UW Creating Video Game to Help Kids Control Their Emotions

Friday, March 11th, 2022 -- 8:11 AM

(WMTV) A video game where kids don’t use their hands for the controller, they use their breath; that’s what researchers at the University of Wisconsin are creating.

The immersive virtual-reality world controlled by deep breaths is supposed to help teach kids to regulate their emotions by controlling their breathing. When faced with a stressful situation in the game, the deeper the breathing, the better the player performs.Researchers say about 95-percent of kids have played a video game before, so they are reaching kids where they already are.

“One of the problems we have in current treatment is getting kids to stick with them, keep them coming into a therapists office or a simple breathing technique to get them to really learn it and stay the course. If we can build a treatment into something that kids are already doing and enjoy, we think it will be that much more successful,” says UW researcher Justin Russell.

Right now, UW is partnering with the Dane County Juvenile Court Program to have kids there test the game. In the future, they want to partner with local schools as well.

“We as adults can’t just develop a game and say, ‘Here you go, use it and we’ll run some tests to see if this helps you,” Russell said. “We need the game to be something they will use and want to play, and nobody knows more about video games than children; they pick this stuff up so much faster than us adults.”

Russell says a tool like this is more important to develop now more than ever before due to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The demand for mental health services fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic forces us to develop new, more effective tools, and one of those tools could be technology kids already use,” Russell said.

They hope to have it ready for families to use in about a year.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.