helps kids develop and practice new skills in a safe environment before they practice them in the real world. Skills learnt can range from life skills to hand-eye coordination. It is possible to plan individualized learning with online games for kids. Children can control the pace of their learning and repeat an activity until they grasp it.

“Playing on the computer” by john is licensed under CC BY 2.0

How to Find Games for Kids with Disabilities

There is no dearth of online resources for kids with special needs. A child may not be struggling in all areas, and not all subjects or skills may be challenging. It is important to consider their skills and also take into account their interests while finding the right games for them. The level of difficulty can be selected by assessing their skills.

Games for Kids with Special Needs

Some of the games for kids include Orsinal’s flash games that help develop motor skills and they can be played with a single click mouse. Dyslexic learners may benefit from audiobooks like Learning Ally. A website that has developed games keeping in mind the needs of autistic children is WhizKidGames. Another game for autistic kids is Mouse Trial, which can help kids learn communication skills. TapToTalk is also designed to help those with difficulties in speech, across all age groups. iPad’s apps Flashcards for iPad and AppWriter can be used for those with reading and writing disabilities.

Technology has opened up new avenues of learning for children with disabilities. By understanding the specific needs of the child and the challenges they face, it is possible to make the best use of the online resources that are available. 

Re-mission - a game for kids by kids

Typical Carcinoid by Yale Rosen is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Computer Games have been around for a while and have generally had a mixed welcome. Many consider it as a plain waste of time, but kids(now the average age of a gamer is 33!) enjoy them. As recent studies show that there are pros and not just cons to gaming, many are slowly coming on board. There are some who have taken the game to new levels - in fact the benefits are felt at the cellular level!

Re-mission is a game conceived by Pam Omidyar. It was developed by game designers with input from a bunch of people we would never associate with gaming - cancer patients, oncology doctors and nurses. The target audience? Young cancer patients.

About the game

Released in 2006, it's about how well a player can control 'Roxxi', a nanobot which is injected into the human body to fight certain types of cancers at a cellular level. The weapons available are the antibiotic rocket, chemoblaster and the radiation gun. There are 20 levels to inform patients about treatment available and the associated procedures, to which a strict adherence is required. Patient health must be monitored by the player and results reported to an in-house doctor.

Benefits to the target audience

The game was used in 34 centers in the US, Australia and Canada, and patients(mostly young adult) monitored for psychological and behavioral changes associated with cancer treatment, over 3 months. In comparison with the control group, the patients who played this game significantly improved their behavioral pattern, maintained higher levels of chemotherapy in their blood and stayed on the antibiotics prescribed. The game had a remarkable effect on a biological level.

Not only did the game Re-mission bring the young participants pleasure in playing the game, it helped build confidence in them that they could fight the cancer. It also helped them understand their cancer and what was required to fight it.

The second version the game has games to build a positive attitude and therefore an adherence to treatment routines. The online games are free and available in many countries. Here are some Play with Purpose games from the people behind Re-mission.

4 online games to encourage kids to take up sports

If your child is not willing to step out to catch a couple of football or basketball matches, here are a few games you can get her to play in the comfort of her home and develop a love for sports. After all, playing sports is not just an integral part of growing up but it is an activity that takes us a long way by keeping us physically fit and building essential life skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, team bonding, and more. Internet sports such as the NFL game online, FIFA World, and Need for Speed will hopefully inspire children to take a keen interest in sports.
 

Image Credit: vtravelled.com

Football - NFL Game Day Heroes

When it comes to apps for kids, this one is certainly one of the best action-packed NFL games online. It includes a number of mini games like Image Blast, Rusher Under Pressure, Spot What's Not, Scrimmage Swap, Laces Out, Clutch Catch, End Zone Rush, and Food Flick. Players will have to race against time and can compete with each other on the same Wi-Fi network, which makes it a wonderful family game too! Plan a fun family game night where you will have to guess team logos, swipe same team helmets to form a line of more than 3, fill up football shaped balloons with water, swipe the screen to take a shot at the goal post, and do other NFL-related activities! Here are a few quick reasons why the NFL game online is an awesome one to get kids interested in sports –

      1.    Kids get to play the game in real time which is a major inspiration to them. They can interact and communicate while playing the game with their friends and family in the same Wi-Fi network!
2.       Since the entire NFL online game series consists of 8 mini games, the kids rarely get tired of them. The Golden Football that will appear randomly on screen will give the players a massive lead ahead of others in terms of points.
3.       In-game items like mud and water splats will give players an added advantage over the others.
4.       If kids are not confident of joining a multiplayer game on the server, they can practice in an individual mode before joining the big league!

Football - FIFA World

This is a free sports game for PCs that can be downloaded from www.ea.com/fifa-world. EA brings together the world’s biggest sports franchise, FIFA, to the global audience comprising sports lovers. The award-winning console gameplay and multiple popular modes make the game a friendly and competitive activity among friends, and is immensely popular with kids. If your child is too lazy to venture out to catch a quick game with her friends, introduce her to the FIFA World game that comes with easy-to-learn mouse based controls, exciting live football scores, plus tons of social connectivity features.

