Memory games help children of all ages develop their recall capability. For young children, these games typically involve sets of tiles with pairs that have identical pictures. Mixing up the tiles and placing them face down, parents or teachers then ask children to take turns finding the hidden pairs, and pulling them out when they match them. Learning to remember visual images will help with recall in studying texts and images in later grades.
All children love to draw. If you put a set of crayons and drawing paper in front of most children, fantastic visions will start to take shape in a matter of minutes. Benefits of having children draw include teaching careful observation, including the ability to make comparisons. Some objects are farther away than others, and so appear smaller. Some objects look shinier than others, and children will try to represent that. Showing these different items means that children are learning to form judgments.
According to Jovanka Ciares and Paul Borgese, learning a musical instrument can benefit children's intellectual development in a number of ways. The stamina associated with lengthy periods of concentration can help students working with difficult processes in middle and high school. The hand-eye coordination required to play different musical instruments develops fine motor skills in ways that other typical childhood activities do not.
Other areas in which musical instruments help promote development in children include creating a foundation of self-confidence. Positive praise from the teacher and parent, in addition to hearing themselves improve as they play, will help them in areas of self-esteem.
There are several different types of logic puzzles. Sudoku, which requires the player to put the numbers one through nine in grids according to a precise set of rules, teaches logic, planning and the process of elimination.
Grid logic puzzles give students a series of clues and ask them sort items such as the first and last names of people, entrees and beverages they chose on a particular evening, and what movie they saw. These sorts of puzzles not only foster reading comprehension, but they also promote the use of reason in eliminating incorrect choices.