It’s September: time for football! But as a child neuropsychologist, I am reluctant to encourage parents to have their children play tackle football. Even with all the new protections that have been put into place, tackle football greatly increases the risk of concussions, which can have a direct impact on a child’s academic, psychological, and cognitive functioning. So rather than being all right with children playing tackle football, I want to offer three reasons they should play fantasy football instead.
Fantasy football uses your brain rather than runs the risk of abusing it and provides an opportunity for practicing various thinking and academic skills. If you’re unfamiliar with fantasy football, read some of our posts at LearningWorks for Kids or learn about it on NFL.com, CBS.com, ESPN.com, or Yahoo.com. Real-life football players score points for their team, while fantasy players draft a team of actual players who get points for scoring touchdowns, gaining yards, or kicking a field goal. This is great fun for families to do together, and you don’t need to be a football fan in order to enjoy playing.
Here are six reasons your kids should play fantasy football:
- It’s a way for them to get experience in football and learn about
the game without any of the injuries that can come from playing.
2. An interest in sports generally leads to involvement in athletics. Getting
kids following a sport is strongly correlated with participation in
other sports.
3. Fantasy football can readily become a favorite family activity and promotes communication, competition, cooperation, and lots of banter.
4. Kids can learn executive function and problem-solving skills playing fantasy football.
5. Academic skills such as math and reading are also routinely used in fantasy football.
6. Fantasy football can be an engaging way to leverage technology use into a family activity.
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