Kids love to play. Parents are always looking for options to keep their children constructively engaged. What if you can find a play that is not only a fun activity but also helps you keep your child engaged? Yes, you read it right. This article is all about the games that activate your child’s brain and improves their cognitive thinking.
Here is a list of brain games for kids to activate thinking:
Matching Picture Cards –
It is a memory game and relies on memory recall. The person who remembers and matches the cards on both sides is the winner. It is a good way to improve your child’s memory.
You can modify the game based on the age of your child. Matching pictures with alphabets or words, matching animals with their young ones, matching animals with their homes, matching flags with countries, matching vegetables with their names, and much more.
Benefits
Improves visual memory
Improves visual discrimination
Improves short-term memory loss
Improves concentration
What’s Missing?
Arrange a few items in the tray. Let your child look into the tray and memorize the displayed items. Then cover the tray with a napkin. Ask your child to tell the names of the items in the tray.
You can even remove one or two items from the tray and ask your child what’s missing in the tray. Both variations of the game are interesting. Make it tricky by adding more items to the tray.
Benefits
Improves visual attention
Improves visual scanning
Improves concentration
Improves visual recognition
Solving Puzzles
Puzzles are brain-challenging and activate a child’s logical thinking. There are a variety of puzzles available, crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, logic puzzles, etc. Every puzzle has its advantages and improves your child’s cognitive thinking capabilities.
Benefits
Improves problem-solving skills
Improves logical thinking
Improves reasoning skills
Improves strategic thinking
Board Games
Board games are fun to play. Kids love board games as they are group games. Even parents can join with kids to play board games. Carrom board, Ludo, Monopoly, Checkers, Connect 4, Chess, etc., can all be played by all age groups.
Benefits
Help in learning to follow the instructions
Help to regulate emotions
Improves motor skills
Improves problem-solving
Improves logical thinking
Arranging Blocks
This game is suitable for kids below seven years. They love making different patterns with blocks. Blocks are easy to use and tweaked into tons of fun activities such as Counting Blocks, Stacking Blocks, Building a Maze with Blocks, Bowling with Blocks, Tower Building, and a lot more.
Benefits
Improves problem-solving skills
Improves imagination & creativity
Express their own self
Improves mathematics and geometry
Improves self-esteem
Online Games
Embracing technology is essential these days. The days are gone when we wanted to keep children away from screens. Having said that, we do not mean to say that kids must be allowed to play online games all the time. The parents can monitor the kid’s screen time and make sure, they are playing within the allowed time.
Benefits
A great source to develop technical knowledge and usage of computers.
Enhances memory, brain speed, and concentration.
Improved multi-tasking skills.
Build skills for future careers.