By: Jonathan Shen
Board games seem like a thing to spend a person’s relaxing time on; however, a scientific experiment has proven that playing board games can shockingly improve children’s math test results!
Nowadays, researchers believe that certain board games, such as Monopoly or Ladders, can improve cognitive, social, physical, and emotional well-being for children. This can enhance children’s skills towards the subject of math. To show evidence and proof of how board games can contribute to children’s math results, a team at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile, developed numerous experiments that included the relationship between board games and math. The team conducted those experiments between 2000 to 2023 and came to the conclusion after analyzing the results of 19 studies.
In those studies, kids aged 3-9 play board games under teacher and trained adult supervision. Those board games were about 20 minutes and were held twice a week for around 6 weeks. In this test, some kids played board games that needed the usage of math skills while others played games that didn’t need math experience. Both groups are recognized as intervention and control groups. In the study, both groups were given number-based games but separate board game topics such as Monopoly and Dominoes.
The children’s math skills who participated were then assessed before and after each study. The researchers looked and studied four key categories, simple knowledge like “Is 9 greater than 3?”, kids ability with addition and subtraction, and their mathematical interests.
Finally, the results of this spectacular study were published on July 6, 2023 in a journal called Early Years. The results revealed that a third of the intervention group scored higher than the control group revealing that playing number-centric board games helps improve children’s math skills.
Other sites also confirm this experiment. For example, Forbes has said that, “Playing board games such as Chutes and Ladders can help young children get better at math, according to a new study. The format of number-based games helps improve counting, addition and the ability to recognize if one number is higher than another, the research found.”
Understood.org has also said that, “Popular board and card games, like Uno and Monopoly, can help kids with math.”
Now that researchers have revealed this, it’s time to make this wonderful discovery to help childrens have a better way of improving math with inspiration, and creativity. Playing a board game a night or two with family and friends can be fun, exciting, and educationally beneficial for childrens.