Boost Your Child’s Brainpower: Executive Function Games
Summer is the perfect time to hone essential executive function skills through engaging games. Whether you’re looking to boost planning, organization, or decision-making abilities, these games offer fun ways to strengthen these crucial cognitive abilities while enjoying the sun-filled days.
What Are Executive Function Skills?
Executive function skills are mental processes that help children manage their behaviour, emotions, and thoughts to achieve goals. Key skills include:
Working Memory
Holding and using information in short-term memory (e.g., following multi-step instructions)
Cognitive Flexibility
Adapting to new situations and thinking about multiple concepts simultaneously (e.g., switching between tasks)
Self Control
Regulating impulses and emotions (e.g., waiting their turn and managing frustrations)
Response Inhibition
Thinking before acting and resisting the urge to perform inappropriate actions
Sustained Attention
Maintaining focus on a task or activity over an extended period
Task Initiation
Beginning tasks promptly and without procrastination
Planning and Prioritizing
Setting goals, determining the best steps to achieve them, and prioritizing tasks
Organization
Keeping track of information and materials to ensure tasks are completed efficiently
Time Management
Effectively managing time to meet deadlines and balance various responsibilities
Metacognition
Self-monitoring and evaluating performance and strategies to improve learning and problem-solving
Why Executive Function Skills Are Important
Developing these skills is crucial for several reasons:
Academic Success: Helps with organizing tasks, following instructions, and problem-solving, essential for school performance.
Social Skills: Improves interactions with peers and adults by managing emotions and handling conflicts effectively.
Life Skills: Essential for daily life management, long-term goal achievement, and professional success.
Behavioural Regulation: Enhances resilience and reduces the likelihood of behavioural issues by promoting emotional regulation and perseverance.
By fostering executive function skills, parents and guardians can help their children build a strong foundation for lifelong learning and success.
Games to Develop Executive Function Skills
Here are eleven board games that develop executive function skills in children ages five and up, along with the specific skills each game targets:
Ticket to Ride
Skills Developed: Planning, strategic thinking, working memory
Description: Players collect train cards to claim railway routes across a map. It requires planning and foresight to block opponents and complete the longest routes (The OT Toolbox) (The OT Toolbox).
Description: Players navigate an invisible maze to collect treasures, demanding recall of obstacle locations and strategy adjustment as the maze changes (The OT Toolbox).
Jump In’
Skills Developed: Problem-solving, planning
Description: A single-player game where players must navigate rabbits to their homes while avoiding foxes, enhancing planning and logical thinking skills (The OT Toolbox).
Description: Players take turns removing blocks from a tower and balancing them on top, demanding careful planning and control over actions (Understood).
Distraction
Skills Developed: Working memory, cognitive flexibility
Description: Players memorize a sequence of numbers and face interruptions that test their ability to recall the sequence under pressure (Understood).
Description: A card game adaptation of Monopoly where players collect property sets and money and use action cards to sabotage opponents, aiming to be the first to complete three property sets to win. It’s quick-paced and mixes strategy with a bit of luck.
These games are fun and help children practice and enhance executive function skills essential for their cognitive development and daily life management.
LDS is a community of dedicated professionals who write collaboratively. We recognize the contribution of unnamed team members for their wisdom and input.