The EyeToy game burned about as many calories as walking on the treadmill, while dance pad users burned even more. One of the active games, Dance Dance Revolution, requires players to follow steps using a dance pad, while Nicktoons Movin’ Jellyfish Jam uses the Sony EyeToy, which is controlled by body movements. In that study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., measured how many calories kids burned in 15 minutes of watching television, walking on a treadmill, playing a traditional seated video game (Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure) or playing two active games. Some of the new active video games burn more calories than walking on a treadmill, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported last year in its medical journal. In one New Zealand study, researchers studying game use by 21 children showed that active video games produced about as much activity as walking, skipping and jogging, according to the report in August in Pediatric Exercise Science. Exposure to violent video game content is linked with aggression and antisocial behavior, and game playing has been shown to have a small but still measurable impact on time spent reading and doing homework for certain children.Īctive video games are not a substitute for sports and outdoor play, but several studies show that the games can significantly increase a child’s level of activity while playing indoors. While the active video games are clearly an improvement, excessive video game playing by kids is still cause for concern. Far from creating couch potatoes, these games compel players to dance, jump and sweat. My conversion from video game critic to buyer is due in large part to some recent research showing that so-called active video games, like those played on the Wii, aren’t like the sedentary games played by the Atari generation. Like hundreds of other parents, I was trying to get my hands on the Nintendo Wii, a popular video game system and one of the season’s hottest toys. I recently remembered this vow while waiting in line for two hours outside the Nintendo store in Manhattan. As a new parent eight years ago, I swore never to buy a video game system, certain that my child would spend her leisure time reading and playing outside.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |