Boost Your Child’s Brain Development with these Simple Activities

This is a guest post by Samidha Raj, who works as part of the content marketing team at Planet Spark.

The first five years of your child’s life are vital for their brain development. And even though you may find a lot of online advice about fancy toys and activities to boost brain development, in truth, your child is learning a lot when they play. Simple activities like building a fort, playing with a ball, and scribbling on paper are significant brain development activities for kids. They contribute to the development of thinking, motor skills, and social-emotional skills.

If you are a toddler parent wondering how you can help boost brain development for your child, here are some activities that can fuel brain development in children – 

1. Ask Questions to Stimulate Thinking

Interact with your child by naming the things they see in their surroundings. Talk to them about the colour, shape and utility of these things. For example, if your child loves playing with a blue ball, you can tell them, “This is a ball. We play with the ball. This ball is blue. And it is round!” A few days later, point to the ball and ask your child what it is. Even if they don’t respond on the first try, this activity will prompt them to think about what they learnt and how they can say it.

2. Introduce Books, Storytelling and Narrating Events

Introduce your child to books early. Today there are books available for children as young as two months. Books play an essential role in brain development, language skills and motor skills. If parents read to them regularly, children learn to identify colours and shapes and begin to name animals, birds, etc.

3. Physical Activities like Music & Dance

Singing and listening to music with your child is a terrific mind-building activity. Channelize your toddler’s energy into dance by playing peppy dance-beat numbers that get them excited! Music is multifaceted and comprises melody, lyrics, musical beats etc., each facet stimulates a different part of your child’s brain.

4. Finger Painting is Brain Development

Finger painting is a fascinating sensory experience for toddlers. They love making a beautiful mess on a sheet of paper with their colourful hands! Add to it new textures such as painting with rice or sand to make it more fun! It is also fun for them to mix two colours and create new ones.

5. Building Event Memory, Associating Things & Situations

Associate everyday objects with events to build memory. For example, show them photographs of people they have met in the past and describe what happened. Repeated associations of people, things and situations will help your child build their memory and remember events.

6. Logical Reasoning & Decision Making

Logic and decision-making abilities can be taught from an early age. Play games with your child that require brain activity, such as jigsaw puzzles, block puzzles, and matching games. Secondly, building decision-making abilities gives your child the opportunity to make small decisions in day-to-day things such as choosing what they’d like to wear, what they’d like to play, or eat will build decision-making abilities.

7. Arrange a Scavenger Hunt

Children love to explore their surroundings, and finding out more with the investigation will give them a sense of accomplishment. Think of simple things for them to look for in the house. For example, “Let’s find something that is a circle!” or “Let’s find something that is red in colour!”

8. Multi-Sensory Learning

Engaging multiple senses in learning helps in quicker understanding and better retention. Practising counting while jumping rope or cold-cooking with different fruits to learn their names are examples of multi-sensory learning exercises. These exercises help children connect the concepts they learn with an experience.

9. Nutrition

Last but not least, good nutrition is essential to a child’s brain development. Good food improves your child’s mood and aids development. Include green vegetables, eggs, lentils, and milk products in your child’s diet to ensure balanced nutrition. A healthy body nurtures a healthy mind.

Choose from the list above or come up with your own fun brain development activities for kids! A good blend of activities that help develop the mind, body, and concentration will go a long way for your toddler.

Author Bio:

Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at Planet Spark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on “New Age Skills” like, English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)!