Slashdot Mirror
Computer Game Improves Children's Hearing
wiredbeat2000 writes "The BBC is running a story that claims children who play video games increase their hearing skills. There have been several studies over the last few months extolling the virtues of games and education. For example, Wired News ran a roundup of college programs, and USA Today published a recent story on Daphne Bavelier's findings that playing games could help children develop hand-eye coordination, in addition to Professor James Gee's Slashdot-covered video transcript and article on 'games that teach'." Things have come a long way since the time when schoolkids were dumped in front of a computer and left to play Oregon Trail.
...Increased computer playing leads to fewer dates. Why don't they spend their money on a cure for this?
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see video games recieving positive media. And despite this, games such as Grand Theft Auto will forever serve as targets for the anti-game pundits.
Now excuse me while I look up secrets to the new Mario Golf game. I love video games that neither benefit nor harm you in any measurable way, only aim to entertain. This is why I hope Nintendo is still around when I have kids. I would much rather have my daughter playing "Animal Crossing 4: Happy Fun Land" than busting caps into pilots heads in "Grand Theft Aero 2: Jumbojet Bane".
yeah i find i can circle strafe so much faster after learning 10 WASD first person shooters =P
You have killed 942 pounds of meat.
You can carry 100 pounds back to your wagon.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
...but since I played video games with the TV volume so loud in just negated the effects.
"..The BBC is running a story that claims children who play video games increase their hearing skills.."
So what about deaf kids?
Hey - don't dis Oregon Trail! That was an awesome game!
Argh, all the news lately have been one day late... May be we should call it 'Slashdot, olds for Nerds, Stuff that mutters'
I have three deaf children who were not born deaf, but slowly developed their loss of hearing over the span of several years.
I honestly thought that this article would point to some technique that would possibly bring back some of that hearing.
I know it's wrong to reach out for any silver bullet that comes along, but when you love your children as much as I love mine, you sometimes get a little trigger happy over news like this.
No, this game and games like it won't bring back my childrens' hearing. Nothing will.
quote:
A simple computer game can dramatically improve children's listening skills by teaching them to distinguish between sounds, new research suggests.
The game is said to boost children's hearing by the equivalent of two years in just a few weeks.
Phonomena was devised by Professor David Moore at Oxford University as an aid for children with language problems.
Which is countered in the teenage years by listening to loud heavy metal music.
... video games and computer games have done nothing to improve my hearing. In fact, they helped me to tune out my mother's nagging effectively as a child. Did it help to make selective hearing better?
Whatever.
I know my hearing's improved from playing Natural Selection for quite some time. Gotta listen for those sneaky skulks.
* chirp * chirp *
children who play video games increase their hearing skills.
Just what we need, an entire generation of audio-philes who extol the value of gold plated, 3 inch thick monster cables and $4000 Blaupunkt stereo recievers.
After everything we've put up with for the past few years, we're starting to hear (no pun intended...ok, yeah, it was intended) good things about video games, from helping people in combat situations to improving hearing.
Now if they can only start reporting that tar heroin actually prolongs life...
Would you like a reach around?
According to various articles I have come across in the past few months, computer games claim to improve all of the above. Methinks someone should find out who is funding these studies.
Without it, I wouldn't have known, all you need to live in life is...
4 Oxen
3 Wagon Wheels
3 Wagon Axels
4 Changes of Clothes
0 Food
999 Boxes of Ammo
Let kids play some games, it's not the end of the world. Then send them outside to interact with real people.
Oregon trail...I remember that...I never could finish it...i always had an axle break or something retarded like that...hmmph...
if(!cool) exit(-1);
This makes even more sense with surround sound coming into play in a lot of recent games. Kids concentrating on where the sound is coming from; do this for hours a day, every week, and soon enough their directional sound navigation (if you will) is increased.
as one of your senses start to fail (eyes) the others will increase in strength.
"Too slow chicken marengo" - The Cat
In any competition in which eye-hand coordination would be to the advantage of the competitor (street fighter, for instance), in order to become master of the competition, it would be necesary for one to either learn better eye-hand coordination or to quit playing; either way, people who play video games will develop better motor skills related to the competition.
It could be argued that the same is true of games that have no time constraint, i.e. final fantasy in wait mode, turn based "civ" style games, etc, where it regards mental capacity.
~Will
sig?
In 3d games like counter-strike, someone can shoot you from behind, and its vital to be able to hear footsteps before they kill you. So, you need a good soundcard, good speakers and good ears. Your listening will improve with this kind of practise
New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
Where'd my Quiet Riot 8-track go?
