Traditional Games as Alternative Activities for Children Stimulation

Putu Nugrahaeni Widiasavitri (Psychology Department, Medical Faculty Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia)
Ni Made Yanti Ary Agustini (Departemen Psikologi. Fakultas Kedokteran. Universitas Udayana)
Dewi Puri Astiti (Psychology Department, Medical Faculty Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia)
Luh Made Karisma Sukmayanti Suarya (Psychology Department, Medical Faculty Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia)
Tuningsih Haryati (Psychology Department, Medical Faculty Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia)

Journal of Psychology and Instructions
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2020): April

In the span of one year, there has been an increasing number of complaints from parents and teachers about the adverse effects of gadgets. Complaints of the detrimental impacts of gadget addiction include children becoming lazy, irritable, lacking independence, irresponsible with schoolwork, and having shorter attention span compared to similar-aged children. The increasing number of complaints from parents and school teachers regarding the behaviour of students who are addicted to gadgets became the reason for the team to reintroduce traditional game play activities with friends and teachers in school. Several studies have shown that traditional games have numerous benefits, particularly to stimulate children's cognitive, social, and personality development. Therefore, the team strived to provide alternative games for students so as to help students reap the benefits of playing. The result of this activity indicates that traditional games could be alternative games to gadgets, which are beneficial for affective, cognitive, and motor development of children and act as the means to introduce children to the norms upheld in the society. To optimize the development of affective, cognitive, motor skills, and instill the norms in society, utilizing traditional games needs to be done by the school.