I would argue that this is the intended effect. Playing games is the first thing that I did with my computer. This encouraged me to find out how to build my own games. Thats when I learnt BASIC and then went on to C and I am fudging around with Scala, Ruby and Clojure now. I learnt about architecture and beauty from games. I learned about image sprites and how beautifully they were used in Prince of Persia (Jordan Mechner's original) to create stunning worlds.
My scores dropped as well. But I do not think that academic scores are a measure of a person's intelligence. They are a measure of a person's commitment on how doggedly he would pursue a goal. I would argue that letting children play games explore ways of cheating and bending the rules of the system helps them become far better individuals than what today's education system can probably bring out. I guess most adults have gone sour to a point where they are jealous of kids having fun. :-) I remember in my friends place where my friend and his father would have fights about who would play the next game on the computer. You parents have to try it out once. I am sure your will have a better bond with your kid.
So my advice to parents is to ignore this article and be happy that your kid is playing games. Just ensure that the grades do not drop that low that it endangers his/her career altogether. Otherwise it is fine he/she would grow out of it. Or probably not and he/she might create the next world of goo for all you know. Either ways I do not see it as a bad thing.
BTW, I write from the perspective of India. My comments need to be considered with loads of salt.
My scores dropped as well. But I do not think that academic scores are a measure of a person's intelligence. They are a measure of a person's commitment on how doggedly he would pursue a goal. I would argue that letting children play games explore ways of cheating and bending the rules of the system helps them become far better individuals than what today's education system can probably bring out. I guess most adults have gone sour to a point where they are jealous of kids having fun. :-) I remember in my friends place where my friend and his father would have fights about who would play the next game on the computer. You parents have to try it out once. I am sure your will have a better bond with your kid.
So my advice to parents is to ignore this article and be happy that your kid is playing games. Just ensure that the grades do not drop that low that it endangers his/her career altogether. Otherwise it is fine he/she would grow out of it. Or probably not and he/she might create the next world of goo for all you know. Either ways I do not see it as a bad thing.
BTW, I write from the perspective of India. My comments need to be considered with loads of salt.