Crosswords for children are an important educational tool. The little one will learn to think, to coordinate their thoughts and even to interact in a group.

As a result of various investigations, it has been proven that there are games that improve memory and other cognitive functions in humans. This, for example, is the case of crosswords, a phenomenal and educational entertainment for children.

These types of hobbies offer advantages for people of all ages. In addition, it is one of the many mental tools that require early exercise to achieve optimal future development.

Crosswords and skills

Crosswords have the ability to stimulate in their participants the search for new ways of reasoning. The challenges they generate become stimuli when used appropriately.

For these reasons, the adult should see that the child begins to play with easy crosswords. These games will be able to promote the desire to continue and avoid the feeling of failure or disinterest.

Playing to find the exact word through its definition in the crossword is a fun way to increase the vocabulary of the little ones. Also, this game increases language skills and raises the vocabulary of children through the learning of new words and synonyms.

In this way, the child will learn to choose between alternative words to use in each context. This is an attribute that not only allows you to develop a greater capacity for symbolization, but also has other advantages.

For example, the child will dialogue and express her opinion in a much more pertinent and attractive way, especially in future work or academic contexts.

 

Other benefits of crosswords

To correctly fill in each box, it must be written without spelling errors. For this reason, crossword puzzles not only extend vocabulary and create greater language skills, but also improve spelling.

Likewise, by keeping the mind agile and activating neural connections, this game is important to prevent future degenerative diseases. This is the case, for example, of Alzheimer’s and the various dementias.

On the other hand, the mental associations that crossword puzzles generate help to raise the IQ. They also stimulate the joint work of short and long term memory.

Finally, the crossword puzzles encourage the concentration of the little ones. The exercise of thinking to discover the words makes the child concentrate on the game without thinking. Also, it trains the mind in deductive thinking and speed in information processing.

 

Classic or modern crosswords?

Currently, crosswords can be found both in their printed version (in newspapers, magazines and books) and in their online version or in an application. In their electronic format, a large number of crosswords of different complexities are available.

An important fact about electronic crossword puzzles is that they are available in several languages. This generates a secondary advantage, since it adds the extra benefit of being able to know words in other languages; also the possibility of reviewing and studying in a strategic way the language that the minor is studying.

 

Many variants available

The crosswords can be obtained with different themes. One of the most creative proposes to find the names of the protagonists of several popular cartoon series. There are also names of professions, ingredients, foods, types of games, etc.

In the early school years it is important for the adult to offer the child a short crossword and analyze their performance during the activity. In case of detecting that the child is not comfortable, it is appropriate to change the crossword puzzle or reduce the complexity of it.

In the same way, when they have spent more than 30 minutes with the same crossword, it is advisable to propose a change of activity, whether they have finished it or not. It is important not to produce a saturation effect in children, or even an aversion to these activities.

Among its main positive aspects is exercising memory and avoiding brain problems. In addition, crossword puzzles are real challenges and a source of knowledge.

Doing crosswords is often considered just another hobby. We do not even realize the advantage it gives us and the great mental exercise it supposes.

Various research suggests that this activity may help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s, as well as improve overall brain function and memory. Surprisingly, play can relieve stress and, if solved in a group, triggers a strong sense of bonding.

In fact, it is recommended to do a crossword a week depending on the complexity you have. In addition, it could do wonders in your social life, as it helps you strengthen your knowledge.

Here are eight more reasons for you to consider and start putting them into practice.

1. Prevents dementia

Crossword puzzles are a great way to keep your brain sharp as you age. The Alzheimer’s Association recommends this habit to help prevent dementia and other brain and memory ailments.

2. Improve verbal skills

According to studies, doing daily crosswords benefits your verbal skills. Even if you can’t finish one, you’ll start to figure out what the different words mean as you solve the clues you know.

In addition, the practice of investigating arises to resolve the doubts that remain in the face of unresolved questions.

3. Practice problem solving

This game is a great way to practice problem solving. According to Tyler Hinman, a five-time winner of the American Crossword Tournament, “People who are said to be the best at this are said to be musicians or people who are in science or math. What these fields have in common is that they consist of looking at coded information and being able to instantly translate it into something meaningful, ”he explains. Consistent exercise is the foundation.

4. Teaches to see patterns

People love to find patterns. It gives structure to their lives, explains how different things are connected, and is the foundation of science and math.

One of the key benefits of crosswords is that they are a great way to exercise your pattern-sensing muscle.

5. It helps to have the necessary relaxation

Another benefit of crosswords is that they allow you to get lost for a while and relax. Spending a few minutes a day doing an activity that takes you away from daily stress is a form of meditation and, without a doubt, of clearing your mind.

6. Trivia fans

If you are a fan of trivia, you will love crosswords. They are solo games and you will be surprised how good they are at starting conversations on different topics. In addition, they pose personal challenges that you can overcome as you do them.

7. The Aha moment

There’s nothing like that feeling of suddenly finding the answer you’ve been looking for. It’s known as the Aha moment and crossword puzzles are so addictive because they trigger a series of these situations.

8. Fun

This might be the best reason to do one crossword a week. They are portable, dynamic and uncomplicated fun.

 

Are you struggling to solve a crossword puzzle?

If you’ve never solved a crossword before my advice is to start on a Monday. New York Times on Monday has the easiest puzzle of the week and it build up to very hard on Friday and Saturday. If you start on a Friday or Saturday you’re likely to be smashed and come away frustrated. But start on a Monday, fill in what you know, look through the clues, find something you are positive of and then build up from there. Use the more unusual letters of the alphabet to help you. A K or a Z letter will be more useful to you in a crossing answer than an A or an E. Wherever you are build out from what you know. If you get stuck don’t be afraid to guess or to erase if your guess isn’t working out. If you really stuck, put the puzzle aside and come back later. It is amazing how often that trick works, you’ll get one new answer in the grid and you’ll be off and running again. Fill in the blank clues are often the best ones to start with because they’re easy to spot in a list of clues and they often have unique answers. So if the clue was one blank customer, you know the phrase is one to a customer. If you’ve been solving crossword for a while you know crossword ease. Crossword ease are those short vowel heavy answers that show up in crossword way more often than they do in everyday life.

Crossword solvers and other puzzle games seem to show improvements in attention, reasoning and memory, especially in the short term.

Beach. Sun. Beach umbrella. And in addition to fins, rackets and buckets, the inevitable crossword puzzle. To relax and take care of the mind as well as the body. Because crosswords (and, more generally, all kinds of puzzle games) are commonly considered a relaxing and educational pastime. As well as, of course, completely free of side effects. Science has repeatedly questioned the real effects that this practice would have on the mind, investigating the relationship between the frequency of execution of puzzles and cognitive abilities, language skills and logical reasoning, levels of attention and concentration. Several studies, at the moment, have actually shown a certain correlation between this type of training and the improvement of particular brain skills, especially in the short term. Much more scarce, however, is the evidence relating to any long-term effects of puzzles and similar brain training.

One of the most extensive works on the subject is very recent news: a team of scientists from the University of Exeter, in fact, examined, through an online test, different brain skills of over 17 thousand people over the age of 50, asking them even if ( and how frequently) they devoted themselves to solving crosswords and puns. The results of the analysis, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (Aiic), showed precisely that the participants who were particularly passionate about puzzles performed better in tests for the assessment of attention, reasoning and memory. So much so that the authors of the work argue, perhaps a little too optimistically, that “the brain functions of inveterate crossword solvers are equivalent to those of people who are ten years younger than them – at least compared to the speed of grammatical reasoning at all. ‘accuracy of short-term memory ”. In short, the puzzles would be equivalent to a sort of elixir of youth for the mind: “We found a direct relationship between the frequency of crossword execution and the speed and accuracy of performance in nine different cognitive tests. Now we want to understand if similar activities can also help in countering the onset of dementia: we know that many of the risk factors related to the development of dementia are preventable, and we want to understand which lifestyles can make a difference in helping people to keep their brains fit and healthy ”.

Furthermore, the authors of a small study published in 2014 in Geriatric Psychiatry, conducted on thirty-seven healthy retirees, divided the sample into two groups. The first performed crosswords every day for four weeks, while the second, control, was engaged in different activities: the results seem to suggest that people in the first group improved the so-called Phonemic Verbal Fluency (Pfc), an executive function related to ability to formulate simple strategies, which usually declines during aging and in people with dementia. And again: crossword puzzles and dementia, among other things, a team of scientists from the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego (and other research institutes) was also involved: in a study published in 2011 in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, conducted for 18 months on 488 people who were cognitively healthy at the start of the follow-up and on 101 patients with various types of dementia, the researchers evaluated precisely the effect of performing crosswords on disease progression. “Our findings”, they write in the abstract of the work, “seem to show that participation in activities of this type, regardless of education level, is associated with a slowing of memory decline in those suffering from dementia. We therefore suggest to evaluate, in appropriate clinical trials, the role of crosswords in the prevention of cognitive decline ”.

