Are some children more vulnerable to video games?
It seems that even small amounts of video games can trigger a response in certain children. Most at risk are particularly sensitive – being children in homes, in foster care and even adopted children. Such children share a symptom due to trauma that results in changes in the brain and body – namely, a ‘hair trigger’ response to perceived stress that put their little bodies into a nearly constant state of fight or flight. This state is characterised by emotional reactivity, trouble following directions, meltdowns over small frustrations and high arousal (getting ‘revved up’ easily).
The smallest amount of time spent playing video games may trigger the stress reaction – which makes sense if you consider that such children live very close to their stress threshold. It takes far less to push them into full-blown stress mode than more relaxed peers.
Another set of children found to be particularly sensitive are those with tics or Tourette’s syndrome. In these children, overactive areas of the brain cause involuntary motor activity. The exacerbation of symptoms caused by video games in this group was even more obvious. With some of these children, gaming increased their overall tic frequency and severity, and with others, the tics would ratchet up whenever the child actually played the game or used the computer. Again, removal of the video games often produces significant relief.
There may be something about playing video games that puts the brain and body into overdrive, which increases both neurological and psychological symptoms . More recently those children with ADHD symptoms are thought to react in a similar way.
Even neurotypical children could experience less extreme but nonetheless disruptive symptoms – which means that it isn’t just highly sensitive children or those with psychiatric disorders who are vulnerable to adverse effects, but potentially any child.
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