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Home › Articles › Special Needs › Playing with a Purpose

Playing with a Purpose

Computer and Video Games for Special Needs Children

By Teri Brown

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The Benefits
Video games and computer games are fairly new, and their educational and developmental benefits for special needs children are just now being explored. Brock Dubbles is the media specialist and instructional designer for Minneapolis Public Schools, as well as a graduate research associate for the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He says that many people discount the positive aspects of video and computer games.

"I would like to share that although games have been vilified, for just reasons in some cases, games suffer from the same kind of criticism most new media experience in their infancy, i.e. movies, television, books all were demonized as corrupting forces, and were considered vulgar and low forms of expression," he says. "Research has shown that acting is a much more powerful way of learning than reading, hearing, seeing and collaborating. Incidentally, all of these learning methods are present in games, but also include acting, or applying that knowledge that was made available."

Dubbles says that games are a social practice that are created for entertainment, as well as developing skills in a safe space where practice and development are acceptable without the high stakes we are often exposed to in the world. "Just consider this from an evolutionary perspective," he says. "An individual can develop a skill for a dangerous situation in a game space, without facing the potential consequence while they are developing skills and confidence."

For some special needs children, video and computer games can actually mean getting to know other people in a safe and controlled manner. For others, they can teach life skills in a way that is interactive and fun. Dubbles says that games can be useful in that tey provide a quality experience, and if the child's support system can help deconstruct the game and connect the experience to larger real-world issues, parents can go far in turning computer and game time into quality learning time.

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