One day your child will start school and you will probably want him to outdo his peers. For these reasons and more, it is imperative that you improve and strengthen your child’s brain functions to help prepare him for school and the challenges of the world outside. Brain function incorporates creativity, memory, and learning, social interactions, emotions and planning.
Here are a few activities to help you get started in improving your child’s brain function. These activities are not only designed to assist you in enhancing his/her brain functions but will also result in productive utilization of his/her time. Before you move forward, remember that these activities will help in reducing his/her screen time in the digitalized world of today. A minimization of screen time will itself improve a child’s health by improving his/her sleeping pattern and making him/her more focused and reduce eye-strain which is otherwise suffered through constant exposure to screens.
1. BOARD GAMES :
First and foremost of these activities include encouraging your child to engage in board games. Board games could range from Monopoly to Scrabble, to Chess to Catan, and to Snakes and Ladders. Board games require thinking and planning out one’s moves ahead of time and predicting the opponent’s moves which will only benefit in enhancing a child’s decision making and planning skills, and then consequently his brain function concurrently teaching him to discern patterns. Additionally, board games strengthen logical, problem solving and reasoning skills and when played with friends, they can help build up their social skills while simultaneously promoting an interactive surrounding.
Over and above that, board games also introduce a child to the notion of triumph and loss. It stirs up the competition, pushes them towards achieving their goals while also teaching them the value of defeat when faced with tough challenges. Board games always come with instructions; the advantage of which is that, it acquaints children with the concept of rules and implications of not following them. All of these benefits will together improve a child’s brain function by elevating their creativity, social, planning and analyzing skills.
2. PLAY CARDS :
Playing card games like UNO, Go Fish and Bluff or Match-card games enhance creative thinking that same way marijuana can. Those who consume marijuana are quicker in making associations, and this similar effect is also created by card games, check it out. Playing card games enhance letter and color recognition while boosting eye-hand coordination.
3. VISUALIZATION :
While it is significant to push your child to read more, one way of making it more beneficial is to involve reading loudly consequently enhancing memory. Moreover, abetting your child to create a mental picture of what he/she read will stimulate their mind and encourage them to create stories of their own, elevating their creativity skills. Furthermore, familiarizing a child to visualization can also help them achieve their goals. According to research at John Hopkins University that includes cancer patients, the mind has a powerful effect on the body. In one study, researchers gave placebo medication to patients who were told it was chemotherapy. Those on placebo reacted as if they were really on chemotherapy: they became nauseated and their hair fell out. In another study, others were given chemotherapy but instructed on how to vividly imagine the medicine as an ally in their fight against the disease. These patients were able to reduce the usual unpleasant side effects. This study proves to show that while improving the brain function, visualization can bring children closer to achieving their set goals.
4. COOKING :
Teach your children some basic cooking according to their age. While cooking can be a fun- filled experience, it can also help improve brain power. When kids watch the ongoing activities in a kitchen, they start to grab the basics of simple tasks including but not limited to mixing, stirring, and pouring. Naming ingredients or recipes aloud coupled with the sounds of a sizzling plan can enhance their senses, and then making it a stimulating experience. The step-by-step procedure followed during cooking teaches children sequencing in creating a finished product, thus boosting brain functions in more ways than one.
5. OBSTACLE COURSE GAMES :
Using cushions and sofas, you can create a series of physical challenges and barriers that your child has to get through while being timed. Not only is this an amusing recreation but will also help improve cognitive and problem-solving skills, and make them learn to strategize and pace accordingly. Similar activities to this also include dancing which is yet another opportunity for motor skills to grow. Research has concluded that children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities can significantly gain from aforementioned movement activities. Click here.
