Part 1 - "Roadblocks", Resilience, and a Carer’s Story

When Gaming Mirrors Life: What Roblox Taught One Child About Coping.

As an educational consultant, I hear many stories from parents, carers, and professionals. Each child brings their own brilliance — and their own challenges. Some are underachievers, some gifted. Some highly verbal, others deeply inhibited. All are searching for ways to grow and thrive. And often, the paths they find are unexpected. Henry's Story: An Unusual Way Of Coping One story has stayed with me for years. A carer — himself a psychologist — once told me about a boy in his care. For privacy, I’ll call him Henry.

Henry’s early years were filled with loss. By the age of fifteen, he had lived through more disruption than many adults will face in a lifetime. One constant, however, was his game of choice: Roblox — though he often mispronounced it as ‘Roadblocks’, a slip of the tongue that seemed fitting for his life story. He had been playing since he was very young — it became his outlet, his habit, and in many ways, his world.

His carer noticed something fascinating: the techniques Henry practised in Roblox — evasive strategies, shortcuts, ways of “sneaking past obstacles” — began to appear in real life. When asked to do difficult tasks, Henry would instinctively look for a workaround instead of taking the direct path.

It left me asking: Are these evasions signs of avoidance, or could they actually be forms of adaptive problem-solving? The same way a child might learn to navigate school, friendships, or family tensions?

A Double-Edged Sword

That’s the double-edged sword of gaming.On one side: impulsivity, avoidance, and difficulty sustaining focus.On the other side: creativity, resilience, and the ability to find alternative routes when the straight road feels impossible.

👉 Perhaps the real question is not whether gaming is good or bad — but how we guide children to turn the strategies they practise in virtual worlds into strengths for the real one.

In the end, gaming may not be the problem or the solution — but a mirror of how a child approaches challenge.

💬 I'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

Do you see gaming habits showing up in your child’s everyday life — for better or for worse?