With children spending more time on screens, often interacting with entertainment and digital content, parents are concerned about how it will affect their mental development. 

Yes, that’s quite an issue! So, why not influence your kids to play word games so that they can learn vocabulary and develop their cognitive abilities?

Not only I’m saying that, but according to the latest study conducted at Kiwalan Nation High School reveals that word games could be a significant resource for kids (students) in enhancing their vocabulary and learning skills.

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Benefits of Word Games in Early Childhood Education

Now that you have learned that word games play an important role in improving kids’ vocabulary let’s discuss the benefits:

Language Development

For early childhood, learning a native language is important, and that can only be done with the right approaches. For instance, normally, the child’s parents taught them words like ‘mama/mom,’ ‘papa/dad,’ ‘hi,’ ‘hello,’ etc. 

Besides, the typical age at which to send a child to school is around 5 to 6 years, but in that meantime, if you engage them with word games, they could learn more about the language and improve their linguistic skills.

For instance, games like Jumble, Wordscapes, and Wordle are all about finding the appropriate words. Parents can help them discover words and teach them about their meaning and where to use them. I mean, if you found the word “Walk” in the game, parents should tell them that it refers to the act of moving somewhere on foot. 

Cognitive Skills

In the same way that children grow physically and emotionally, cognitive growth is also an important part of their development. The cognitive development of a child involves their maturing intellectual, problem-solving, memory, language, and reasoning skills. 

It is true that traditional education promotes all aspects of a child’s growth, but that learning is not limited to the classroom. However, games, especially word games, are helpful for children’s cognitive development. It doesn’t matter whether they’re young, early adolescents, older children, or teens. 

Moreover, the fact is, to find words or solve puzzles, word games often require prolonged concentration, improving the concentration and attention of early children. This could benefit kids in the long term, boost their critical thinking, and help them perform well in school or college activities.

Social Interaction

Nowadays, kids aren’t that much social. They only try to stay alone using their mobile phones and pass their time out. And that’s actually not a good habit for their long-term. The reason is, with such inhibition in kids, they can’t make friends and are afraid to be on the stage or to speak in a group. 

Besides, this lowers their communication skills, and that’s the most notable thing when finding a good job. 

According to a study (by The Hill) about kids’ social interaction, “The percentage of high school seniors who gathered in person with friends “almost every day” dropped from 44 percent in 2010 to 32 percent in 2022, according to Monitoring the Future, a national survey of adolescents. (Source)” This means today’s kids are less social compared to millennials.

Therefore, if you want to learn about how word games can benefit early childhood education, then keep scrolling down. Let’s get started!

In that scenario, word games can help kids improve their social interaction by:

  • Building Confidence: Playing word games isn’t only beneficial in learning words but also develops confidence in kids to face a hard time.
  • Connecting with Others: Kids can also interact with other players (kids) in word games when playing multiplayer mode. It could benefit them by helping them learn new words and improving their communication skills.
  • Team Collaboration: In certain word games like Charades, kids can learn how to collaborate with their team players and solve the mystery before their rival team does. 

Confidence Boost

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has found that positive reinforcement boosts children’s self-esteem greatly during educational play. Encouragement and recognition foster confidence in children. The positive reinforcement creates a supportive learning environment that motivates children to maintain their interest in education.

In word games, praise for correctly identifying letters, forming words, or solving puzzles gives children a sense of mastery. This boosts their skills and their emotional well-being. Positive feedback, like praise or small rewards, helps kids. It fosters a “growth mindset.” They learn that effort and persistence lead to improvement.

Children are more likely to approach future tasks with greater confidence as a result of this nurturing approach to learning. 

On top of taking risks, asking questions, and engaging more deeply in the learning process, children are more likely to develop their self-esteem with time.

Different Types of Word Games and Their Benefits

There are multiple word games available, each designed to engage children in different ways and target specific developmental skills.

Here’s a look at some popular types of word games and how they can benefit young learners:

Board Games

Traditional board and card games remain some of the best tools for promoting language development. These games are often played face-to-face, fostering social interaction and collaboration.

Here are some popular board games that you can play with your family and friends:

  • Scrabble: Scrabble is one of the most amazing yet popular board word puzzles in which players discover words from the given scrambled letters. The board consists of 225 tiles, along with special tiles that can double and triple players’ scores.
  • Words With Friends: Words With Friends became famous because players can play it using their mobile phones. The game is very similar to Scrabble, but there are a few tweaks in scoring and special tiles.
  • Boggle: Boggle is a word game in which kids race against the clock to explore as many words as they can from the given grid of letters. The game is great for kids because it teaches them how to manage their time or, in other words, fulfill their deadlines.

Digital Word-Finding Games

It’s obvious that everything is now available online; the same goes for word games. There are countless games developed for kids to play on mobile phones. These games often incorporate interactive elements and visual appeal to keep children engaged.

  • Wordle: In Wordle, players need to guess the correct five-letter words in six tries. They will have to restart the game the next day if they fail, which is frustrating. The game, however, is both fun and engaging for children and parents since it requires both brainstorming and luck. Besides, the game might get tricky at some point, so parents can introduce children to Wordle Solver and tell them how to use it strategically to find today’s Wordle answer.
  • Wordscapes: Similar to Boggle, Wordscapes is an online game in which children connect letters to form valid words of various lengths. As they progress in the game, it gets more difficult, making finding words more challenging. For kids, it’s a way to push their brains to think harder to find words.

The above-mentioned board puzzles – Scrabble, Words With Friends, and Boggle – are also now available to play online.

Social Word Games

Some word games are like cooperative games in which players interact with one another and work to solve the puzzle. Here are some common names:

  • Charades: For kids to be more socialized and friendly with others, Charades is a game that builds their confidence. In this game, two teams compete against each other, and one of each team’s players acts out a word without speaking it while other teammates need to guess the correct word. The game can assist kids in learning about how to make a decision that every other team player also thinks best.

There’s also a musical version of Charades available in which teammates have to guess the song just by hearing its tune.

Final Thoughts

With that, I’m going to conclude this blog post!

There is no doubt that word games are a great way to enhance kids’ language skills, cognitive abilities, and social interactions. These activities offer endless learning opportunities, whether it is through classic board games like Scrabble, engaging apps such as Wordle, or fun cooperative games such as Charades. Not only do they strengthen vocabulary and critical thinking, but they also build confidence and teamwork. So, why not encourage your little ones to dive into the world of word games? It’s a win for their minds and hearts!