The behaviour of a little guy in my class and the impact of violent computer games on him has raised major concerns. He’d been making great progress but suddenly deteriorated and investigation proved his parents had reintroduced a violent computer game into the home!His situation has taken a twist. This twist adds to the evidence that violent computer games impact negatively on kids’ minds and behaviour. Maybe in many cases the impact isn’t as extreme as this little 9 year old boy, but if violence and aggression bombards a child’s brain it can’t be a good experience.Even soldiers, trained for war, become traumatised after being subjected to violence. It may be argued that professional soldiers experience real life situations with real blood and guts, real guns and real injuries so their trauma is understandable.But, modern computer graphics are so realistic and kids become totally engrossed in the activity so while they’re playing at killing and causing injuries it’s absolutely real for them… They become entranced by the action on the screen, as if hypnotised. And it’s well recognised that hypnotism can have an incredible impact on the human mind!Back to the little 9 year old…A letter went home… The parents’ lack of care and their inability or inadequacy in keeping a diet of violence away from their children is truly astounding… The mainstream school staff had also spoken to his parents requesting inappropriate games and films should be disposed of!When asked the next day what he’d done after school the previous evening he said that he’d looked for his World War 2 game but it had been hidden. Oh well, that’s good — a step in the right direction!But, just talking about the missing game raised his emotional level and he became quite unsettled and anxious once more. He was well on the way to being a very badly behaved child and losing the plot…I explained to him why it was important that he couldn’t play the game any more and how it made him very unhappy. Surprisingly he hadn’t had any explanation from his parents.He became quite tearful and said he was sorry that he’d been naughty but he missed the game and wanted to play it. He was pacing around, banging his head with his hand, clearly very agitated — poor little soul. Even the idea of accessing the game sent his anxiety levels catapulting out of the normal range.Gradually he settled down and was a great deal better that morning. Then, in the afternoon he went to mainstream school…But things didn’t go well in school — what had gone wrong?Things had started all right with work being completed, but then the class was allowed to choose an activity in free time. Some of the children wanted play on the computer and the support worker asked him if he wanted to join in so off they went for their 15 minute activity.A game site was accessed. There’s nothing wrong with that, you may say. Most people would agree — a school’s computer system is highly regulated where any games are vetted and nothing inappropriate is available.The chosen game was loosely related to war, with tanks, a few land mines and some explosions. Of course our little guy latches onto this game like a guided missile! But it was pretty harmless stuff. Well, harmless where most kids are concerned! And everything went well while the game was being played…But, problems started when they had to shut down the machines and move back to class… Have you ever tried stopping a drunk from having a drink? Have you seen a person who craves a fix and has no drugs?This little boy was exactly like the drunk or the drug addict when he had to finish playing a game that was far less graphic than those he had previously been subjected to in his home. Even with this innocuous game he was behaving as you would expect an addict to behave. He just couldn’t cope with being removed from his object of addiction.The rest of his class had gone to assembly but he was isolated with his support assistant. He was agitated, verbally aggressive and pacing the room demanding to play the computer game. He said that he wanted to shoot guns, kill people and knife people to make them bleed. He was very angry and anxious because he’d had to stop playing. He was behaving just like an addict in withdrawal. It was an awful sight.He won’t be allowed any more computer games for the foreseeable future. The situation will calm and the behaviour management strategies that were working so well will ensure he starts making good progress again.A better example of the terrible and negative impact of violent computer games on a small child would be hard to find.