Was I the only one that would leave dumb ass messages on my tomb stone so that other students in the computer lab would see them later? Man that was good fun.
The point is, my learning (or desire for learning) never really stopped. I soon became a daily slashdot reader, and I wait for where my hunger for knowledge will take me next. I know this is perhaps not usal for many kids, but that's my story.
This does not change the fact that kids only listen to what they want to hear
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Hardly surprising. All children learn through play. When you make trial and error fun it's called play.
All animals are the same. Take a look at a kitten playing with a ball. They didn't evolve to please humans for being cute. That's a learned hunting skill.
That's one of the reasons why we have a pleasure sense. It propels us to learn and helps us survive.
Here's your cure!
/ 26 /sex_in_games_rezvibrator.html#000141
You may improve your hearing, but you may also go blind.
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2002/10
Children that read /. learn the difference between literate and illiterate posts... up to two years of skill can be earned in just a few weeks. An unfortunate side effect comes from seeing insane AC comments and mind numbing redundancy. The impact is that children become permanently cynical Libertarian geeks.
Laws are for people with no friends.
After six hours playing Duke Nukem Forever earlier today, I can conclude that - while very relaxing - the sound of silence did nothing to improve my hearing...
I am so tired of these ridiculous reports about correlation studies. "Red Wine may cure cancer." "High fat diets may cause obesity" Bullocks! I hypothesize that the causal relationship is actually the converse of what has been reported. This makes more sense: Children with innate hearing abilities tend to play more video games! I personally have horrible ears, and I am pitiful at first person shooters... So of course, I don't play a lot of video games. A famous drunk once said: "Gin and tonic make me drunk... Whiskey and tonic make me drunk... Vodka and tonic make me drunk... Well isn't it obvious?? Tonic makes people drunk?!"
now i can tell my wife that our 4 year old NEEDS his playstation 2 games to max out his SAT scores.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
I think deathmatch has done a lot for my hand-eye coordination, at the very least.
I dunno about my hearing however. What was that?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Sure you've got edutainment games that drill knowledge into you, or quiz you 'til you've got it, but what about games designed to develop ability and skill? Just as sports train your body to be stronger and faster, why not a computer game designed to develop your sense of hearing, or visual pattern recognition, or stuff like that? Sure there are biofeedback games to help you control heartrate or brainwave patterns or whatever, but why not basic abilities like that?
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
I've noticed my peripheral vision has greater accuity than forward. I wonder if years staring at bright CRT's have played much of a role in that. Hopefully my vision will continue satisfactorily, but I wear sunglasses more often to protect whats left.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Well the boost from video games should help the huge loss taken from concerts.
I remember when I used to be in Smile we would occasionally play different games other than tribes. One night, we were playing the raven shield demo and toying around with the different weapons.
Now, truth be told, all of us had our sound maxed out; you have to have it, the slightest sound can be the determining factor of weither you kill or get killed, no music allowed. Unfortunatly, one of the guys had a 5.1 surround sound system in his room cranked to the max (who I will refer to as "billy".). There was also another guy I was playing with whom I will call "Kiddy".
So, there I was, the match on the prison level just started, and I decided to throw a frag grenaide, max power, up at 45 degree angle to see how far it'd go. So I throw it, watch as the projectile moves off into the distance, then I hear this little pop.
About a half a second later over Teamspeak2 I hear another boom, considerably louder, fallowed by a "Ahh! HOOOLY SHIT!!!".
Of course, "kiddy" asked "what was it" and "billy" said "fuck, a grenaide blew up right next to my fucking head, arrgh". Subsequently, "Billy" was going up a flight of stairs, and the nade hit the upper platform right next to his head.
After that I heard something that made both of us laugh our asses off; "Brb guys, got to change my pants".
It's understandable; you've had a bit too much beer, don't want to goto the bathroom becuase of the addiction of the game, and at the beginning of the map you don't expect a nade to explode right next to your head, a minute 4 or 5 seconds after it started.
Of course, up until the point I left smile, "billy" never heard the end of it, hehee. >:)
Candy-Coated Knowledge
So that's why I'm deaf...
:-)
my parents didn't buy me enough video games!
Twenties Retirement
1. Write computer game
2. Market it as a hearing enhancement
2. ???
3. Profit!!
It's X-treme Shopping!
In my youth it was pinball machines. It taught you eye, hand, and *hip* coordination. Only blind, deaf and dumb pinball wizards remain totally motionless. It was always eyes first, hands respond on the flipper button, and then the hips would move in the requisite motion. I say hips, but what I really mean is your butt.
