How to Raise a Healthy Gamer
Dr Alok Kanojia
14 March 2024
9781035025886Synopsis
Is your child spending too much time playing video games? Or are your children are begging you for screen time and you don't know how to help them establish healthy tech habits? Are games causing conflict and arguments? Whatever brings you here, I can help.
How much should I let them play? How do I get them to be interested in anything else?!
Video games and managing screen time are a modern parenting problem with no blueprint and a rapidly changing landscape. Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former gaming addict, Dr Alok Kanojia – Dr K to his millions of followers – offers a proven, tested plan to help parents define, set and reinforce healthy boundaries around screens and video games.
From communication strategies and advice on dealing with behavioural issues to the neurological reasons behind why tech is so addictive, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer is essential for parents of children of all ages.
Based on Dr K’s own experience with gaming addiction and his neuroscientific and psychiatric expertise, this is an accessible and engaging eight-week, step-by-step program covering how to react when your child becomes irritable, rude, or seemingly directionless around screens. Specific advice is also offered for parenting neurodiverse children, including those with ADHD and autism.
Written to empower parents with knowledge and practical advice, this guide from the foremost expert on video game psychology provides skills, offers hope and sets out a clear road map to building healthy gaming habits that will equip your child for a fulfilling future.
Of all the questions parents ask me as a child psychiatrist, the most common one — by far — is how to handle their children’s use of screens. This groundbreaking instant classic of a book answers that question definitively. Clear, persuasive, and rooted in the most current research as well as the wisdom of the ages, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer is the book you’ve been looking for — not only for your child but for yourself as well!Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction and ADHD 2.0
In homes everywhere, negotiations around gaming are tiresome and heated. Dr. Kanojia’s approach allows your child to be part of the solution — a valuable component to both reducing the combativeness that often accompanies these negotiations and to staying in close relationship with them. I highly recommend this calm, structured, and nurturing approach to better and less screen use.Tina Payne Bryson, PhD, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole Brain Child and No Drama Discipline
Among the most important decisions we make about our parenting, screen use and — in particular — gaming will define our family. This groundbreaking book will give you what you need to come to an informed and sensible resolution that works for you. It’s a book that will give you the strength to live within your values and that will support your hope for a family that is deeply connected.Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting and The Soul of Discipline
