Online Gaming Help for Teens From New York

New York Teens Suffer Poor Academic Performance Due to Video Game Addiction

Our Pennsylvania based summer camp for video game addiction focuses on creating real change in the lives of teens.  53% of college campers say video games caused them to put off doing academic work. One study which examined adolescent video game play found that campers who played video games spent 30% less time reading.  The same study found that kids who play video games during the week spent 34% less time doing homework. 

Playing video games is time-consuming and take mental energy.  If your child is putting off schoolwork to play video games or browse the internet, an intervention may be needed.  We know that playing video games before bedtime can affect the quality of your sleep and being overstimulated can make it harder to pay attention in class the next day.

Often it’s a self-perpetuating cycle as campers only feel successful online. Their coursework falls behind, and they feel like they just can’t keep up in school.  We help young people press the reset button on their schoolwork by providing corrective learning experiences and by helping our campers learn how to manage their screen use.

Our summer camp for video game addiction uses a specialized curriculum will ensure your child gets back on track academically as we create successful, corrective academic opportunities for your child.  The New York school system may have failed your child, but our focused academic program will help your student get back on track.

Online Gaming Help for New York Teens

New York families seek our summer camp for video game addiction because of our unique ability to adapt to the academic curriculum for New York campers.  Our residential video game addiction help center helps campers develop the internal drive and motivation to focus on academics- not the latest video game. 

At the core of our summer camp is the belief that help should not be punitive.  We take a natural approach, reconnecting teens with nature, friends, and themselves over time. Video game addiction help is not a simple as taking away the student’s video game system.  Screens are everywhere, and teens have become very sophisticated at bypassing

One thing we hear a lot at Camp Pocono Trails is a child’s belief that, “All my friends are online, so if you take this away from me, I would be all alone.”  Video game addiction help is not an all-or-nothing issue. At Camp Pocono Trails, we take a harm reduction approach. This means educating the student on the harmful effects of certain online activities including:

  • Online pornography
  • Video game violence
  • How violence is portrayed in certain games
  • How gender roles are portrayed in certain games
  • How playing games without set boundaries can interfere with academics, social practice, or achieving your life goals

Using a harm reduction approach, Camp Pocono Trails campers become enlightened as to the habit-forming qualities of video games and social media, in addition to how exposure to different types of online media can change your perceptions of violence or gender roles.

Components of Online Gaming Help

Teens at Camp Pocono Trails receive individual and group therapy for video game addiction and internet overuse habits. We have licensed therapists helping teens develop insight and commit to new routines in life.

We also have family therapy sessions where we help parents best support their teen upon their transition home from Camp Pocono Trails.  We discuss in family sessions how parents can reinforce positive feelings when a child sticks to their behavioral contract and we also encourage parents to reinforce negative feelings when the child fails to live up to behavioral expectations.

At Camp Pocono Trails, we focus on meeting each student’s individual needs. We use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a phase progression model. According to Maslow, humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among social groups, regardless of whether these groups are large or small. For example, some large social groups may include clubs, co-workers, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, and online communities. Some examples of small social connections include family members, intimate partners, mentors, colleagues, and confidants.

Humans need to love and be loved by others.  Many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression in the absence of this love or belonging element. This need for belonging may overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure.

By creating a positive peer environment, your teen to connect with others in a face-to-face setting- without the use of screens.

 

Who does Camp Pocono Trails help?

Camp Pocono Trails helps teens struggling with issues similar to those below:
– Depression
– Impulse Control
– ADHD
– Social isolation
– Autism Spectrum
– Social Issues
– Social Anxiety Disorder
– Addictive Behaviors
– Technology Addiction
– Video game addiction
– School Refusal
– Low Self Esteem
– Anxiety
– Poor Communication Skills
– Trauma
– Family Conflict

Resources

Online Gaming Help: Microsoft Support

Think about it- if you just limit your child’s use of technology at home, how likely will they be able to manage their use independently when they go off to college, or when they move out of the house and start their first job?  Below is a resource to help your child develop structure, but without the intrinsic motivation to change, you setting up limits alone may only go so far.

Microsoft Family: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12413/microsoft-account-what-is-family

Microsoft family is just one of the many benefits of having a Microsoft account. It™s a free service that helps families stay connected, and keep kids safer on Windows 10 and Xbox One devices, along with Android devices running Microsoft Launcher. You™ll find settings like activity reporting, screen time limits, location sharing, and content restrictions on account.microsoft.com/family, where you can also track kids™ spending and add money to their Microsoft accounts.

 

Smartphone and Tablet Resources for Video Game Addiction

Kids are becoming increasingly tech savvy these days.  It™s hard for us as parents to keep up. At Camp Pocono Trails we’ve hear it all – campers bypassing routers, logging on to friend™s routers next door, creating proxies, you name it and we’ve heard it!

Here are some resources specifically for smartphones and tablets.  These devices are especially problematic for parents because they are portable and you can™t just block them through your router if your child is connecting at school or a friend™s house:


Android Devices: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/android-parental-controls-3461359/


Apple Products: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304


Google Play Store: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075738?hl=en

Camp Pocono Trails helps families from New York

Camp Pocono Trails helps New York families from cities and towns like Water Mill Sands Point Old Westbury Plandome Upper Brookville North Haven Rye Bridgehampton Oyster Bay Cove Muttontown