It was a lot of fun taking turns playing pinball with members of the other sex. Especially, if you stood behind them watching their playing motion.
Now let me tell you about foosball...
that intellivision speech synthesizer thingy certainly helped a few kids with their listening comprehension skills
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
The kids ability to deselect their parents is greatly increased.
[galaga ringtone]
M@
Krispy Cream is people
And if you want to improve hearing, then you'll find that the surround sound outside is awesome. I bet that reacting to real sounds is better for your hearing than any video game, even one with 5.1 surround sound
--
It is the last resort of the fading intellectual: to accuse your public of stupidity.--Sullivan
How old are your children? If they are all past the age of 5 when they started to develop hearing loss, then count yourself lucky.
By age 5, they will have learned how to speak well enough that they won't have any trouble picking up new words or even languages with hearing aids. Of course, that depends on the severity of the hearing loss. If they start to slip in their speech, then get them on speech therapy as early as you can. They would also have a good basic grasp of the English language and it's grammatical structure. Most deaf children struggle with this area.
Additionally, if you choose to get them fitted with hearing aids, then I highly recommend they get some musical training. Violin, piano, trumpet or even a recorder. Playing those instruments will help tune their hearing, for both tone and notes. This will help in their listening and speech skills. Let them play it through middle school, and it's their choice if they want to continue through high school.
I am deaf myself, though my situation differs from your children. I'm born with a severe-to-profound sensori-neural hearing loss, an approximately 95% hearing loss. With powerful hearing aids, I make the best use of my remaining hearing.
This is basically what my parents and I've done. Though, I got fitted for hearing aids at a VERY early age (1 1/2). My parents made the choice to put me on an oral education and they stuck with it. I didn't learn sign language until I met a few deaf students in high school. By then, my speech and writing skills were indistinguishable from that of a hearing teenager.
This is only my experience and what I grew up with. I count myself lucky that I even have any speech skills at all. This was only because of years and years of regular speech therapy, starting at age 5.
If you care enough about your children, they can be just as productive in society as a hearing person can.
Now, to be on topic with this slashdot discussion, I will say that video games has helped me, mostly in hand-eye coordination.
The first video game I played was Super Mario Brothers on the NES. I loved that game so much that I managed to learn the timings well enough to beat the game in one sitting (worlds 1 through 9). That hand-eye coordination has served me well in my touch typing and juggling skills.
A 24 year old deaf man says,
Sincerely,
-Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
Unfortunately, YHBT.
If computer gaming does nothing but make you better then why can't I get laid? I'm getting gypped here!
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Playing Quake for ten hours at a time with headphones that lacked a hardware volume control sure didn't improve my hearing ;) This was on Windows 95, in the days before Alt-Tab functioned properly in most games. My hearing has never recovered.
They seem unable to hear the phrase "8 straight hours of Bomberman is enough, its time for bed", no matter how loud I yell it.
Subverting the meta-moderating system since 2003
here is the new scientist link:
Computer game boosts children's' language skills
The game, based on distinguishing between sounds, is claimed to deliver the equivalent of two years improvement in just a few weeks
Any results on what computer games do to people's vision ? I know my vision started deteriorating once I started programming full time and I believe it has gotten worse in the last few months when I have been doing lots of heavy reading at night.
Maybe these kids' hearing is improving to compensate for worsened vision....
If you have not seen it, it's new to you!
I, for one, welcome our new all-hearing, , all-seeing and definitely not anti-social video game playing overlords.
"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey
Children sucked until computer games came along.
Now, if only I could play Sim-Hoop-and-a-Stick, in a MMPORPGLORPS setting!
Really, how did society come this far without computer games? And what about the children!
GO TO BEDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!
Hunger is the best sauce.
Thanks for the interesting post.
I wonder, is your level of deafness enough to qualify for a chochlear implant?
Would it be beneficial at your age?
And would you want one?
What machine did everyone play "Oregon Trail" on? I remember that the Commodore 64 had that, as well as other impressive games like "Lemonade Stand".... now THAT was a cool game!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
If you couldn't hear the dog disappearing into the bush ahead of you, the slithering of a snake on the left, and keep a bearing on the bellowing livestock you were fscked!
I feel this is more of a function of the cotton-wool swaddled worlds our children grow up in. We are overprotective by default, treated as social pariahs by other parents for not being over-protective, and you end up with a child who is illprepared for the modern world and the mental alertness and acuity required to survive in it.
