| Parents and teachers understand the value in games | | | | traditional board and card games. Even the early |
| for kids to help them get a jumpstart on learning. Even | | | | electronic games consoles for children were limited in |
| early on, even before pre-school or kindergarten, | | | | that the purchase of modules, books, or games for the |
| games that teach math concepts (counting, money, | | | | console was required to increase difficulty. |
| addition, and subtraction), language (word recognition | | | | The Turning Point in Technology |
| through pictures, phonics, word roots), problem solving | | | | The technology to create adaptive games exists. The |
| and social interaction are valuable tools in not only | | | | seeds for it began sprouting in the 1980s with the |
| teaching, but also in promoting the love of learning. | | | | advent of machine learning algorithms. These |
| Choosing Appropriate Levels | | | | mathematical algorithms gave computers the ability to |
| One of the great frustrations is finding games that are | | | | "learn" - to make intelligent decisions in reaction to |
| age and difficulty-level appropriate. This can be | | | | recognized complex patterns. In other words, the |
| particularly difficult when a child does not meet the | | | | computer could learn how to avoid Fools Mate, |
| average expectations of the game company's | | | | checkmate in three moves in Chess, so as to not |
| developers or marketing department. Children are | | | | allow it to happen again. |
| sometimes especially exceptional in one skill area or | | | | It was a big to-do in geek circles. You can tell, because |
| not as good in others. | | | | like every revolutionary technology, learning machines |
| If a game is too difficult, it can cause disappointment or | | | | were made to appear evil in science fiction movies of |
| the "eyes glazed over" look. If too easy, kids can easily | | | | the early 1980s. War Games and Terminator were |
| get bored and move on to something else. Some | | | | both movies in which learning machines would bring the |
| children like to play Backgammon, Checkers, and even | | | | ultimate destruction of humankind. |
| Life with their siblings while their parents expected | | | | Making the Change |
| them to play Candy Land with their younger siblings. | | | | While a complete transformation has not occurred, |
| To date, it has been very difficult to create games in | | | | changes in educational games have. Providing your |
| which skill or difficulty level could be easily adjusted let | | | | child with games for kids is not as difficult as it used to |
| alone adjust automatically in an adaptive fashion. With | | | | be. Now there are games available for the iPhone as |
| classic strategy games like chess, backgammon, or | | | | well as traditional board games. You only need to do a |
| even Scrabble, level of difficulty depends on the | | | | simple search for what your child is interested in. You |
| player's opponent. Otherwise, it seems seemingly | | | | will find a plethora of educational games to match your |
| impossible to achieve any level of adaptively with | | | | child's interest. |