Playing is one of the very first activities we learn to love and that helps shape us, in body and soul. Human beings, understood as a form of life endowed with emotions, put into practice the act of Play in order to interact with the world around them: this is a universal truth that goes far beyond science and its dogmas.
Fatta this necessary premise,
what has emerged from a study
conducted in the United States a few months ago regarding the therapeutic
contribution of video games within physiotherapy programs related to
children with autism spectrum disorder
is even more important and surprising.
The article describing the research and the doctors who took part in it (source:
https://www.tgcom24.mediaset.it/mastergame/news/videogiochi-autismo-bambini-nintendo_78644975-202402k.shtml)
provides stimulating and very timely food for thought: thanks to one of Nintendo's latest ingenious peripherals, the
RingFit Adventure, which makes it possible to take the video gamer’s interaction with the game on the screen to a new level of fun (and sweat!), it has been shown how its use significantly improves the
motor skills and coordination of
children during therapy sessions.
In the specific case of people
with autism spectrum disorder, moreover, the predisposition to isolation and
to the resulting discomfort due to increased stress in everyday life can
be addressed through a conscious and monitored use of the video game medium,
something that until a few decades ago was seen as a parental imposition, whereas today, if carried out with care and with
an approach free of constraints and skepticism, it undoubtedly ensures
greater quality in social interactions for example (play by
definition is at its best when it becomes a group activity), and I am
convinced that this is also one of the many important results that emerged
at the end of the experiment.
Pur not being a doctor nor intending to launch, without criteria or qualifications, into pseudo-medical arguments, after reading this scientific study conducted by healthcare professionals, I reflected on the matter: from its origins at the dawn of arcade games, the video game, thanks to Atari’s Pong, has made it possible to improve, or even develop, hand-eye coordination.
Un pequeño gran logro, si pensamos
que aún hoy hay quien denigra los evidentes beneficios que la Octava Arte es en
capaz de transmitir al usuario, ya sea un niño o un adulto. Tal vez
sea todavía prematuro hablar de herramientas imprescindibles en el ámbito de las terapias
multidisciplinarias en el campo médico, sin embargo, se evidencian avances que
hacen albergar buenas esperanzas en lo que es, para ser justos, una ennoblecimiento del
Videojuego en sentido estricto que no debe pasar desapercibido, y es precisamente
este el corazón palpitante del artículo que estáis leyendo. Otra
consideración importante que quisiera hacer es esta: vivimos en un mundo
hipercinético donde la sociedad, de la que formamos parte activamente, mina
continuamente algo único y que en los últimos años ha cobrado protagonismo. Hablo
por supuesto de la salud mental.
Sensitive and multifaceted, the issue of mental health involves not only the world of video games: it is discussed everywhere, in novels and essays that approach the subject from a sociological and cultural perspective; on social media, debates about the intense competitive aspect that would do nothing but demotivate or even destroy our kids' personalities are more heated, and more felt, than ever. And so the Bogeyman Question comes back forcefully: do video games cause harm?
I have always thought that it did not
deserve an answer, and that the real question had actually always been
another one.
How much good can Video Games do? Finally, the first
answers are starting to come in, and from medicine itself, which, let me say,
is already a victory for all of us.
