Bang! Smash! Pow!” The television speakers reverberate as Mario thrashes Luigi. Children sit engaged, surrounding the television screen, laughing and mashing buttons on the controllers clenched in their hands. They are surprisingly well-mannered and cooperative while interacting with the game and other players.
Video games have long had a bad reputation for making players antisocial. They have faced accusations of being addicting, mind-numbing, even of promoting violence in young adults and children. But child psychologist Dr. Drew Messer is changing that idea.
Messer, a private-practice forensic, pediatric and clinical psychologist in Williamsville, is pioneering Electronic Gaming Therapy. EGT is a program that uses video games in a supervised group environment to “facilitate social and emotional growth, foster self-regulation and promote good behaviors.” The theory behind it is that one isn’t born playing the piano, it takes practice. Social skills, like anything else, need practice to improve, and video games can provide the ideal medium to achieve that practice.
EGT uses a basic behavior modification system based on the University at Buffalo Center for Children and Families’ Summer Treatment Program. Before each session, the group reviews the “Rules, Rewards and Response Costs.” Good behaviors such as sitting still, using an indoor voice, cooperating, helping others, listening, and offering praise are rewarded with points. Bad behaviors like disrespecting others, using inappropriate language, or disobeying staff or a parent are punished by losing points or sitting out for a turn. The program also works on modulating—experiencing emotion and learning how to regulate those feelings and express them appropriately. Points can be used to pick games to play, like Pokemon Stadium, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and other competitive multiplayer games. At the end of each session, the children get a Session Report Card.
Mike Schwinger, a senior UB Psychology and Sociology double major was assisting Messer as a practicum last semester.
“The point system is a tangible way for kids to get their feedback,” said Schwinger. “It works amazingly well.”
All of the kids who come to EGT at CyberJocks have a diagnosis, referred by their pediatrician or school counselor, though most are mild cases. The program is effective for children aged 4 to 16 diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, ODD, Asperger’s Syndrome, anxiety, or Autism Spectrum. But the program is also good for developing social skills in children who are introverted or shy.
“Kids need the tools to deal with social situations,” said Messer. “We want to get them to be able to walk into a room setting and know what to do.”
Messer finds that using video games in the therapeutic process engages children in ways not typically seen in traditional therapy.
“Bringing video games into the session brought kids out of their shell a little,” said Messer. “Video games create a natural setting. It translates more into their lives.”
“Translating more into their lives” means that the children are more likely to carry the learned social skills and behaviors into situations outside the program.
“We really do see differences from week to week, even within one session,” said Messer.
A major point of the program is to give the children positive feedback to improve their social skills. The younger groups use direct praise and admonition for behavior modification:
“Nice job trying to compromise.”
“I like how everyone’s sitting still in their chair.”
“Use your indoor voice.”
“You’ve been really good at helping people.”
“Nice job explaining.”
For older kids in middle and high school who have already mastered basic behaviors like using an indoor voice and sitting still, the therapy is much more subtle. Focus is on communication and team working skills. For some kids, simply showing up and interacting with others is therapy.
“Kids have these systems at home but they’re playing alone, there’s no person to person interaction,” said Messer. “We’re trying to bring people together to play games.”
Messer believes that a goal of the program is to make the kids more likely to have friends over to play video games, rather than being isolated.
“It’s a shame that there’s this conception of video games as being bad. It depends on how you use them,” said Messer. “If we teach our kids responsible use of video games, they can be good.”
Messer says it’s a parent’s job to supervise their kids, and to teach them healthy video game and Internet use in settings that promote psychological wellness.
“Parents, make a rule: If you want to play, get someone to play with you,” he said.
“The interaction is good for the kids, good for me!” said Dave, a parent playing Wii Sports with his daughter.
While the kids play together, the EGT program offers parent training and support in effective communication and behavior management strategies.
EGT takes place on Monday evenings at CyberJocks on Sheridan Drive in Amherst. The Buffalo-area entrepreneurs who run CyberJocks bill it as “a family-friendly gaming experience that instills healthy competition, fair play, social interaction, and good sportsmanship amongst its players.” This proactive attitude toward gaming is what originally drew Messer to CyberJocks. He says that they share the philosophy of video games having a positive role for kids and families.
Video games are starting to find other innovative uses in the field of psychiatry. Messer cites a study by the National Institute of Mental Health where scientists used three-dimensional virtual environments in video games to assess the link between depression and the hippocampus. Spatial memory, responsible for recording information about the environment and orientation in space, is stored in the hippocampus area of the brain. The study showed that people suffering from depression performed poorly in three-dimensional video games compared with non-depressed people, though there were no detectable differences in performance in two-dimensional games. This suggested that the hippocampi of depressed people were not functioning properly.
Messer theorizes that continued work in three-dimensional environments might help strengthen the hippocampus, like exercising a muscle, and that it might be beneficial for people suffering from depression.
“It’s a testable hypothesis. And if three dimensional games involved that much of the brain, just imagine what the Wii will do!” said Messer. The Nintendo Wii employs a wireless controller that detects movement in three directions, allowing for games to incorporate motor activity of the player.
The Wii has been a breakaway hit in next-generation gaming platforms, outselling Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 combined. Wii sounds like “we” and is spelled with two lower-case “i” characters meant to resemble two people standing side-by-side. A major focus of Nintendo’s new system is bringing people together to play, and its release was marked by a bevy of multiplayer games.
Messer has used video games in working with patients with more severe mental illnesses at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center and he is optimistic about future technological advances in video games.
“New games and technology offer hope,” he said. “That’s what treating mental illness is about—hope and recovery.”
For more information visit:
http://www.cyberjocks.com/egt/about.html
Kathleen McClure is a senior English and Political Science major and a Features writer for Generation.