Golf - Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13

Launched for the Xbox 360 Kinect, this season of the world's #1 selling golf game is back with a controller-free, voice-enabled and body tracking sports simulation! Your real time movements, swings, and strokes will come alive as you create your own team, take forward Tiger Woods’ legacy, and compete against and with some of the “best golf players in the world”!

Car racing - Need for Speed Most Wanted

Agreed, NFS is not essentially a kids’ game, but it can nevertheless be played by kids who are interested in car racing. Parents must oversee that the child doesn’t get addicted to this game. Neither does it feature mini-games like the NFL game online nor is it a full-version free game like the others, but it definitely guarantees some cool thrills and chills! Players will have to outrun the cops, outsmart their rivals which only come about when the player has practiced enough, and reach the final point. The game will continuously challenge the player’s decision making and problem solving skills with the numerous hurdles thrown in their way.

The list above is just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to the ocean of fun online and mobile games related to sports. Explore the endless variety, see which ones your little one enjoys the most, and slowly watch the growing interest in sports!

Let's Talk History - how did games on electronic devices come about?

Image credit: Nelo Hotsuma

The study of past events is history. With gaming having become a billion dollar industry and gamers coming in all shapes, ages and sizes, it was time to visit the past. In the video games industry, the time that has elapsed since its inception has not been very long, but it already has considerable history. The gaming industry was spawned by research in the missile defense systems in the 1940s. Slowly research in computer science brought about development of games on mainframe computers in the 1950s and 1960s. This eventually developed into games on different platforms like arcade, PCs, mainframes, consoles and video games. By today’s standards older games were primitive. Today’s games have rich textures, brilliant full-color graphics and sophisticated sound.

Computer Space was one of the first viable games in the 1970s. Nolan Bushnell who developed it, also started Atari which developed one of the first commercially successful arcade game called Pong. The entertainment industry in the US, Europe and Japan grew in leaps and bound. Video gaming entered popular culture and has left a huge mark as more and more people across age-groups are taken in by them. The Japanese dominate the hand held console segment even as we have seen eight generations of them.

As the internet technology matured, online games became the norm. Soon they became multiplayer and Massively Multiplayer Online Games, giving rise to technologies and acronyms like MMOG and MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Games).

In the last decade, development budgets increased as gamers wanted more immersive experiences and gaming was a commercially successful business. As motion sensors matured and prices dropped, they were introduced into gaming paraphernalia, increasing the immersive experience of players. Simultaneously  more people were converted into gamers by introducing simplified casual games. 

As the technology of cloud computing matured, rendering of the game happened elsewhere and it was streamed to the player. With convergence of technology smart phones are the new devices to play games on.

Even as I write this, time is passing and the present is being rendered into the past. 

Online Games Based on TV Shows

According to the American Time Use Survey, adults in America spend more than half of their leisure time watching TV. While this statistic may sound depressing to some, it is quite understandable. After all, there are some incredible television shows out there, and tearing oneself away from the silver screen during those hours is near impossible. In fact, some TV fanatics extend their engagement with the shows and their characters to their gaming hours as well, playing online games based on popular television series.

Photo by horslips5

Here are a few of the online games based on the most popular television series.

TV Show: Game of Thrones

Online Games: Game of Thrones: The Game, Game of Thrones Ascent

‘Game of Thrones: The Game’ is a role playing game based on the novels which inspired the television show.  The game was developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Focus Home Interactive. Players can choose one of two quests – Mors and Alester’s, and live in the world of Westeros that fans are so familiar with. The storyline for the quests is designed to perfectly integrate with the original story from the novel. The game even has a unique narrative style that is reminiscent of the story in the novel: the two heroes share the role of the main character and their story is told alternatively until their paths cross during a common quest!

Game of Thrones Ascent is another RPG based on the world-famous story. It was developed by Distributor Beam and pits players against each other to become the most powerful noble in Westeros!

TV Show: The Walking Dead

Online Game: The Walking Dead: Dead Reckoning

‘The Walking Dead: Dead Reckoning’ is an interactive online video game produced by AMC. Players assume the role of Shane Walsh, a small-town Kentucky cop who is also a main character in the television series. The story of the game begins before the zombie apocalypse, before anyone knows what lies in the days ahead. Shane is occupied with maintaining law and order in the land, when he gets entangled with cases involving zombie attacks. The game follows Shane and explains how he escaped being infected or killed.

TV Show: Breaking Bad

Online Game: Breaking Bad, The Cost of Doing Business, The Interrogation

‘Breaking Bad’ is a casual-platform flash game that was created by fans of the television show and follows its plotline, adding stages as new episodes are released. It is a simple game that is largely about giving fans the chance to interact with the characters from the show and relive their favorite scenes. The formula seems to have worked as fans are quite fond of this fun online game.

