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Games: A Great Way to Strengthen Executive Functioning Skills at ANY Age

9/16/2013

6 Comments

 
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When it comes to executive function skills, we must remember that we are not born with these skllls intact and ready to go. Instead, we have the potential to develop these very important, biologically based foundational skills for school and life readiness. As a child ages, they gain these very important skills as the pre frontal cortex of their brain matures and forms/connects neural pathways based upon experiences. As they approach adolescence, these connections are fine tuned and perfected. 

When scientists and therapists try to relate the research to more "user friendly" ways to improve Executive Function skills, they continue to come back to one area: play. Structured and unstrucured play continues to be one of THE best ways to form and strengthen Executive Function skills. 

It's my intention with this post to demonstrate how three common games can be used to help Executive Function skills form, strengthen and become perfected. 

Let's take a look at 3 games {one board game, one card game and one movement game}:


Checkers
Executive Function Skills Addressed: Impulse control, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, sustained attention, task initiation, working memory, planning, self-monitoring. 
Example of scaffolding technique for a parent/teacher: "If you move your checker there, I can double jump you. A better idea might be to move this piece."  This would be faded as the child began to scan the board and problem solve on their own.  

UNO {TM}
Executive Function Skills Addressed: Impulse control, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, sustained attention, working memory, self monitoring, planning. 
Example of scaffolding technique for a parent/teacher: "See how I played a reverse, skip and then a regular card? That helped me get rid of more cards and closer to UNO." This would be faded as the child began to ask questions of the adult or showed signs of strategy on their own.

Red Light Green Light
Executive Function Skills Addressed: Impulse control, emotional regulation, sustained attention, working memory, self monitoring and cognitive flexibility {change the rules and use a "yellow light" for walking}.
Example of scaffolding technique for a parent/teacher: Parent/teacher can physically move with a child who is having difficulty with the rules. Then, physical support may be faded to only a visual signal to indicate go/stop. 


Your assignment this week...PLAY a game with your kids. 

What games do you like to play with your students or kiddos? Tell me in the comments. 


Jennifer

P.S Would you like to learn more about how games can help with organizational and academic skills? Sign up for my newsletter. 













6 Comments
Anna @authenticparenting link
9/17/2013 05:29:07 am

Hi Jen,
Recently I stumbled upon your blog and I like what you do. Good work!
We love to plays games with my 5 year old. Checkers is one of her favorite. I would also recommend Color Code for the purposes of logic and executive function skill development.

Reply
Jennifer link
9/17/2013 06:13:58 am

Thanks for reading and the kind words! Love the suggested game and will be checking that out.

Reply
Robin link
9/17/2013 10:49:27 am

Great post! Uno is one of the Lunch Buddies favorites. It's all in the game. Looking forward to the Game Guide to give us more ideas.

Reply
Jennifer Hatfield link
9/17/2013 11:40:47 am

HI Robin! Thanks so much for stopping by and your comment. I LOVE UNO and since I've been writing the game guides...my daughter and I have been playing it a lot! It's been fun for both of us. Glad you're liking the sound of the "Game Guides."

Reply
Anna @ authenticparenting link
9/18/2013 06:09:16 am

Jen,
A while ago I have written a post about games and toys. Have a look.
Thanks.
http://www.authenticparent.org/2013/06/how-to-choose-toys.html

Reply
Jennifer link
9/18/2013 10:39:50 am

Hi Anna! Thanks for stopping by again. I loved your post and couldn't agree more about making sure that there is a balance of good old fashioned "play" and technology. There is much to be said for technology and our kiddos w/special needs-it's often the hook and mode we need for them BUT we need to make sure that there is BALANCE in our child's play. :)

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