Notice: Open House dates April 29, 2023 and May 27, 2023 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm by appointment only. Please call or email the school to secure an appointment.

7 Interesting Brain Development Games for Toddlers

The first five years of a child’s life are the foundation of their future health, growth and development, both physical and mental. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to jumpstart their brain development by engaging them in fun activities.

To that end, we’ve come up with some interesting brain improvement games that are more productive than watching TV or playing video games.

Indoor Games for Toddlers That Help in Brain Development

Fun Indoor Games for Toddlers That Help in Brain Development

The learning experiences your child has during the early years of their life have a tremendous impact on the development of their brains and health. The best way to stimulate their brain development is to engage them in interesting games and activities.

1) Building Blocks

This timeless game is one of the most basic yet most efficient brain development tools for kids since it helps them understand size, shape, weight and balance. It also helps develop their problem solving, math skills, and language and literacy while building their self-esteem, improving concentration and increasing their attention span. You can start with blocks that have basic colours and shapes and then gradually progress with more complex building blocks.

2) Puzzles

Puzzles are a great brain game for preschoolers as it teaches them the concept of a ‘whole’ and that each piece is part of a bigger picture. This fantastic learning game stimulates their brain and helps them with spatial awareness, shape recognition, patience, concentration, goal setting, and hand-eye coordination. That’s why it’s a common game in the curriculums of Montessori schools and preschools

3) Mazes

This traditional game is a clever way to boost your kid’s brain while having fun. It enhances logical reasoning, problem solving abilities and improves fine motor skills. When a child tries to find a way through the mazes, they stimulate their brain for faster thinking and scanning. This game also helps boost confidence, patience, and persistence.

4) Match the Following

Matching cards or ‘match the following’ games are excellent tools that positively contribute to the development of your toddler’s memory and ability to compare.

There are many forms of this game. Examples include matching animals or flowers with their names, or matching pairs like a teacup with a teapot and rain with an umbrella. This will boost their memory, help them understand the world around them, and improve their ability to find similarities and differences between objects. Matching and sorting activities also develop fine motor skills.

5) Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is a fun and engaging activity that allows kids to practice problem solving in a tangible way. It helps strengthen concepts they’ve learnt and act out methods they have been taught by their parents or preschool teachers in a physical way.

A scavenger hunt is a good exercise that keeps your toddler active and encourages retention of basic lessons, like teamwork, social interaction and creativity. You can customize it to include your toddler’s favourite animation movie characters.

If your toddler loves rhymes or poems, incorporate clues in rhyme form. Or if your little one is a math lover, give the next clue when they solve number problems. There are many possibilities when it comes to a scavenger hunt.

6) Role-Playing

Teacher-student and doctor-nurse games are an effective tool to boost children’s creativity and imagination. You can support your toddler’s learning and brain development by playing with them if they don’t have a sibling. Role-playing games aid in:

  • Developing language and communication skills;
  • Encouraging children to express their ideas;
  • Developing social skills by collaborating with other children;
  • Encouraging children to make sense of real-life situations.

7) Find That Thing

This toddler game is an easy and interesting way to introduce your little one to their surroundings, sharpen their brain, increase their attention to detail and train their visual memory. You can play this game at home with the help of flashcards, images or objects. For example, show your toddler an image of a toy car, ball or flower and ask them to find it for you. This helps in object recognition and improving vocabulary, along with other cognitive abilities.

These creative, everyday learning activities might seem basic but go a long way towards encouraging cognitive and language development in toddlers. The best thing about these games is that your child can play them indoors. They’re also productive as well as fun.

If you want to learn more fun games to keep toddlers engaged and boost their learning abilities, contact our experienced preschool teachers in Markham.