In this digital age children’s lives are very much tied to a screen. A great way to take advantage of this is through educational games.
These games can be a fantastic way to enhance learning and development in your child. Games are a great way to reinforce academic concepts, foster creativity and encourage problem solving skills in your child.
However, there are so many options available choosing the right educational game for your child can be very daunting indeed. In this post, you’re going to see exactly how you can go about selecting educational games that are fun and beneficial to your child’s growth.
Understanding the Benefits of Educational Games
There are many benefits that you can get from educational games, not the least of which is cognitive development for your child. Educational games enhance cognitive skills such as logical thinking memory and attention to details.
For example, puzzle games often require children to recognize patterns and use problem solving skills in order to advance.
Learning Reinforcement
Many educational games are designed to enforce the subjects that your child learns in school. You’re going to find that many of them will help to reinforce concepts in language arts, science and math.
By providing practice in a format that is fun, these games are going to help your child to retain what they have learned and this can only increase their test score and overall performance in school.
Motivation and Engagement
Motivation and engagement are two of the many benefits that your child will get from educational games. The interactive nature of games can motivate your child to learn. Traditional methods can make learning boring for children but games provide practice in a very light-hearted and fun format that can help your child to retain what they have learned.
Skill Development
Educational games take your child beyond academics. They can promote a variety of other skills including social skills especially when your child has to play with others.
In many cases games can also encourage strategic thinking and build hand-eye coordination as well. It’s also great for encouraging creativity because children are encouraged to build, create and design on the fly using their imagination.
This can be beneficial for problem solving and innovation in real life situations that they may face.
Things to Consider When Choosing Educational Games
Age Appropriateness
The next important thing you’re going to need to do is to make sure that the game is appropriate for your child.
Be vigilant about making sure the content is suitable, manageable yet stimulating at the same time. The last thing you want to do is bring frustration into your child’s life from an activity that should be fun.
If the game you have not chosen is fun you’re not going to get your children to stick with it. Be ready for moaning and complaining to be the order of the day.
Educational Value
Consider the educational value of the game that you are selecting, this is very important as you need to choose games that have clear learning objectives that align with your child’s current interest as well as their needs. For instance, if your child is struggling with multiplication, focusing on math skills can be very beneficial to them at that particular time.
Alignment With the Curriculum
It’s always a good idea to choose games that are going to align with your child’s school curriculum. Games reinforce what is being taught in school at any given time and can provide a lot of additional practice and help consolidate your child’s learning in a big way.
For example, if your child is learning about ecosystems a game that stimulates a virtual environment could reinforce some of the concepts that they are learning. This is a good way to submit information in your child’s mind so that they can retain it when they need to for real life situations or for test taking.
Consider Engagement and Fun
The game you choose for your child should be an enjoyable one. If the game is too tedious and complex your child is likely to turn away from it and this will defeat the entire purpose of getting them to learn something.
Games that are both educational and fun at the same time will help your child maintain their motivation to learn. You should look for games that have graphics that are very engaging.
Have rewarded progression systems in place as well. This is how you’re going to keep your children highly engaged.
Skill Development
Skill development is also something that the games you are choosing should foster. In addition to adding academic knowledge educational games you should promote critical thinking, decision making, creativity as well as problem solving.
For example, when you’re choosing puzzle games you want to make sure that things such as spatial reasoning are taken into consideration while games like chess will improve planning and foresight skills in your child.
User-Friendliness
User friendliness is also something that you need to consider as well. The game should be easy to navigate for your child. Confusing instructions and complicated controls are just going to frustrate young children and distract from the learning experience.
Seek the games that have intuitive interfaces and are simple in nature.This will make them very effective educational tools for your child.
Feedback and Progress
Feedback and progress tracking. Good educational games are going to be great for providing feedback and tracking your child’s progress. If the games you are choosing do not have this feature then you should think twice about purchasing it.
When games give your child necessary feedback they will begin to understand what they are learning and what they need to improve on. Some games even give reports to parents allowing you to monitor your child’s progress and then adjust it accordingly.
You should also consider the safety and privacy of the game your child is playing as this is very important. Avoid games that require too much personal information or have chat functions because they may expose your child to the wrong people and inappropriate content as well. Look for games that come from reputable developers so that you do not have to break a sweat when it comes to your child’s safety.