Games for Health

Carrot not stick.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article called ‘Games Based Healing’ which featured games that help people learn about illnesses, how to self-heal and more through games.  This article featured games to help those with dementia, autism, cystic fibrosis, depression, stroke, dyslexia and post-traumatic stress disorder.  Since then, I have come across a few more articles about how games are helping people to learn about, cope with and beat health issues.

Depression

Depression featured in our post previously mentioned, however, this great article also argues that games could have great potential to help people with depression.  It lists 3 games/apps: Depression Quest, SPARX and MoodTune which have been developed specifically for people with depression.  The article also discusses a therapist’s use of games in sessions.  She uses them as a therapeutic tool to get children talking and working through their troubles.  A gamer’s perspective is also shared, suggesting that games have positive and negative effects for people suffering from depression, but that games specifically designed to treat depression can be fantastically useful.

Stroke

A game for helping stroke victims recover was also featured in our previous post.  However, a game, Stroke Hero has also been developed to help teach children to recognise the signs of a stroke.  The game has had great success so far.  Click here for more information.

Asthma

Wellapets is a game designed to help children handle their asthma.  The game features a pet dragon which the player must look after, including giving them their inhaler.  It aims to motivate positive behaviour change, reduce stigma, teach about symptoms and how to avoid common triggers.  Read more here.

Autism

Again, Autism featured on the previous list.  However, this article features a list of apps that have been designed to help children on the Autism spectrum to communicate.  There are quite a few apps, some of which are free and some not.

Breast Cancer

Cancer Research UK has developed a game to help them analyse a large amount of genetic data collected from their studies.  The game is called Play to Cure: Genes in Space.  Players are encouraged to go on space missions, but the game environment maps directly to scientific data.  It might be a little difficult to get your head around just how they have managed this, but this sort of innovation is a fantastic use of games and perhaps we’ll see more of it in the future.  Click here to read more.

I hope this emphasises that games can be used in a wide variety of ways and that games based learning is extremely broad.  Games are as varied as any other medium and can be used as such.  And as this post hopefully suggests, games can do a lot of good and help a lot of people.

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Games Based Healing

As you may have gathered from our blog title and posts, we think games are a great tool for learning and lots of research backs us up.  However, there are also amazing ways that games are being designed and used to heal people with various disorders.  I have selected a few of the best stories below.  Please share any more stories you have in the comments section below.

Cystic Fibrosis
This game (see link below) has been designed for children with Cystic Fibrosis.  It will enable them to learn to control their respiratory function in a fun and engaging way from home, to supplement their daily physical therapy.  It is a learning tool as much as a physical therapy tool and should help them learn important skills early on.  A number of mini-games and in-game configuration tools help keep the important therapy tool exciting for young children with the condition.  For more information and to see a quick video click here.

Dementia
You may have heard of Nintendo’s Brain Training game.  Well this sort of game has sparked medical interest and games are currently being developed and tested for use by people with dementia.  They aim to keep brains active and help people with dementia learn new skills in a fun way.  Poor memory and concentration are problems with this disorder and games might just be the best way of keeping attention and intrigue.  See this article for more information.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Research has found that playing Tetris after a traumatic event helps lower the number of flashbacks of the event.  It is not entirely clear why this is the case, but Tetris may act as a protector.  Partaking in an engaging visual-spatial task may prevent some of the traumatic images making their way into long-term memory storage.  However, tests are also being conducted to see if games can help reduce flashbacks even after some time has passed since the traumatic event.  For more information please read this article.

Dyslexia
Video games have been found to help children with dyslexia read more quickly without any cost to accuracy.  The study used a fast-moving game that required high degrees of cognitive and perceptual skills as well as peripheral processing.  The games improved the children’s ability to extract relevant information as well as sustain longer visual attention.  The effects of playing the game were equivalent to more than a year’s worth of reading development.  Please read these articles for more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21619592 and http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/action-packed-video-games-may-help-dyslexic-kids-learn-to-read/.

Autism
I have discussed video games and autism previously ('Unorthodox Uses of Games in Education') regarding the XBox and the Nintendo Wii helping people on the Autistic spectrum with social skills.  This game has been developed to try and simulate some of the issues that sufferers have to contend with.  I have also come across an Internet portal of games for children on the Autism spectrum.  The games are designed to help autistic children learn independent living skills such as deciding on clothes to match the weather and teaching that eye contact can be useful when communicating.

Stroke
The Circus Challenge Game has been developed to help stroke victims recover motor functions.  It is designed to be a fun experience that will encourage people to continue their therapy at home.  There is a problem with a shortage of therapists, so it is hoped that people can continue their own therapy at home in a way that doesn’t feel like therapy.  For more information click here.

UPDATE

Depression
I just came across this video from GameSpot about video games and depression and felt I should update this post.  Please watch:



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