Avoid these common mistakes to help protect your child from video game addiction.

Mistake No. 1: Starting young. The earlier a child begins playing electronic games, the sooner he or she is exposed to the patterns that lead to addiction. Those who are introduced to the dopamine-inducing high of prolonged video-game play often become bored with any other recreation.

Mistake No. 2: Creating easy access. Four out of five children over 8 years old own a video game system. The risk of video-game addiction increases dramatically when your child owns a system because then it is much harder to control the amount of time spent playing. As with any other behavioural addiction, easy access to the object of obsession makes it difficult to avoid pitfalls.

Mistake No. 3: Using video games as a reward. While the benefit of motivating kids to complete school assignments and other tasks may seem like a positive aspect of video-game obsession, the long-term consequences far outweigh any short-term gain. Using video games to motivate kids reinforces the notion that working, reading and learning are necessary evils rather than rewards in themselves.

Mistake No. 4: Allowing “just one more level.” When asked to shut off the video-game system, most children rarely obey without first trying to prolong their play. Invariably they respond with a plea for just one more level or more time to defeat the current villain. As a result, many parents end up allowing their child to spend much more time playing video games than they intended.

Mistake No. 5: Ignoring your gut. Many parents have a bad feeling about the amount of time their child spends playing and talking about video games. They have a nagging sense that allowing so much video-game time may have long-term consequences. But they second-guess the feeling, writing it off as old-fashioned or too strict. Please visit our page for more articles like this and check out some of our toys here –pythagorasmagnets.com