The discussion about board games and it’s impact on society and personal lives and development has been on the rise lately.
A board game designer from Nigeria once opined “one thing about board gaming is that it appeals to everyone, it speaks a common language. It becomes interesting if it’s something you can relate to just like chess game. All games tell stories”.
Different board games cuts across different age groups and when you observe children long enough you will realize basically what kids need and want is the joy of spending time together, playing together and that environment filled with an aura of joyful innocence and board games have been known to create such environments of trust, learning and fun.
The benefits of board games to kids and society at large is quite magnanimous to be ignored, these games possess the tools to aid kids in :
- Understanding the concept of rules and following them
- Developing insight to reason about moral problems
- Developing cognitive skills to detect patterns
- Mastery of strategy
- Planning ahead and predicting outcomes of alternative moves.
Surely board games also go a long way to help the child’s educational outcome or attitude towards certain matters.
An instance is a kid I once met at an outdoor board gaming event whom before I introduced Mgbako(means to calculate in igbo language) a speed arithmetic board game agreed to be at odds with anything that had to do with maths.
But when he got to play the game with his great ability to easily detect patterns he was marveled he was able to solve arithmetic problems with ease and had fun doing it.
We also have games like CLUE which is a game of deductive logic, this will teach your kids about strategy there is little or no luck involved.
LUKU-LUKU is an education game with three editions, Map edition helps kids be aware of their surroundings in a fun way(this is mainly geographical), The Noun edition like the definition of noun helps the kids identify names of persons, animal, place or things; while the Abstract edition teaches them stars, numbers and regular shapes in a fun way and improves the kids eye-hand coordination.
Scrabble is a game used for verbal skill reinforcement and a good command of vocabulary. Chutes and Ladders may also help children develop a strong sense of number lines.
All these are educational games that over time have helped kids develop at a much faster rate. When we come to face the realities of developing countries such as Nigeria a multicultural, multi-ethnic and religious country games like Homia helps kids to understand the importance of peaceful coexistence and unity.
And in this era of technology and isolation, board games bridge that gap by offering bonding opportunities for family and friends and helps in fostering healthy relationships between parents, guardians and their kids.
Board games also help in teaching Kidd life and practical lessons, games like Monopoly teaches them the value of money, negotiating skills and risk-taking.
Board game is a useful and enjoyable medium to teach and communicate with children. And besides helping build confidence and teaching valuable social and academic skills, playing board games is simply fun and interesting.
Board games should be owned by all homes as it requires little investment and offers a lifetime of value and fun.
~Nwosu Tobenna