That said - this does sound like an exemplary way to help "children with language problems". But lets not extrapolate too far, I don't believe this will substantially help an already active and alert child to rapidly develop their auditory acuity. Sure it will help, but so would learning an instrument (timbre, tone, timing, repetition, pattern recognition - try and write a program with the flexibility of a recorder).
Q.
Insert Signature Here
Yes, because when the invigolator is at the front of the class yelling out the answers, your son will be able to hear them better.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
WHAT?
DC vs. Marvel and Star Wars IX for Playstation 5
Technoli
I knooowwww this muuuuuch is....TRUE
This much is TRUE!
With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue
That headline should probably read:
Since children are probably born with all of the physical hearing capabilities they will ever have, the video games would increase their ability to interpret the signals sent by their hardware (ears). In other words, they are capable of recognizing more sounds.All data is speech. All speech is Free.
The big issue with cochlear implant surgery is when to get it.
At my age right now, it won't bring any additional benefits over hearing aids. I've worn hearing aids for almost my whole life that it's become natural for me to wear them. I'm used to hearing the sounds of the world through those digital ears and I'm doing just fine.
Cochlear implants have their biggest impacts at an early age, preferably before age 5. The key is being able to allow the child to hear some sounds before the language center of the brain stops its rapid development. The earlier the surgery, the better chance that the child will be able to have normal language development.
With that said, I wouldn't want one. I see no need to and I'm just fine with my hearing aids. It's likely that if I have deaf children, they too will not have cochlear implants.
I recommend you watch Sound and Fury, a PBS documentary about cochlear implants. It's a very well made documentary, presenting both sides of the debate with about as fair as one can get. It's a very moving piece.
-Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
Here is a funny list of things that you might learn from video games if you are an alien
No... nevermind, I take that all back.
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.
CowboyNeal died of dysntry.
That they are not playing them loud enough. I played Silent Hill 3 a week ago and I still can't hear any sound over 10,000 Hz.
Don't worry about me, though. I broke out my Mark Lanegan CDs. It's gonna be okay.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Al Franken is my hero.
Children who often play videogames are very quick to learn musical instruments.
Coincidence? I think not.
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
This just in: Participating in activities that involve repeatedly exercising action X tends to improve children's X abilities! I'm pretty sure I was tought this in high-school physiology and that it was one of the fundamental rules of development. It continues to amaze me that people are actually getting grants, paychecks, and royalties to document the obvious. What justification do the signers of these checks have to endorse such studies? Are there really people that out of touch with learning and physiology? Is there a great legal need for documented proof of such theorems? Is this some kind of academic circle of life where those signing the checks were once those recieving the checks and now feel compelled to continue the tradition?
Being a product of the TV generation. Don't they say that when one of your senses diminishes another one improves. Since we all know stearing at a computer screen for long periods of time makes you blind stands to reason then that your hearing must improve.
And I am sticking to that analogy.
If these are scientific studies then the problems you mentioned won't occur. Social science involves avoiding the problems you mentioned. Anyone that has gone through university will be using scientific methods. For instance, they will pick a sample that is not biased in any manner. Unless these studies are done by non-scientists, they should be acceptable.
It's just like polls. There is a difference between scientific polls (often conducted by professional polling organizations) and non-scientific polls (stuff you put up on your website). Scientific polls will pick a representative sample, will avoid biases, and the results should be fairly precise. In contrast, a poll on say SlashDot is not worth much since it is heavily biased in favour of the tech crowd.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
What if my speakers were switched around as a child? Well, it explains why I listen to Throbbing Gristle.
If they would just make a Matlock video game, my Grandma could benefit from this important new research.
Just another URL - new scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99 994093) is running an article on how the computer games can boost language skills...
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency (Eugene McCarthy)
In other news...
It has been discovered today by an Australian researcher that increased computer playing leads to upto a 700% increase in selective hearing.
Whilst the male computer user is in this trance, all words spoken to him by a female will be totally ignored. This was tested using over 100 different phrases, including:
"Get off that damned computer"
"Take the garbage out"
"Dinner is ready"
If phrases were uttered repeatedly, the male would grunt in recognition in order to silence them, though would not be able to recall later what had been said.
TV watching males also exhibited similar behaviour.
But my hand-eye coordination and hearing are off the hook!
And to think, my parents thought video games would never get me anywhere in life.
paintball
Son: Mom, I'm just trying to improve my hearing!
This may seem a plus because our society doesn't require so much running through the woods after game for survival.
Unfortunately, left on the forsaken island of albonia with no ready resources, most doom knockers probably wouldn't survive by knocking down trees and throwing rocks at each other...
