Collaborative post by another author. Word games stimulate brain activity, improve spelling skills and expand one's range of vocabulary. Children learn how to spell and recognise words at a very young age. It's part of their learning process, and you might have already known that they love solving puzzles that challenge their cognitive skills. Teaching them to play word games is a good way to develop this skill, and most importantly, they are simple enough for them to be enjoyed by kids of all ages.

Tips to introduce your children to word games

Start With Word Games That Require Two Players

One of the best ways to get your children interested in word games is by starting them off with a two-player game requiring them to interact. These kinds of games teach children how to communicate effectively with each other, which will come in handy later on in life when they need to work together on projects or assignments at school.

Some great examples of two-player word games are Hangman, Scrabble, Boggle, Dabble, Upwords, and Tapple.

Try Board Games With Letters On The Board

Board games are a great way to introduce your children to word games.

Start by playing a simple board game with letters on it. This could be Scrabble or any other game that has some letter component. You could also use flashcards and ask them to put them in order from A-Z or Z-A. This can also be done with pictures, such as by asking them to put together pictures of things that start with 'A' or end with 'E'.

Use Educational Word Games

Many word games are specifically designed to help children learn the alphabet, phonics, spelling, and other language skills. Each child can play these games together as a family or separately, with the parent providing feedback on their progress.

A great example of an educational game is Boggle. The object of this game is to find words in a grid of letters by connecting adjacent letters in any direction (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally) so that they form one continuous string without any spaces between them. To make it easier for younger child you could use less letter dice per round. This makes it easier for younger players because there's less room for mistakes! Each player gets a score based on how many words they found in the allotted time. 

Kids can even use a word tool like unscrambled words to easily learn new words and improve their vocabulary.

Offer Rewards

The best way to get your children interested in word games is to make them fun and praise them for making effort. If they are reluctant though you might want to incentivise them by offering rewards if they try their best. This should be to encourage their effort playing rather than luck or scores. Keep the reward small as it is best to encourage their love of the games due to the fun of playing (intrinsic motivation) rather than to get them playing only for the reward (extrinsic motivation).

Wrapping Up,

Games help sharpen your child's analytical skills and challenge their mind and mental fortitude. Games also make children happy and re-energize their moods. That's why the right choice of word games will help keep your child's interest in learning complex words and boost their intellectual development.