Board games for kids: Do they have educational benefits?
© 2009-2012 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
The benefits of board games for kids? Some are obvious. Kids savor playing them, and lath games are opportunities for families to play together.
In add-on, social scientists have argued that games teach lessons about getting along with others (Kamii and DeVries 1980; Zan and Hildebrandt 2005).
For case, games may encourage kids to
- consider the concept of rules
- do following rules
- reason about moral bug
When kids play with older office models they can learn something else, too: How to win—and lose—with grace and good manners (Gobet et al 2004).
So there are the possible intellectual benefits.
Many board game–including the classics, like chess, become, and various mancala games –encourage players to
- notice patterns
- plan ahead
- predict the outcome of alternative moves
- larn from experience
Merely are gaming skills relevant in the real world? It depends.
Enquiry about board games for kids
Some board games reward logical reasoning.
For example, the game of Clue (see beneath) can be used as a tool to teach deductive logic (Neller et al 2006).
And the game Mastermind has been used to test the aptitude of higher students for computer programming (Lorenzen and Chang 2006).
Still, we can't assume that playing lath games volition brand kids amend students.
Studies suggest that skilful chess players are better at recognizing and remembering certain configurations of chess pieces. Merely chess experts aren't necessarily whatever better at recognizing patterns in other contexts (Gobet and Campitelli 2006).
And while chess players tend to be more intelligent than not-chess players, the correlation may reverberate self-selection: Smarter people may exist more than probable to play chess (Gobet and Campitelli 2006).
What we need are rigorous experiments. We demand kids to exist randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. We need students and teachers to exist kept ignorant of the purpose of the experiment. And we need to test students before and after the intervention.
Equally noted past Fernand Gobet and Guillermo Campitelli, very few studies of chess meet these standards. And the situation for board games in full general isn't much better. Just here are some exceptions:
• Chess. In one study of kids with learning disabilities, researchers assigned students to receive either 5 hours of math instruction each week OR iv hours of math and 1 60 minutes of chess instruction each week. The kids were tested at the start of the school yr and once more at the end. The students who'd received chess lessons showed more improvement in bones math skills like counting and improver (Scholtz et al 2008).
• Number-line board games for kids. In 2 independent experiments, some preschoolers were assigned to play "number line" board games—-i.eastward., games in which players move game pieces through a series of sequentially-numbered spaces. Before and after the intervention, the kids were given several math tasks. Whereas kids in command groups experienced no improvement, the kids who had played numerical board games had adult superior math skills.
• Mastermind. Studies using the game Mastermind, have yielded mixed results. When college students were assigned to play the game, they experienced improvements in their critical thinking skills, making fewer errors of reasoning (Woods and Stewart 1987). But a written report of 7th and 8th graders failed to find any similar furnishings (Bright et al 1983).
So it seems that — at least sometimes — lath game skills have translated into academic skills.
Why aren't the effects more obvious and consistent?
It could exist that there are no effects — that the reported links between board game practice and real-life skills reverberate statistical flukes.
But given that a successful game thespian must acquire to command her impulses, follow the rules, and reverberate, it makes sense that gaming experience might interpret into improve functioning on academic tasks that require focus and cocky-control.
It also makes sense that games designed to give kids practice in specific subject area areas — like number sense — would foster transferable skills.
Perhaps, so, the problem is that merely playing a game isn't enough. Intellectual breakthroughs are required.
For instance, some kids need to realize that they can improve their performance with practice.
When people think of problem-solving ability every bit a talent or a gift, they take fewer chances and don't learn as well from their ain mistakes.
By adopting a different view–i.e., that trouble solving is something we acquire–kids may better develop their analytical abilities.
Maybe, too, kids need coaching about metacognition. They demand to become witting of their own tactics and consider about why they piece of work (or fail to work).
Many players may fail to make these breakthroughs on their own. Mayhap, then, kids will reap the most cognitive benefits when lath games are part of full general plan for teaching math, logic, and critical thinking skills.
Board games + metacognition = improve critical thinking?
Past all means, allow kids play board games because they are fun. Simply–at least in one case in a while–adults can requite kids something to recollect about, too.
Research strongly suggests that kids become better learners when they believe that intelligence is malleable.
And studies evidence that kids acquire more when they attempt to explain their reasoning processes.
So nosotros might make board games a more powerful learning tool if nosotros teach kids that problem-solving ability is like a muscle: It can be strengthened with practise and learning.
And kids might brand more than improvements if we encourage them to explain their tactics or the tactics they see others employ.
Kids don't explicate themselves unless they are prodded
When researcher David Reid watched 2nd graders play Mastermind and Connect Four in the classroom, he noticed that kids never asked each other to explain their reasoning–even when they were teammates making suggestions to each other.
