Improve cognitive development in children: Motivating activities for NeuronUP children

Today we bring you a set of motivating activities to improve cognitive development in children. With these games you can work on selective attention, reasoning, semantic memory, vocabulary, time estimation, and visual gnosis, among other functions.

1. Search and you will find!

The first of the NeuronUP motivating activities for children we suggest is Search and you will find!

What does it involve?

Children have to look for a series of specific items within a group. But watch out: it’s harder than it looks because the objects are piled up.

In the following medium-level example, the child has to find the animals shown at the top and take them to the farm:

What does this activity work on?

This activity to improve cognitive development in children works on selective attention.

Play by levels

Remember that you can choose any difficulty level you like to adapt the activity to each child’s needs and abilities. The harder the level, the more difficult the animals are to find.

Customizing the activity

General settings

You can customize the number of exercises (total, passed, acceptable, and failed), the time limit, the inactivity alert, and the timer.

In addition, like all NeuronUP games, Search and you will find! is organized by levels, and children move up or down a level depending on their correct answers and mistakes.

Parameters

As a professional, you can customize the game according to the age and personal abilities of each of your patients. You can choose:

• The number of items,
• the number of items to find,
• the maximum number of errors.

Adaptability

You can also choose the adaptability, that is, whether you want the child to do this activity by dragging or tapping.

​​2. Make Up a Story with Pictures

The exercise Make Up a Story with Pictures improves cognitive development in children.

What does it involve?

Make Up a Story with Pictures is a paper-based activity in which children create a story by connecting several given items. It puts creativity and imagination to the test!

For example, in the following worksheet, children have to make up a story that includes some balloons, a gift, and a birthday cake.

What does this activity work on?

This worksheet mainly works on reasoning and, secondarily, on expression.

Play by levels

Remember that, to make the activity motivating for children, you can choose any difficulty level you like to adapt it to each child’s needs and abilities. The harder the level, the more items there are to build the story.

3. Tidy Up the Mess

What does it involve?

The child has to match the pictures with their corresponding categories.

The categories are also related to everyday items: leisure, clothing, musical instruments, animals, school supplies, and more.

Watch the following video for an example of how to play Tidy Up the Mess:

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on semantic memory, where we store general knowledge about the world.

Format

Tidy Up the Mess is also available in paper as well as digital format.

Everyday application

Semantic memory is essential for getting by in daily life. For example, it helps children know that they need to go to the bakery section when they buy bread at the supermarket, or organize their clothes logically so they can find the item they want later.

Customizing the activity

You can customize the activity to fit each child’s individual needs and abilities.

General settings

On the one hand, you can adjust general settings such as the mode of operation, the time limit, whether or not to show a visible timer for the activity, an inactivity alert, and the instructions for completing it.

Parameters

On the other hand, in the parameters you can select the number of items.

4. Find the Lost Twins

Another exercise that improves cognitive development in children is Find the Lost Twins.

What does it involve?

Children have to point to all the pictures that match the one shown at the top.

Take a look at the following video to see how to play Find the Lost Twins:

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on selective attention through a cancellation-type task. The child has to find an image every time it appears within a set of images.

Everyday application

This activity is useful for quickly spotting an object among many. For example, a specific toy in a box full of games or a particular pen in a full pencil case.

​​Customizing the activity

You can customize the activity to fit each child’s individual needs and abilities.

General settings

On the one hand, you can adjust general settings such as the mode of operation, the time limit, whether or not to show a visible timer for the activity, an inactivity alert, and the instructions for completing it.

Parameters

On the other hand, in the parameters you can select:

• The size of the grid: number of rows and columns.
• the similarity between items: very low, low, medium, high, or very high.
• the layout: linear or random.
• the number of target stimuli.

Letter version

This activity is comparable to Letter Hide-and-Seek, in which children have to point to all the letters that match the one at the top.

5. The Word Guardian

What does it involve?

The Word Guardian is a game in which children have to discover the hidden word by tapping the letters they choose. Careful: every time they make a mistake, a piece of the tower falls down!

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on vocabulary and working memory.

