How do these games help in developing a child's intelligence?

How do these games help in developing a child's intelligence?

A new study has found that number-based board games such as Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders and Dominoes can help improve young children's mathematical abilities.

Researchers in Chile have encouraged further studies to see how these types of games can enhance other developmental skills, according to the New Atlas website, citing Early Years.

Mathematics and skills

Previous studies have shown the benefits to children of playing games in terms of enhancing social skills, reading and literacy. Recently, researchers from Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile studied how board games affect children's mathematical abilities.

The researchers chose board games specifically because they are based on rules, and movements and changes in the position of pieces on the board affect the overall gameplay. As such, they fall into the category of special games, which are different from games of skill and action.

3 to 9 years old

The researchers also reviewed 19 studies, published from 2000 onwards, that included children ages 3 to 9. All but one of the studies focused on the effects of board games on numerical ability and mathematical knowledge.

Studies that evaluated digital or physical games were excluded.

Basic competence and understanding of numbers

The children were grouped according to whether they were playing a board game that focused on arithmetic skills (the intervention group) or not (the control group). Mathematics performance was assessed before and after the intervention sessions. The researchers then ranked the children according to their mathematical abilities, from basic number competence (identifying and naming numbers) and basic number understanding (understanding number quantities, for example, 9 is greater than 3) to more advanced number understanding (addition and subtraction).

The researchers found that 32 percent of the children — nearly a third — in the intervention group showed significant improvement in basic and advanced math performance compared to those in the control group.

Growth skills and knowledge

The researchers say the results of their study show that board games can be used to improve a child's basic and complex math skills, with the potential to positively influence other developmental skills.

Jaime Balladres, the study's principal investigator, also explained, "Future studies should be designed to explore the effects these games can have on other cognitive and developmental skills."

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