Why Strategy Games Are So Beneficial for Children
Strategy games can stimulate children’s cognitive capacity, improve their attention and concentration, and bring many other benefits. So, what are the best games: online, traditional or board games?
The main benefits of strategy games lie in how they can develop our intelligence and mental agility. They amuse and entertain us and, over time, have become favorites of people of all ages around the world.
More strategy, more brain capacity
Strategy games help to improve brain abilities, skill and speed. They stimulate strategic thinking, increase our brain capacity and, as we said earlier, our mental agility.
With strategy games, you learn to make the right decisions to win battles or challenges in many different types of games. At the same time, this can help to prevent the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and senile dementia.
Children as strategists
In the case of children, strategy games can stimulate the simultaneous use of the two cerebral hemispheres. They provide them with challenges and different strategic situations that can be classified according to the child’s age.
These games improve conflict resolution. This is a skill that will be very important for children who, from a very young age, can learn to find solutions to their problems.
At the same time, children can learn to play out roles of fictional characters and differentiate them from real ones. They immerse themselves in worlds where they can train their memory and improve their capacity for observation.
As a result, this will enhance their attention span, improve their perseverance and promote strategic thinking.
Strategy games: Digital or traditional?
We can find a wide variety of strategy games, both digital and analog (traditional). You only have to search online portals or look through app stores – most of them free.
You can access them from tablets, phones, and computers – at any time and from anywhere. If you prefer more traditional options, there is also a wide variety of board and card games that kids will enjoy learning.
An effective educational tool
Strategy games are important for children’s learning and integral development. They allow them to evaluate and decide on the tactics they need to follow. In addition to that, they help them to explore and consider new worlds and to reach a final goal.
When children play strategy games, it helps to awaken their physical, sensory and mental skills, as well as their imagination. It also helps them form part of a team, enhances their memory, and enables them to get to know their own capacities and limits.
The player has many different options available to him: he can explore, create his own worlds and characters, and discover how things work in these individual worlds. In addition to this, strategy games become an effective tool for a child’s learning and intellectual growth.
Strategy games help improve brain abilities, skill and speed.
Traditional strategy games
In addition to gaming consoles and tablets, there are traditional (sometimes referred to as “analog”) games that are equally entertaining for people of all ages and which can enhance their attention span and strategic skills in the same way.
These games allow children to express their feelings through the different situations that occur during the game. These include excitement, happiness, but also frustration.
Being able to approach things from a logical point of view, as in the digital domain, is another benefit of this easy, safe and fun way of learning while playing.
Structure, elements and themes
Strategy games can be divided into different types, according to their structure, elements and theme. There are games of chance, mathematics, strategic, tactical or operational games, and in each type you can either play individually or in groups and teams.
As for elements, these can be divided into games that use letters, cards, figures, boards, playing pieces, and video games. In addition, there are also abstract and thematic games, military or war scenarios, as well as many other options you can consider.
The most popular strategy games
- Jungle Speed is a traditional (or manual) strategy game recommended for children between 9 and 11 years old. It stimulates their attention and the ability to respond.
- Catan is another traditional/manual game, ideal for children between 12 and 16 years of age. The player has to build cities and towns with the resources that he acquires, using different cards in each round.
- Dobble: This is a game aimed at children from three years of age. It’s made up of five mini-games, and the goal is to find the common object among the cards that are in play.
- Three in a row (Tic Tac Toe): This is available as a free app on Android, mobile and tablet devices. It offers several levels of difficulty so that the whole family can enjoy it.
- Wikiduca’s educational card game: This is a manual game which stimulates children’s strategic thinking. It improves their cognitive development and memory skills. It’s also a game that’s intrinsically linked to the IQ.
- Conquering the Pirate Island: This is a free app for Android. Users become soldiers fighting against pirates that live on a remote island. They must be shot at using cannons, and the players have to decide the angle and power of the shot.
As you’ll have seen, strategy games have many varied benefits. They can be found in all sorts of formats, and on many different types of devices. And, above all, they’re great fun and great learning tools. Let’s play!