Welcome to Culture Clinic, MedPage Today's collaboration with Northwell Health to offer a healthcare professional's take on the latest viral medical topics.
As kids spend more hours in the summer engaged in the digital Lego-like worlds of Minecraft, often online with their friends, parents find themselves wondering whether the game is beneficial, harmful, both, or neither, when it comes to kids' development.
Pediatricians actually acknowledge some benefits of the game, but they do warn of certain risks as well.
"There are certain games that can benefit children in the sense of creativity, especially Minecraft," Consuelo Cagande, MD, director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwell Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York City, told MedPage Today.
Additionally, Minecraft can help "reinforce some problem-solving skills" -- such as figuring out the next step when players come to roadblocks -- and encourage being persistent and continuing on through failing, Cagande said.
