Can a traditional, manual, analog toy today survive the competition of the most sophisticated digital games? COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL GAMES

That young people have a natural predisposition to all electronic equipment is a fact. But how can a digital support meet the needs of dexterity and movement, exclusive characteristics of traditional games?

No tool, even if very advanced, such as those that refer to touchscreen technology, such as tablets and smartphones, can contribute to the cognitive development of the child. To grow, concrete experimentation with the environment and objects is always necessary. The reasons are many, starting with issues related to psychomotor development. The body, in fact, is a formidable instrument of knowledge. Children have to learn how to use it all: just a little finger is not enough. The child’s hand must touch, throw, hit, align, overlap objects in order to know them and, from this type of knowledge, accumulate experiences and memories.

A playful activity is all the more fun the more it is loaded with learning. Let’s take for example a traditional game among the most popular, the tracks with marbles. The game consists of creating tracks with straights and curves, with the aim of getting to the finish line first. Just like this, traditional games often exploit physical principles, are based on particular mechanisms and must be built by hand. The value of games like this is also due to the poverty of the materials with which they are built and the simplicity of the starting idea. In fact, it is precisely because of their simplicity that they leave great room for imagination. On the contrary, modern games do everything by themselves, put the child aside and leave him only the role of spectator.

The value of the traditional game remains irrefutable. Games whose value lasts over time and cannot be undermined by technological innovation. Games that lead to sociability, relationships with friends, parents, giving an added value compared to electronic games. Games that respond to that innate need for dexterity, contact, colors, movement that not even digital natives can do without.