For the longest time, parents have depended on games to help their children in developing soft skills. It facilitates parent-child interaction as they educate and push their children’s core skills, helping kids to master their important foundational skills.
Memory games for the brain aren’t just for lazy parents! No way, no how. Memory games for kids are just as vital as crossword puzzles for adults.
Consider how hard growing brains are working. They have a lot of new routes to build, emotions to manage, and new experiences to process. I don’t claim to be a child development specialist, but I know that when my kids lose control, a simple brain activity like a memory game or kids’ matching game may frequently bring them back under control.
The Benefits of Memory Games For Kids
Memory games, in general, improve working memory. Working memory is information stored in your brain that you can access immediately. A good working memory allows you to retain and apply knowledge, such as solving a math problem in your head or recalling the names of people you’ve just met.
Kids with good working memories can concentrate on activities and remember information correctly. As a result, they can follow instructions with several components, learn information in their mind, and then use their knowledge in a variety of different and fresh situations.
All of these abilities have an impact on children’s cognitive development and learning ability, both as kids and throughout their lives.
At What Age Can Kids Start Playing Memory Games?
Working memory skills enable kids to access all areas of learning. When youngsters find it easy to study, they feel better about themselves and their ability to learn. As a result, having strong working memory abilities can be revolutionary, creating a solid basis for your child’s educational path.
Playing memory games with kids as young as three years old is beneficial, as most children at this age can concentrate for a somewhat longer amount of time and take turns.
Most games can be simplified if your kid has difficulty with them at first.
Memory Games for Kids
- The Picture Recall Test
What you will need:
- A pen
- A sheet of paper
- A photograph that contains images of people or several things.
How to play:
Allow your kid to look at a photo (for example, scenery) for 10 seconds. Then, have her recall and write down all the people or items she observed in the picture. Once she’s finished, compare her list to the photo to see how many items she remembered from the pictures.
- Sorting Game
What you will need:
- A pack of cards
How to play:
Arrange a deck of cards in a specific order, face up. Allow your child a few seconds to look at them. Then, shuffle the cards and ask him to re-arrange them in the same sequence as you did. Check how closely the order corresponds to yours.
- Poetry fun
What you will need:
- A pen
- A few scraps of paper
How to play:
Request that your child remembers a poem. Next, write the poem’s lines on separate slips of paper. Rearrange them. Request that your kid rearranges the lines to complete the poem.
4. Cacophony Time
What you will need:
- A pen
- A piece of paper
How to play:
Record various sounds (vehicle horn blare, sparrow chirp, church bell gong, water running from the faucet, etc.) and play them back to your child. Allow him to hear it first. Then have him write down what he hears. Look at how many he got right.
5. Hide and seek
What you will need:
Several random objects
- A cloth
- A pen
- A piece of paper
How to play:
Put a pen, a notebook, crayons, a bottle, vegetables, a bowl, and so on on a table. Request that your child looks at the objects for 30 seconds. Then drape a towel over the objects so he/she can’t see them. Now, ask her to write down the names of everything he/she sees on the table.
- Playing the guide
How to play:
Take your child somewhere he hasn’t been before. As you walk to the location, have your child memorize the landmarks. On the walk back, have your child point out the landmarks.
- Word chain
How to play:
This could be a simple party game. Begin the game with the line, “I like ice cream.” The first child then says, “I like ice cream and bananas.” The second child says, “I like ice cream, bananas, and waffles.” This must continue until one of the children forgets some of the items on the list.
- Photographic memory
What you will need:
An old family album
How to play:
With your kid, go through an old family album. As your child examines each photograph, explain to her the names of the people in the photographs and how they are related to her. As you turn through the pages, you can describe amusing anecdotes and unusual situations. Close the album and ask your child some fun questions to help her remember the folks you pointed out to her. “What’s the name of the grandmother who kept looking for her spectacles even though she was wearing them all along?”
9. Backward spell
What you will need:
A chart with a list of words in it
How to play:
Display a list of words on a graph. Allow your toddler to gaze at the words for a few seconds. The chart should then be rolled up. Allow her to recall the words and try to spell them backward. For example, for the word’station,’ she will have to spell – N O I T A T S.
- Matching pair
What you will need:
A deck of playing cards
How to play:
Face down a deck of playing cards on a table. The aim would be to find a matching pair (for example, two 10s, two 7s, etc.). If the pair does not match, the player must return the cards to their original positions, face down. All players should remember where the specific cards have been placed so that when it is their turn, they can simply pick a matching card.
And here’s a fun word-building game to keep you entertained.
Conclusion
There are several memory games for kids to increase memory quickly, whether offline or online, onboard or off-board, and they will all be beneficial with constant training and coaching.
It is preferred if parents participate in the training process as well because children feel more connected and protected with their parents, making them more confident and open to the process. It also helps in the connection between mothers and children. Memory games for children are a wonderful approach to improving children’s soft skills, supporting them in indirectly creating a better foundation for practicing crucial basic abilities at school or in their daily life.
