Boosting Your Child’s Brain Development: 8 Ways CONNETIX Nurtures Growing Young Minds.

By Tegan Franks

Every parent wants their child to thrive across all areas of life and to support their overall healthy development. One good way to help your child’s mind grow is through fun activities that improve memory and spatial awareness skills. Memory and spatial awareness play a key role in problem-solving, critical thinking and all-round cognitive development in children. Building upon these skills can create a strong base for future learning and academic success. CONNETIX are more than just magnetic tiles; they’re versatile and powerful learning tools. If you’re after a fun and flexible tool to boost your kid’s brain development during playtime, CONNETIX is just the thing for you!

Here’s eight ways CONNETIX can support cognitive growth:

1. Improved Working Memory

Memory games have an influence on working memory—which is your child’s ability to keep and manipulate the information in their minds. When kids play with CONNETIX, they can build on these complex structures by keeping track of the pieces they’ve used and the structure they want to make. When children solve problems and remember the steps to builds, they challenge their cognitive abilities, helping to expand their capacity to remember and use information in real-time.

2. Attention and Focus

Helping your child to copy specific designs or patterns, like some of the builds in the CONNETIX resource library , engages their working memory by requiring them to focus on and remember multiple steps or details at once. This kind of activity not only boosts concentration but also strengthens a child’s ability to plan, organise and recall information, which are all essential skills for school and educational settings. Over time, these skills can translate to increased readiness and willingness to learn, and confidence in solving math problems, following multi-step instructions and improving reading comprehension by remembering key details from something they have read. The more kids practice focusing and remembering in playful settings, the more equipped they become for the cognitive demands of their education.

photo credit: mandalas_and_rainbows

3. Spotting Patterns

Have you ever sat an IQ test? One component of these tests asks you to pick which pattern matches the rest. This is the ability to think and reason with visual information, such as shapes and patterns. Little ones get a kick out of arranging CONNETIX to make patterns, from straightforward colour sequences to complex shapes. This kind of play enhances their analytical skills and logical reasoning, both of which are also key components of IQ. As parents, we can twist it into a playful challenge. Ask your child to create a unique pattern or alternatively copy one you’ve made that is one-step harder. You will be preparing their brains to understand patterns and reasoning with visual information.

5. Neuroplasticity

Engaging in creative play with CONNETIX stimulates brain activity and promotes neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new connections. This is particularly important for young minds as they learn and adapt to new challenges. As there are so many ways to use CONNETIX, children can change their ‘type of play’ each time they use them. This prepares children for new challenges, which is a foundation for neuroplasticity.

4. Cognitive Processing

As your child becomes more adept at manipulating CONNETIX, they’ll start processing information more quickly. This is because when children repetitively use the same toy, they ‘remember’ how to use it more, which reduces the cognitive load on their brains. This reduction on cognitive load allows for the increase in speed and processing during play. This increased speed can lead to quicker thinking and decision-making, skills that are invaluable in both school and everyday life.

6. Problem-Solving Skills

Building with tiles often requires strategic thinking. When faced with a design challenge, children must think critically and adapt their plans as they go. This kind of problem-solving experience is crucial for developing cognitive flexibility and resilience. CONNETIX offer problem-solving as well as resilience building through play. Resilience is something that children need a lot of opportunities to practise!

7. Anxiety Reduction

Play is a great way to unwind, and CONNETIX provide an excellent outlet for creative expression. If your child enjoys this type of construction play, the joy of building and creating can reduce stress, making your child more open and ready to help boost their learning. Children learn and remember more efficiently in calm and happy spaces, so a suggestion would be to add some calm and quiet music to your play space. You will be surprised how calm music can help boost creativity and focus!

8. Social Interaction

CONNETIX are perfect for collaborative play. Whether they’re working on a project with siblings or friends, children learn to communicate, share ideas and solve problems together. These social interactions not only build teamwork skills but also enhance social interaction skills along with oral language skills. Building on these skills can strengthen a different type of intelligence, social and emotional intelligence.

Tips for activating executive functioning skills with CONNETIX:

Set Up a Building Challenge:

Encourage your child to create a specific structure, like a bridge or a house, using a limited number of tiles. This fosters creativity while promoting problem-solving.

Create Pattern Games:

Make a game out of creating specific patterns. You can set a timer to see how quickly they can replicate a design or come up with their own.

Memory Games:

Have your child build a small structure with 10 tiles or more. Then ask them to close their eyes and take away a tile. See if they can locate where the missing tile came from!

Collaborative Projects:

Organise playdates where kids can work together to build something larger, encouraging teamwork and social skills.

Frequent Play Sessions:

Make CONNETIX play a regular activity. The more they play, the more their cognitive skills will develop.

By incorporating CONNETIX into your child’s playtime, you’re not just providing them with a fun activity—you’re actively supporting their cognitive development and giving them the skills needed for lifelong learning. The possibilities to support brain development through CONNETIX play is simply endless, if you’re inspired by these activities check out “5 Ways to Use CONNETIX for Brain Gym” for even more fun ideas!!

Tegan Franks

Frankie is a primary school teacher and literacy specialist, with a Masters in early literacy development. She is a passionate mother to three children and the creative mum at @wonder.and.awe on Instagram.

Stay Updated

If you’d like to be informed when we release one of our new articles about open-ended play and STEAM concepts, please subscribe below.

Facebook

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.