A child’s brain is like a computer: you need to feed it with data to become more effective. You can do this by exposing your child to activities that will help them develop their brain’s capacity.
Here are eight examples of activities that can help improve your child’s brain every day:
- Learning Music
Good news for parents who want to give their child a boost: music lessons can help the brain develop in important ways.
Why? Some scientists believe that musical ability and language acquisition go hand in hand because they rely on several complex brain functions such as attention, memory, and emotional understanding. One study even found that kids who play a musical instrument did better in their verbal reasoning tests.
Music also improves the child’s motor skills. Taking guitar lessons, for example, requires more than simply listening to the sounds of music. It also involves finger dexterity and coordination, multitasking between different systems, and, of course, listening. When these skills are improved by playing an instrument, they can help enhance math abilities, reading skills, and even self-esteem.
- Being Creative
Artistic experiences can boost connectivity in parts of the brain that are also used for language and reasoning, research shows, which could pave the way for better problem-solving skills later on. Creativity further offers the following benefits:
- It improves the child’s memory.
- Creativity is associated with a decreased risk of degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
- It allows the child to cope more easily with stress and frustration.
Children can express their arts in many ways. They can paint, dance, act, draw, write, or sing. They can also make handmade gifts for their family.
- Getting Enough Sleep
How does sleep improve a child’s brain? Researchers don’t yet know exactly which areas of the brain are most affected by sleep. But they do know that memory, attention, and decision-making skills (all important aspects of learning) likely rely on a good night’s rest.
Studies have shown that children who get more sleep tend to perform better in school. Their memories also tend to improve, and they are better able to read other people’s emotions.
How do you make sure your child gets enough sleep each day? Here are a few tips:
- Establish a bedtime routine.
- Make sure the child’s bedroom is dark (and quiet!). The hormone melatonin, which helps regulate sleep cycles, is made in darkness.
- Before bedtime, don’t let your child use electronic devices (such as TV, smartphones, or tablets). These emit blue light that can affect the production of melatonin.
- Use block-out curtains.
- Engaging in Physical Exercise
When it comes to brain development, physical activity is key for growing children and their parents because it helps improve many cognitive functions, including the following:
- Physical activity boosts memory.
- It also enhances the ability to learn new skills.
- It increases brain volume in areas related to memory, language, decision-making, and self-control.
- Physical exercise has been found to boost academic performance in school kids from prekindergarten through high school.
- It can even help students with varying abilities resolve conflicts, improve their social skills, and reduce anxiety.
Encourage your children to play games that require them to be active, such as tag or hide-and-seek. Or you could do sports together, like swimming or hiking.
- Socializing with Others
Social interactions in early life can help your little one sharpen important skills for academic success, research has found. As children interact with their peers, they learn to take turns speaking and begin trying to understand other people’s perspectives.
Studies have shown that socializing boosts the brain development of children in many ways. When your child interacts with others, their brain releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins that could motivate your child to be more social.
The experience increases the size of certain areas of the cortex, which are involved in reasoning and decision-making skills. This can help enhance your child’s academic performance at school.
- Playing with Puzzles
Puzzles are good for brain development. According to research studies, puzzles for children should, among other things, develop the following skills: attention span, thinking abilities, planning skills, concentration skills, working memory capacity, logical-mathematical intelligence, understanding of spatial relationships, and understanding of abstract concepts.
Puzzles also improve problem-solving skills and teach children how to deal with errors in a productive way. This helps them become more confident when tackling new problems.
- Reading
Reading is an important activity for brain development in children. It can improve your child’s vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading speed, memory skills, and mental imagery.
Studies have found that when children are helped to read during their early years at school, they are more likely to develop better memory skills that they will use throughout their lives.
So let your child read to you every day. When reading together, ask open-ended questions that encourage your child to think about what they are hearing. It will help develop their reasoning skills.
- Reaching for the Stars
How does astronomy improve a child’s brain? Scientists have long known that stargazing can do more than inspire awe: it benefits mental health and well-being.
Reading books about space and looking up at the stars gives kids an opportunity to get inspired by what they see in front of them instead of just staring down at their screens. It also helps them exercise their spatial reasoning skills.
The problem is, most people don’t get enough exposure to the shining night sky. You can improve that by taking your child to a planetarium or a stargazing event.
Parents play a great role in developing their children’s cognitive skills because they help stimulate the child’s mind in many ways, such as exposing them to educational games like puzzles, reading books about space, and looking at the night sky. Thus, parents should make time to take their children to or encourage them to do these activities.
Meta title: Activities that Enrich Children’s Brains
meta desc: There are many ways to help your child’s brain become more effective. In this article, discover eight everyday activities that will teach new skills to your kids.