-P
no more saying "It was the dog that farted" I guess....
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Watching DVD/DIVX/MPEG helps reduce risk of prostate cancer.
Oh! you already know that!
- "They misunderestimated me."
you can read the original, more detailed story at New Scientist
I definitely don't remember the Oregon Trail game - it must be a U.S. thing. However, I faintly remember playing a game about being a voyageur, rowing up river, trading furs and stuff. But I kept capsizing the darned canoe.
Any other Canadians remember what that was called? Maybe "Voyageur"?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Heh, that was what I was thinking. Good one! I'm deaf myself. Same type of loss, but this was after I was 9 months old. Yay for genes. I'm a gamer as well. Although, I do differ in my background... that is, I depend heavily on signing and I've had some speech training but wasn't very effective because of my blasted deaf accent... but that's my fault for not having it done often (thanks Wichita public schools!) Timing? Ah, you have much better timing than I do. My timing horribly sucks... mainly because I didn't get my console until last year. I could only go over to my friends' to play on their consoles.
Oh my god! My waffle!
I've been playing CounterStrike a lot as of late, and its clearly helped me focus on a single sound or source rather than simply hearing a garb of everything. Not to mention the ability to tell which direction the sounds are coming from as well. That should've been developed otherwise, just I suppose the games helped me a little?
Pls No Negative Modding!
Hey,
Oregon Trail Rocked. Wish they would Remake it.
Dames suck. Well, almost all. Anyway, emptying your pockets to go to some lame chick flick with a girl, instead of buying that one game you want (if it's good) is stupid. Besides, playing games is fun! And that's what matters, right?
Look. Playing Video games increases hearing, and reflex, and such. I myself (I'm not an old guy) have learned many words from video games and computer games. Okay, maybe I don't read enough books, perhaps, but I can attribute a deal of my current vocabulary to games. Besides, games are fun.
Good thing kids can't afford Klipsch's. Now where'd my hearing horn go?
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Have you ever tried to talk to a kid playing a computer game? They are deaf as can be!! The building could be burning down around them and they wouldn't notice! All kidding aside, this still smells like bad research! Think about it...how do you do a controlled experiment? Remember correlation is NOT causation!
A friend just mentioned that her 80yrs+ father got an implant.
I don't know enough about the subject, so I'm not sure if it is the cochlear implant you're talking about.
Anyhow, it was pretty impressive to hear hell tell that he was surprised to hear things like how loud the train is, or how there is wind noise when riding a car. He had never realized these things.
He's very happy with the results, even at his age.
Just my 2 cents.
BTW, I've given some programming lessons to a deaf girl, and there was no trouble communicating at all. It's amazing how people can adapt.
I've thought of teaching sign language to my (not deaf) baby daughter. Do you have an opinion on that?
/* TAANSTAFL */
A friend just mentioned that her 80yrs+ father got an implant.
There is a difference between becoming deaf postlingually (e.g., old age, Rush Limbaugh) and at a young age. If you make it out of childhood speaking/listening you have already established the language centers in the brain that benefit from a cochlear implant.
This is why kids under 5 should be implanted as early as possible and immersed in therapy. If they decide they want to join the signing community when they are old enough to make their own decisions, it is still possible. The reverse is not.
Yep, and pr0n improves your eyesight...
Yeah, you can do that. I've heard that in a study that it does wonders for babies in language development department. :)
Oh my god! My waffle!
Sounds like a nice job to me, though.
And so useful, too! Just imagine what these people could prove:
- Falling from great heights might be harmful to one's health.
- Books might be more dangerous than video games if dropped on someone's head (from a great height, probably).
- Coffee might be hot (heck, that would have saved McDonalds quite some bucks).
- Might contain nuts (it's always good to have "might contain nuts" around, just in case).
And, of course:
- Prove-the-obvious scientists are important and have to be paid extremely well. This study we've just completed proves it. No, we're not biased. We've got a study proving that we're not.
OTOH, if they just go on and prove the obvious, many lawyers in the USA are going to be unemployed, because all those trivial court cases get solved before they happen.
Sounds to me like a secret terrorist plot to make all American lawyers unemployed, thus putting the USA into a state of anarchy. Gotta go call my pal George.
-- Jeez
I've had some speech training but wasn't very effective because of my blasted deaf accent...
Yeah, why do you deaf people all sound so angry? Just kidding, at least you're well-adjusted enough to refer to yourself simply as "deaf", rather than the politically correct "hearing impaired", which is just plain harder to say. Deaf people are cool.