‘The Cost of Doing Business’ and ‘The Interrogation’ are two of the ‘Breaking Bad’-themed games featured on AMC’s website. The former is a Jesse Pinkman game where a low life has stolen money from you and the goal is to get back as much cash as possible… or die trying. The latter is a Hank Schrader game where you’re interrogating suspect Hadley Berkitz about the San Florian church fire. The goal is to get as much information as possible without Hadley lawyering up.

As fun as these online games are, it is quite natural to feel that so much time spent on television shows is a criminal waste of time. For folks who would like to use their online time more productively, there are plenty of educational online games that teach a wide variety of skills while ensuring the players are having fun. Divide your online time between a little mindless fun and more productive work for a well-balanced experience on the internet!

Cases of extreme addiction to online games

While parents and teachers have been using online games that are educational in nature to make learning fun for kids, the world has also witnessed negative incidents stemming from extreme addiction to many different kinds of video games. Here are a few weird incidents of addiction to online games that will leave you baffled. 

Skipping school

In Perth, Australia, a 15-year old was known to suffer from extreme gaming addiction. The little teenager would put on his uniform every morning and leave it on till his mom left for office. As soon as she left, he would change and start playing online games and he would continue to play for 16 hours till his mother came back. To cover himself up, he had informed his school that he was having a surgery. He was caught only when the school called up his home to check on him!To

School scuffle

Photo by:IvanWalsh.com

Schoolyard scuffles are normal – we’ve all gotten into at least one in our lives. In Beijing, a boy who had lost a World of Warcraft tournament thought himself to be a Fire Mage and lit his classmate on fire. He was given a sentence of 8 years in prison and was ordered to pay the victim’s family a restitution of a little more than a hundred thousand dollars. 

Death from all-nighter

There have been quite a few reports of all-night gaming sessions but this one takes the cake. A South Korean man almost pulled off three continuous nights of gaming without enough sleep, washroom breaks, and obviously food. Eventually in the middle of the third night, he collapsed and expired from a heart failure. Preliminary reports suggested his death was caused by undue exhaustion.

Death of children

Photo by: TamahikariTammas

In two separate incidents in South Korea and an unrevealed location, a three year old girl and twins died due to their parents’ negligence toward them. A couple was busy playing Prius Online where the players lived a virtual life with virtual jobs and virtual kids. Unfortunately in this case, the parents in South Korea took their virtual world a little too seriously and left their 3-year old in a real world unattended for twelve hours following which the little child died. 

In the other incident, Gregg J. Kleinmark is serving up to 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter when his twins were left unattended in the bathtub for several hours while he was busy playing Gameboy Advance.

Parents murdered

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Petric walked into his parents’ bedroom and told his mother “Would you close your eyes? I have a surprise for you,” and shot her before shooting his father between the eyes. This was an incident of violence that resulted from addiction to an Xbox first person shooter game, one of the few reported fallouts of addiction to single player games.

Online games and the way forward

Because of such gory incidents, cynics and critics fail to look at the benefits of online games. There are many carefully developed online games that develop the technical ability of kids, help them to absorb information with a scientific approach, enhance their hand-eye coordination, and sharpen analytical and logical skills. It is important to engage kids with the right kinds of online games and strike a healthy balance between online time and outdoor play time.

Top 5 Online Games for Teens

Teens are often found glued to their computers, whiling away their time on Facebook or Instagram. How about engaging them with fun online games instead? While some of the older, classic online games are still popular, many new ones have mushroomed, giving kids of all ages plenty of variety to choose from.

Here are a few that your teens are sure to love!

Photo by: Tomasland

 Just Words

Just Words is a take on the classic game of Scrabble. Players will have to form the best words with the tiles denoting a single letter with a point value. Score the double letters and triple words by placing your word on the high-score slots. The game can be played against the computer, with a friend, or even by oneself. 

Letter Garden

Set against the backdrop display of a garden, Letter Garden is an online game that’s any teenage word wizard’s dream come true! The goal of the game is to clear the objective that’s shared at the beginning of each level, per board, within the time limit. Words can be made in any direction by dragging the arrow across the tiles. If you're a fan of timed word puzzles, this one's for you!

Backgammon

Does this online game need any introduction? The traditional board game is available online both with the classic board as well as a themed board like winter, Halloween, Christmas, etc.The game can be played against a computer or another person as public or private games. Play and find out how many gammons you gather before the game is over!

Spades

Since the time Windows games were the only way to beat time, Spades has been the go-to game! Teens will need a partner to play Spades on their computers. The goal of this online card game is for each team to win the minimum number of tricks they bid on before play begins. The trump is the titular spade for the players to clinch a win!

Bejeweled 2

If you’ve been a fan of Bejeweled, now there’s Bejeweled 2 for you. In the ‘classic mode’, the rules you've always played by apply.  In the other ‘action mode’, you must fill the slots continuously as they are always running down. A good score unlocks the other game-play modes which are just as brilliant!

How many of these online games have you played? Try your luck with all and unlock a new experience of gaming!