Fun games for developing brains | Integrated Learning Therapy

If you’re a savvy parent who doesn’t allow children to turn instantly to screens for their entertainment in free time, sometimes it is useful to suggest games to play. Movement games are beneficial because, apart from being fun, they help to ensure that important brain areas and motor skills are developed.

Remember that not all movement is beneficial – if disorganised, rapid movements were to result in efficient brain ‘wiring’, our hyperactive children would be amazingy capable!

This post will suggest some bilateral movements.

Bilateral movements involve both sides of the body working simultaneously. They are usually seen early on in life. When our babies learn to clap their hands together they are showing the development of these movements. After learning to use both hands simultaneously, the feet learn to work together, allowing us to jump. The whole body becomes involved when we do jumping jacks. These movements are natural movements and good to start with because they come easily and naturally to most children. The ability to use both sides of the body in gross motor tasks plays a great part in developing the young child’s brain.

Jumping to the four winds: The child, on your call, jumps with both feet forwards, sideways and backwards (while facing forwards). Encourage fluid body movements. You can introduce the concept of North, South, East, West if you like, or use Left and Right if you want to reinforce directionality.
Half a caterpillar: This movement is done to four counts. (a) The child places her hands on the floor; (b) she pushes (or walks) her feet out until she is resting her weight on her straight arms with her legs straight out behind her (with their weight resting on the toes); (c) she brings her feet back to her hands on the floor; (d) she transfers weight to her feet, raises her torso and stands up with hands on hips. Repeat.
Stepping stones: For this, you need some ‘stepping stones’ which you can make by taping sheets of paper (or plastic, or carpet squares) on the carpet, tiled floor or area outside. (a) The child jumps from one square to the next with both feet in the same square. Encourage body control and balance and work towards the child being able to land on both feet together. You should hear a single sound when the child lands, rather than two sounds following. (b) The child jumps with right foot in right square and left foot in left square. (c) The child jumps with right foot in right square and left foot in left square backwards. (d) The child moves from square to square with a double jump in each square. Try jumping with your child, if necessary holding his hand. Call out: “Big jump, little mump, big jump, little jump” etc. You might want to jump to the next square on a ‘big jump’ and then jump in the square for the ‘little jump’. (e) The child does a double jump backwards and continues to the end of the squares. Make sure that both feet land on each square at the same time.
Big balloons: (a) Hold your child’s hands (or have children hold hands in a circle) and huddle very closely together. Start blowing up the balloon and blow and blow and blow until your imaginary balloon is fully inflated and you and the child(ren) are further apart, with arms outstretched and raised. Have the child pop the balloon by calling out “POP”, causing the ‘balloon’ to shrink back to its original, deflated size. (b) The child becomes a single balloon and you blow him up with a puff, puff, puff until he is light and airy. Then POP him, and he deflates, becoming a crumpled heap on the floor.
Jumping game: Chant (or sing) the following words, having the child follow along with the movements:

‘Big jump, little jump, turn around.

‘Big jump, little jump, touch the ground.

‘Big jump, little jump, give your legs a slap.

‘Big jump, little jump, give the ground a clap.

‘Big jump, little jump, put your hands in your lap.

Other movements can be added to the above list. Think of Jumping Jacks, learning to Hula Hoop, skipping rope and so on. These are all excellent developmental movements.

Image supplied by Freepik.

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.