But beware: to avoid exaggerated optimism, as we said at the beginning, it should be emphasized that scientific evidence on the long-term effects of this and other types of mental training is still scarce and not definitive. “What we know for sure”, explains Veronica Mazza, associate professor at the Center for Mind / Brain Sciences of the University of Trento, “is that training a certain brain function leads to improvements in that specific function. That is, unsurprisingly, that training in solving crosswords makes you better and faster at solving crosswords. On the long-term effects, however, we still know much less. And most importantly, we know little about how much any beneficial effects on a specific brain function can extend to other brain functions. Probably, to obtain these results, highly personalized training should be followed, designed for the individual ”. However, another thing is certain: “The only type of training that is certainly associated with cognitive improvements”, concludes Mazza, “is physical activity, mainly aerobic. The scientific evidence that demonstrates this is very solid and significant “. So, after trying your hand at horizontals and verticals, put down your pen and put on your sneakers. Your brain (and your body) will thank you.

Mental rotation, working memory, episodic memory, processing speed, task switching. You don’t really that you are doing this but but it’s important to solve a puzzle.

Why do we found puzzles so satisfying?

Puzzles activate up to 8 different cognitive functions at the same time. It’s such a focus task that it can relax also your mind. It’s something like meditation, mindfulness training. In general people say they feel very relaxed after solving a puzzle and this relaxation is really important for psychological health.

Although some puzzles seem extremely simple, they set off a complex chain of events in our brains. The first thing which is happening when you see a puzzle is that the information gets into your eyes and goes through to the occipital cortex. From there are two pathways. One pathway goes into venture direction and the other one is called the dorsal pathway. They are processing different information. On the ventral pathway is processed the image of the puzzle and on the dorsal pathway you remember the information related to that puzzle section. And those information like “what” or “where” somehow the brain need to integrate this information to make use of it again. And this is like a really difficult task for the brain to integrate all of this information properly. And you need this integration to find the right solution of the puzzle.

Cognitively challenging activities like puzzles are also associated with long-term mental health benefits, such as a lower risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia.

There are many leisure activities with which you can target brain function. It’s important to do many different leisure activities and not just doing one again and again. If you think about training the brain, it’s most important to have variations tasks. Puzzling is just one task next to other tasks. It might be probably better than watching television, because watching television is very inactive.

Stop wasting time on games or at least bad games.

 

 

 

 

 

Games where you’re arranging candy by color or crossing an unrealistic number of roads or farm animals are repetitive, mindless and addictive games. There are so better options. Games that help you improve a skill or relax just get you thinking more. So here are some games that you should be playing.

Elevate

To of the best brain training games I’ve played are Elevate and Lumosity. Elevate focuses on training skills like writing, reading speaking and math. The game keep track of your progress and rates your proficiency in each scale. This games help you use tricks that actually you can use in real life. Elevate offers practical study materials and tips to improve your skills.

Lumosity

Lumosity is similar to elevate in a lot of ways. This game is meant to help you sharpen a certain set of skills. There are some multitasking games that help you use those skills even in real life. Playing these kind of games you can improve your memory, attention and problem solving.On Lumosity you have various games that you can choose to play.

Word Connect

There’s a reason why word games have stuck around for many years. They are fun and they help you in many ways. Word Connect is one of those classic word games that will make you fall in love immediately. If you are a real puzzle game lover you cannot miss this game. Just swipe letters and create the correct word so you can collect coins and go to the next level. Find all the hidden words and keep your brain trained and relaxed in the same time. And if you’re finding difficulties in solving those levels you can check for answer of Word Connect levels on this website.

Do brain “training” games work?

Brain training games make a lot of claims about improving cognitive functions but there’s not much evidence that there are long-term benefits related to intelligence or focus. Studies have found that the only reason you’re improving at these games is because you’re playing them over and over.