12 Ways To Improve A Child’s Brain Health
Do you have any idea how you can stimulate your child’s brain? The brain works around the clock and needs stimulation to develop. Find out how.
What do we mean when we talk about brain health? Quite simply that the child reacts to the indicators of development and to the emotional indicators according to his age. To do this, it is important to stimulate the brain health of the child.
Based on this statement, we can infer that good brain health is essential for the child to acquire social skills and meet the demands of school appropriately. Here are some ideas for boosting children’s brain health.
How to promote a child’s brain health
To stimulate the brain, it is recommended to do aerobics or brain gymnastics. It is a set of exercises that allow both brain hemispheres to work through physical and mental strategies.
As you will see below, we recommend physical and mental exercises that encourage the creation of neural interconnections in the brain.
1. Make parallel drawing
Invite your child to take two pencils, one in each hand. Place a large sheet of paper in front of it, or two sheets if there is none. It’s time for him to get to work: the idea is to draw at the same time with both hands.
He must perform different movements: up or down, in a circular manner, etc. This simple (and fun) exercise encourages fine motor skills and writing.
2. Crawling in a cross
Let’s play a little at being babies and crawl in a cross! The goal of this game is to improve coordination and activate the brain through vision and kinesthesia.
To do this, the child has to move an opposite arm and leg to move forward, crawling like a baby. As the child gets to the rhythm, variations can be made including other senses. For example, playing music to move forward and turning it off when the child needs to be still.
3. Engage in memory exercises to boost a child’s brain health
Memory games are great family fun and also help children work on this often overlooked area of thinking.
4. Do puzzles
Puzzles help children make a total composition from pieces, encouraging logic and concentration. Increase the number of coins according to your child’s progress. Remember that the ages recommended by the manufacturers are only indicative.
5. Solve Sudoku
Older children can do Sudoku at first with help. These exercises are good for encouraging concentration, logical thinking, and attention.
6. Paint
Read a story with your child, then invite them to paint or draw it. This will help him to work on creativity, memory, comprehension and the expression of emotions.
7. Do musical activities to boost a child’s brain health
Learning to play an instrument is a recommended activity for promoting a child’s brain health. For example, playing the piano involves understanding the notes that are read, deciphering them, and transmitting them to the hands, which must coordinate the movements well for the melody to sound good.
8. Play with plasticine
Plasticine is a good option for stimulating fine motor skills, while working on the eye-hand relationship. You can play with your child to create all kinds of animals and even associate the game with a story you have read to work on understanding and representation.
Other tips for getting stimulation
Mental gymnastics is not the only way to promote a child’s brain health, in fact you should also:
- Speak to your children, even when they are newborn : exposure to language from an early age helps them develop comprehension while internalizing the mother tongue and its cultural components
- Avoid prolonged exposure to stress : prolonged exposure to stress has been shown to affect a child’s cognitive development
- Read to your children : Like conversation, reading aloud is essential for stimulating language development and social skills
- Watch your kids : eye contact helps them develop emotional relationships and learn social behaviors
- Kiss your children : physical contact is essential for social and emotional development
- Encourage sport in the life of your children : outdoor activities help your children to work on their emotions, motor skills and social skills
If you want to boost your child’s brain health, see a specialist. They can recommend other options to work on your child’s mental capacity.
