If you’re like me, you grew up playing a variety of games with your friends, family, and siblings.  I played Connect Four with my mom while I waited for the bus.  On snow days we always played Monopoly, a tradition I continued with my own family.  On warm summer evenings, we played baseball in our backyard.  Now we play games on most holiday get-togethers and do a puzzle on the occasional weekend. I also love to zone out and let my brain relax while playing a puzzle or matching game on my iPad.

Games serve many purposes; they are great icebreakers, they are entertaining, and create closer relationships.  They help us rewind and relax.  They often bring out one’s competitive side as my family witnessed this past Christmas when a large, red, plush ornament about three feet in circumference hung in the balance for the victor. What most people don’t realize, and what I am excited to share with you today, is that games can also make you smarter.

Remember when your mom would put broccoli in your macaroni and cheese to trick you into eating a vegetable?  Similarly, games secretly help us increase our critical thinking skills, teach us how to develop strategy and increase the neural connections in our brains.

When we learn a new game, our first task is to understand the rules.  Once we are comfortable with the rules, we (sometimes unconsciously) begin to develop a strategy.  We want to win.  Even if we are playing with a child and maybe we don’t want to win, we at least want to know we can win. We begin to visualize different plays, try out maneuvers, and form our defense.  This is critical thinking, when we objectively analyze a situation or event.  And did you notice I mentioned visualizing? Learning to visualize is a very valuable tool that increases our comprehension. Lastly, we are developing our understanding and comprehension of cause and effect by thinking through moves before we execute them.  This also hones our skills in thinking through decisions, which again is critical thinking.

Do you recall when we talked about Neuroplasticity in the last blog?  (If you don’t, go back to our website and read that one too.) Neuroplasticity is the use of repetition to develop and strengthen neural connections in our brains essentially…you guessed it, making us smarter!