The teacher played a crucial role. She was the simply person asking players to explain their choices(Reid 2002).
Kids do good from lessons in disquisitional thinking
As kids get older, nosotros might also use board games as part of program of teaching critical thinking skills.
Why?
We know that middle school students can make substantial improvements in problem-solving ability–even general IQ–when they are taught general principles of critical thinking (Hernnstein et al 1986).
If board games are used in conjunction with lessons on hypothesis testing, bones logic, and other topics, they may offer kids of import ways to practice their general reasoning skills.
Lath games for kids: Which ones to play?
So it seems to me that board games really are worth playing. Which ones? I've already mentioned several good bets: Chess, mancala, Mastermind, and Clue (too called "Cluedo").
All of these games are pure strategy. No luck involved–not if yous play them right.
For case, opens in a new windowClue is a game of deductive logic.
Close-upwards on Clue
The game begins with three cards existence hidden from view. The rest of the card deck is distributed amidst the players, who keep their cards to themselves. Each of the cards depict a unique weapon, room, or character. The object of the game is to deduce the identity of the three subconscious cards by
(1) eliminating the cards in your own hand, and
(2) eliminating the cards in your competitors' hands
And the challenge is that y'all don't accept full admission to your competitors' hands. Players then have turns making preliminary suggestions nigh the identity of the hidden cards, e.g., "I suggest that Miss Scarlet was murdered in the kitchen by the candlestick."
At each proffer, all the players must run into if they tin can disprove the suggestion because they hold one of the cards in question. If they do, they show the card(southward) to the person who fabricated the proffer.
The showing is kept private (i.e., only the person who fabricated the suggestion is allowed to see the card). Only everyone benefits from the knowledge that at least one of the suggested cards can be eliminated.
By taking good notes and making valid inferences, players can eventually deduce the correct identity of the hidden cards. That's why Clue has been used to teach propositional logic and estimator programming to college students (Neller et al 2006).
Other board games for kids with educational applications
Monopoly has been used to teach higher students financial principles (Shaklin and Ehlen 2007). Scrabble has been used to reinforce verbal skills. And inquiry suggests that games like Chutes and Ladders may aid kids develop a strong sense of the number line.
I likewise like the Sum Swamp Add-on and Subtraction Game, which requires kids to practise basic arithmetic.
More inquiry-based information well-nigh board games for kids
For details about the effects of math games on preschoolers, run into my article about mathematical board games for kids.
In addition, you lot might want to bank check out these research-inspired math games and activities for preschoolers.
References: Research near board games for kids
Bright GW. 1983. Use of a Game to Instruct on Logical Reasoning. School Science and Mathematics 83(5): 396-405.
Gobet F and Campetelli Yard. 2006. Educational benefits of chess instruction: A critical review. In T Redman (Ed): Chess and education: Selected essays from the Koltanowski conference (pp. 124-143). Dallas, TX: Chess Program at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Gobet F, de Voogt A and Retschitzki J. 2004. Moves in heed: The psychology of lath games. Psychology Printing.
Franklin Southward, Peat M and Lewis A. 2003. Not-traditional interventions to stimulate word: the use of games and puzzles. Journal of Biological Educational activity 3(2): 79-84.
Herrnstein RJ, Nickerson RS, Sanchez M and Swets JA. 1986. Pedagogy thinking skills. American Psychologist 41: 1279-1289.
Kamii C and DeVries R. 1980. Group games in early education: Implications of Piaget'southward theory. Washington, DC: National Clan for the Educational activity of Young Children.
Lorenzen T and Chang HL. 2006. MasterMind©: a predictor of estimator programming aptitude ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 38(ii): 69 – 71.
Neller T, Markov Z, and Russell I. 2006. Clue Deduction: Professor Plum Teaches Logic, Proceedings of the 19th International FLAIRS Conference (FLAIRS-2006), Melbourne Beach, Florida, May 11-13, 2006, pp. 214-219.
Reid D. 2002. Describing reasoning in early simple schoolhouse mathematics. Teaching Children Mathematics. December 2002: 234-237.
Shanklin and Ehlen. 2007. Using the Monopoly board game as an in-course economic simulation in the introductory financial accounting grade. Journal of higher teaching and learning 4(11): 65-71.
Smith J and Muzzle B. 2000. The effects of chess instruction on the mathematics achievement of Southern, rural, Black secondary students. Inquiry in the Schools 7: xix-26.
Woods LE and Stewart PW. 1987. Improvement of applied reasoning skills with a computer game. Periodical of computer-based instruction14(ii) 49-53.
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