10 Common Games for Enhancing Brain Skills

Greetings!

It's easy to dismiss games as being "just play" because they're so much fun! But brain science has shown that playing games requires us to use various brain functions. Read more below, including 10 everyday games and how they help to enhance brain functioning.

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Dr. Cheri L. Florance

Brain Engineering Labs
www.cheriflorance.com

GAMES -
They're Not Just "Child's Play"

"Play is the work of children" is a famous quote from Friedrich Froebel, the founder of Kindergarten. And now brain science shows that playing games also works to enhance one's brain skills, whether you are a child or an adult.

There are many advantages to using various games to help children enhance specific brain skills:

Games, such as cards and checkerboards and such are usually easily available. You probably already have them around the house.
Games are inherently rewarding and motivating. When a child is focused on playing a game, their frustrations with other aspects of life are forgotten.
Games also have the advantage of being different each time they are played, and yet the game itself becomes familiar to the child. So, on the one hand the variability of luck, for instance, in the roll of the dice provides opportunities for using the brain function of generalizing. But acquiring the knowledge of how the game is played requires a child to use his or her memory skills.
Games are also enjoyable and typically non-threatening -- IF they are selected appropriately for the child's age and ability level. When used appropriately, games can become useful tools for giving a child opportunities to relax and interact comfortably with family and friends.

10 Everyday Games to Help to Build Brain AMP

The brain is equipped with three systems that can be trained to "AMPlify" one's brain. The AMPlifiers are Attention, Memory, and Processing. We use these amplifiers to highlight and organize all the information that comes through our eyes and ears every day. (You can read more about this on our web site here.)

Here are 10 common games and how they can be used to enhance the brain skills of attention, perception, discrimination, matching, scanning, sequencing, problem-solving and planning:

Building Attention Skills
Although nearly all games require a child to focus their attention, with a few games focusing one's attention is the primary focus of the game. Playing these types of games helps a child to develop their attention span and lessen their tendency to become distracted.

SLAPJACK is played with an ordinary deck of cards. Cards are turned over one at a time, and when a Jack is turned up, the first person who slaps the Jack card gets all the cards under the Jack. When the deck is gone, the person with the most cards wins.
UNO -- The goal is to use up all one's cards before anyone else does. It is similar to Crazy 8s in that it requires that cards be played that are either the same number or the same color as the top card in the discard pile. To increase the challenge, when a player is on the verge of winning, rules require that the player says "Uno!" to warn the other players that he or she has only one card left. If the player fails to say "Uno!" he or she must take an additional card.

These card games reward vigilance and attention (to the number of cards in one's own and others' hands), attention to detail (color and number), and shifting attention among two salient dimensions -- color and number -- and the number of cards held by oneself and the other players.

Building Skills of Perception
Perceptual skills are also addressed in most games directly or indirectly. These may include discrimination, matching, and scanning.

CANDYLAND is a game of chance rather than skills. However it requires the player to move pieces by perceiving a color card accurately, scanning the board for the next space of that color, and then moving the marker to that colored space.
CHECKERS requires discriminating red from black checkers and scanning the board to identify potential moves.
GRIDLOCK-In this game, the player must place pieces in a grid so that all the pieces fit, requiring that salient aspects of the pieces be accurately discriminated.

Building Sequencing Skills
Sequencing is required in a basic sense for most games, in that turn-taking occurs and moves take place in a specified sequence.

SCRABBLE, SOLITAIRE, SIMON, NUMBERS UP, and BOGGLE are all games that involve sequencing as a central requirement of the game. Each of these games requires players either to follow a specified sequence or to generate a sequence of their own.

Games Must Be Selected Appropriately

Learn-Play Blocks

The above are just a few examples of how games can be used for improving brain functioning. It is important to remember, however, that games should be selected based on a child's cognitive strengths, deficits, and interests, as well as what games are available.

The rules of a game may have to be modified to fit the situation. For instance, when playing Slapjack, the rule might be that any face card may be used as the target, rather than just the Jack. Players might be instructed to hold their hands in their lap, in order to reduce impulsive responding, and to verbalize the name of each card displayed.

For older children playing Scrabble, it can be wise to provide a dictionary as an external aid, and to eliminate double and triple scoring to decrease the challenge. However, the challenge level can also be increased, if desired, by adding a time limit.

So, choose your child's games wisely. But have fun!

Free Screening

The purpose of the screening is to do an initial assessment to determine if your child would be a good candidate for Brain Engineering programs where Dr. Florance herself will customize games and many other activities that are appropriate for your child's learning needs.

The screening is done by telephone and takes about 30 minutes.

To schedule a free screening, call or email:

Tia Zorne, Dr. Florance's assistant

1-866-865-9820 ext. 2 ~ tiazorne@cheriflorance.com

OR schedule the appointment yourself:

Click on the button below, select a day and time that's convenient, and Tia will call you then.

Thank you for reading. If your child has been diagnosed with symptoms related to a strong visual brain interfering with his or her ability to develop language skills, there is a good prognosis for your child becoming symptom-free through our programs.

I look forward to hearing from you.