Why playing in the virtual world has an awful lot to teach children

A YouGov poll has suggested that computer games can damage children’s ability to communicate, but Tom Chatfield argues that gaming imparts a range of new, vitally important skillsWhat does playing computer games do to us? A YouGov poll has stirred up familiar worries about the effects of new media on children’s communication skills, saying that one in six children under the age of seven in England has difficulty talking – a problem that will have many worried parents looking at games consoles and wondering how far their children’s onscreen delights are implicated in this decline.Anyone who has played video games, or watched their children playing, will know that they are an exceptionally compelling medium. As Jean Gross, the government’s new communication champion for children, noted, overbusy parents can spend dangerously little time talking to their children. Far easier to plonk them down in front of a mesmerising screen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/10/playing-in-the-virtual-world