London - Children’s card games are dying out because of the rise of computer games and social media, a report suggests.
Fewer than half of youngsters now play traditional favourites like snap, beat your neighbour and old maid, it found. Most spend their time gaming alone on a mobile or tablet.
It is a stark contrast to their parents who, as children in the 1970s and 1980s, played card games in much higher numbers.
Only 44 percent of children aged between seven and 14 are familiar with 52-card packs and the significance and relative frequency of aces, kings, queens and jacks. Educationalists believe that card skills sharpen arithmetic and a child’s ability to solve problems, as well as improving the way they get on with their peers.
David Chan of Barclaycard, which sponsored the research, said: “Children have opportunities to learn and play a whole raft of games and technologies that have developed since their parents’ generation. But technology is not always better.
“When many parents fear that they are spending less time with their children, there is no better way to bring the family together than to gather round a board game or a pack of cards.”
The poll of 1 002 children together with the same number of parents of youngsters of the same age, carried out by Opinium, found that two in three children would like to learn the games their parents had played.
Barclaycard is sponsoring a Yes2Chess initiative for children.
Daily Mail