When we think about brain power, we tend to think about intelligence and knowledge. But what really sets a child up for learning life skills — even being happy — is a set of abilities that psychologists call “executive function,” which involves four general skills:

1. Attention – focusing, sustaining and shifting when necessary;

2. Impulse control – not always doing or saying what comes to mind;

3. Working memory – holding and using multiple thoughts; and

4. Planning – planning and carrying out a sequence of actions to achieve a goal or solve a problem, and adjusting those plans if the situation changes.

Here are some games and activities that help cultivate these skills.

Pretend or dramatic play

During dramatic play, children must hold their own role and the roles of others in mind. That exercises their working memory. They have to stay in character, which helps with their inhibitory control. And they have to adjust to the twists and turns in the evolving plot, which requires them to think flexibly.

Storytelling

Another rich activity is storytelling, which requires the listening kids to pay attention for long periods. Listening to a story promotes a different area of brain development than what kids get from reading a picture book. When kids listen to a story, they use their working memory to keep track of the characters and what has happened so far, and relate that to new information as the story progresses.

Obstacle course

Set up a course where your child has to go under and over various barriers (like couch cushions and coffee tables) and through tunnels. Varying the course or increasing its complexity will help to keep your child challenged. Being able to control your body and plan physical actions is a fundamental part of learning how to manage your brain. So any activity that works on the child’s coordination and requires him to figure out how to do multi-step actions to achieve a goal, is good for executive function, particularly if you keep adding new variations to the game.

Using a timer

Preschoolers not only have enormous difficulty waiting, they don’t understand how long a half hour is. One way to make the wait a little easier for kids  is to set a timer and let the child watch it count down until it’s time to go. Timers, including egg timers, digital microwave timers and wind-up kitchen timers give children a visual representation of time counting down. This helps them learn to plan and pace themselves.

Simon Says

This is the interactive game Simon Says we used to play as kids.
When someone says, ‘Touch your nose,’ every young child’s impulse will be to touch her nose.” But, in order to succeed in the game, the child has to listen and wait for the words, “Simon Says.”

I Spy…

Another interactive game, I Spy, is ideal because it involves planning. Kids have to connect the verbal clue with what they can see around them, and must adjust their plan as they get more information in the form of clues. “You’re getting colder” tells the child she’s searching in the wrong direction, and “You’re getting warmer” tells her she’s close.

Making cookies

Children love messing with (and eating!) cookie dough. Depending on your child’s age and dexterity (and your tolerance for kitchen chaos) he/she can help you measure out ingredients, or just add them pre-measured. Following a recipe requires a child to work within a plan, and to keep ‘updating’ the plan as they think about what has been done so far, and what needs to be done next.

Feely bag

Put familiar toys or objects in a cloth bag (plastic toy animals work well), and have a child stick his hand in the bag and try to guess what object he is holding just from how it feels.
Variation: The child can feel the objects from the outside of the bag.

How it helps: Feely bag requires working memory too, but it also requires kids to connect sensory information (in this case the shape and texture of the object) with their internal picture of what the animal looks like.

Painting and colouring

Colouring and painting require sustained attention. What all these activities have in common is that kids are doing: using their bodies, their minds and their senses at the same time in ways that help them understand how to use their brain power to make things happen.