By: Caroline Chen

Have you ever been in a scenario where you ask your mom if you can play board games and they say “First, finish your homework!” in a grumpy voice? Well, now you have a valid excuse for that!

The team at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile have done experiments to come up with a conclusion that board games can effectively help children with math. They conducted the experiment during 2000-2023.

In the studies, 3-9 year olds played board games under the supervision of adults. They had 20 minute sessions two times a week over about 6 weeks. The intervention group played number-centric board games, while the control group played board games that did not involve math skills.

The kid’s math skills were assessed before and after each study. The four categories they assessed were: the ability to name numbers, demonstrate simple number knowledge, addition and subtraction.

They came to the result that number-centric board games helps improve the children’s math skills in over half of the four areas. Additionally, nearly a third of the children in the intervention groups scored higher on math tests than those in the control groups.