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

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.