Play by levels

Remember that you can choose any difficulty level you like to adapt the activity to each child’s needs and abilities. The harder the level, the more difficult the words to discover.

Watch the following video to see how to play The Word Guardian:

Customizing the activity

You can customize the activity to fit each child’s individual needs and abilities:

General settings

On the one hand, you can adjust general settings such as the number of exercises, the time limit, whether or not to show a visible timer for the activity, an inactivity alert, and the instructions for completing it.

Parameters

On the other hand, in the parameters you can select:

• The number of clues,
• the letters given,
• the cultural level: very low, low, medium, high, or very high,
• the letter format: uppercase or lowercase. A very useful parameter for children who don’t yet recognize all the letters well.

6. Who raised their hand?

One of the most motivating activities that improves cognitive development in children is Who raised their hand?

What does it involve?

As the following video shows, this activity involves remembering the order in which the children raised their hands and reproducing it.

What does this activity work on?

This game works on episodic memory (short-term) and working memory.

This activity is also very useful for working on attention, because we often think we have a poor memory when what actually failed was paying attention to the stimuli we had to memorize. If you don’t pay proper attention to something, how can you expect to remember it later?

Customizing the activity

You can customize the activity to fit each child’s individual needs and abilities:

General settings

On the one hand, you can adjust general settings such as the number of exercises, the time limit, whether or not to show a visible timer for the activity, an inactivity alert, and the instructions for completing it.

Parameters

On the other hand, in the parameters you can select:

• The sequence length,
• the memorization time,
• the number of items,
• the total duration.

Adult version

This game is an adaptation of the NeuronUP adult activity Press Conference.

We adapted the design so children can relate it to their everyday lives. They have to pay attention to which classmates raise their hands to ask to speak, and then reproduce the order.

7. How much time does it take?

What does it involve?

This children’s time-estimation worksheet involves organizing different activities in a planner, taking into account how long each one would take.

Here’s an example in the following video:

What does this activity work on?

• The main function this activity works on is time estimation. Sometimes we find it hard to estimate how long things will take, which keeps us from organizing ourselves well.
• It also works on planning, since being able to plan is essential for organizing tasks. In this case, the planning component is not very high, as children haven’t fully developed this ability yet, but it’s important for them to practice it.

Play by levels

Remember that you can choose any difficulty level you like to adapt the activity to each child’s needs and abilities. The harder the level, the more activities they have to organize in the planner.

8. Shape Sorter

Another NeuronUP motivating activity for children we suggest is Shape Sorter.

What does it involve?

In this activity, the child has to fit the pieces into place according to their shape.

What does this activity work on?

Main function

• Visual gnosis, since the child has to identify the shape.

Secondary functions

• Selective attention, since it involves distinguishing one shape from the others. As the level increases, the shapes become more and more similar.

Everyday application

Although we often don’t even notice it, in every small task we carry out we have to recognize the items in front of us.

The foundation for this is being able to distinguish basic shapes (circles, squares, triangles…). Once we master this, we build more complex objects in our minds.

Play by levels

At the easier levels the pieces are easier to fit, since they are more basic, whereas at the more advanced levels it gets harder because the pieces have very similar shapes and are harder to tell apart at first glance.

Watch the following video to see how to play Shape Sorter:

9. What’s its name?

What does it involve?

Children have to match each noun with the picture that represents it.
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At the lower levels, children will find simple, common words. As the level increases, they will find more complex terms that they use less often in daily life.

Here’s an example in the following video:

What does this activity work on?

Language is essential for children to communicate. That’s why it’s so important to work on nouns, which help us name everything around us. In the activity What’s its name? Children have to match the names of various items with their pictures, working on their vocabulary.

Play by levels

Remember that you can choose any difficulty level you like to adapt the activity to each child’s needs and abilities. The harder the level, the more difficult the nouns and the more of them there are to match with the pictures.

Format

What’s its name? is available in both digital and paper formats.

If you enjoyed these activities to improve cognitive development in children, you may also be interested in these articles with more NeuronUP motivating activities for children:

“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Mejora el desarrollo cognitivo en niños: Actividades motivadoras para niños de NeuronUP