5 Easy Games To Develop Your Child’s Auditory Memory

Auditory perception is our brain’s ability to interpret and create clear impressions of sounds from our surroundings. Remembering the things we hear and recalling them is among the key aspects that make up its whole, aptly termed auditory memory. While it may seem simple enough, recognising sounds and voices and identifying the details behind them is, in reality, a very complex process that develops during the early stages of life. If it is hampered in some way, children may face difficulties at school and in everyday life in various ways, such as reading.

Auditory Memory And Its Role In Reading

Developing a child’s auditory memory is crucial as it is a vital part that enables them to understand the things they hear and follow directions and multi-part instructions. Besides managing and navigating school life easily, auditory memory skills are also essential in developing one’s overall auditory perception, which largely affects reading ability. Children must learn to remember and recognise sounds to decode words when spelling and reading. Therefore, auditory memory is indispensable in building their pre-reading skills.

5 Fun Games To Promote Your Child’s Auditory Memory Development

Apart from enjoyment, parents can also leverage play time to develop various skills in their children, including auditory memory. Below are a few fun and simple games that can promote the proper development of this essential skill so they can thrive in reading and language, Math, and many other subjects in their schooling.

1. Musical chairs

Musical chairs is a classic game that has long been a staple in many a kid’s birthday party. As a refresher, playing this game requires chairs set up in a circle numbering one less than the total players and a music player. When the music starts, everyone walks around the chairs, and they race to find a seat once it stops. The person left standing is out of the game, and another chair is removed from the circle. Repeat the steps until a winner is decided. This game trains a child’s listening skills and how they can quickly pick up on sounds.

2. Telephone

The telephone game is another fun game whose goal is to pass the correct message from one player to another until the end. This game is ideal for developing auditory memory skills as they must correctly pass on what they heard instantly. To play the game, players sit in a circle with one person thinking up a message or phrase to pass on to the player next to them. Then, each person takes turns whispering what they heard until it reaches the last person, who will repeat what they heard out loud. As the original message often gets lost in the process, the telephone game no doubt makes for plenty of fun and laughter!

3. Storytime

Despite being a simple activity, reading to your children has immense value beyond quality bonding time. When telling a story, try to see if your child can remember what happened at the beginning or several pages ago. Asking about specific details and their potential relevance to the current part of the story helps to enhance a child’s working memory and develop their thinking skills.

4. Take messages

At home, parents can turn the simple task of delivering messages to family members into a game for their child. Instead of simply calling out or sending a chat message, you could have your child play postman, so to speak, and task them with delivering a very important message to someone in the house. See if they can relay the message correctly, like in the telephone game, along with every detail you mentioned.

5. Treasure hunt

Have your little ones embark on a mini treasure hunt around the house for their favourite treats, a new toy, or anything else they enjoy. Give them clues to its hidden location and tag along on their search. The goal is to test and train their auditory memory by giving them various steps and multiple instructions to follow.

Conclusion

Auditory perception enables children to effectively understand and interpret stimuli captured by their ears and covers more than just functional hearing. With auditory memory playing a critical role in this type of perception, it is vital to be attentive to whether they exhibit signs of auditory perceptual problems involving “forgetting” messages and instructions.

Apart from training at home with games and fun activities like those discussed above, enrolling in a literacy enrichment program in Singapore can also promote its development. At The Brain Academia Singapore, our comprehensive enrichment classes help to optimise your child’s greatest asset — their brain — and overcome the developmental roadblocks hindering them from reaching their true potential. With measurable, lifetime results and many positive testimonials from satisfied parents, your child’s accelerated growth is guaranteed at our decorated learning enrichment centre.

To learn more about our team and personalised cognitive development training programs, fill out this form today and get started on your child’s improvement journey today!

Creativity In Kids: Why It’s Important & How To Foster It

As the freest form of self-expression, creativity can reflect and nurture a child’s mental and emotional health. With everyone having gone through a childhood of their own, just about anyone can attest to the satisfaction and fulfilment of expressing themselves openly and without judgement. Thus, the experiences of our little ones during their early years can enhance their creativity. This is further supported by studies such as the findings published by Educational Researcher and Education Nest that discovered bringing children to cultural institutions like museums can promote stronger critical thinking skills, better memory, and a high level of cultural tolerance, for starters. In the following sections, we further explore the impact of creativity on children and the whys and hows of fostering it.

Importance of Creativity and The Creative Process

For children, all they really need to be creative is the freedom to wholly commit themselves to whatever activities they wish to pursue. Simply put, self-expression is the most important aspect of any creative act. Creative experiences can help our little ones convey and cope with their feelings, and it also helps parents and teachers learn more about what they are thinking about. Creativity also fosters a child’s mental growth as it provides boundless opportunities to check out new ideas, ways of problem-solving, and lines of thought. Creative activities help celebrate and acknowledge a child’s uniqueness and diversity and offer prime opportunities for personalised teaching. Some of the aspects in which creativity impacts a child’s development include:

Mental growth

Creativity promotes a child’s mental growth through challenges involving spatial relationships, equality, balance, shape, measurements, problem-solving, and more.

Divergent thinking

Activities involving wonder, curiosity, inquiry, reflection, and supported confusion all help to develop divergent thinking in children.

Social and verbal skills

Understanding the needs of others and their different perspectives and values helps to shape a child’s social skills.

Various skills development

Sensory perception, hand-eye coordination, and attention span are all developed through free play, storytelling, and intentional projects, respectively.

Tips To Foster Creativity

1. Provide plenty of opportunities

Our little ones need many opportunities for creative thinking and creative play. The best place to start is to engage them in activities based on their ideas and interests and give them a wide range of creative supplies. Remember, being creative goes beyond just drawings or scribbles; there is also music, sculpting, photography, field trips and adventures, and more. The possibilities are virtually endless. It is vital to give our children as much time as possible to discover and pursue their thoughts and ideas, including time for planning, designing, constructing, experimenting, and revising project ideas.

2. Include a variety of experiences

Look for ways to provide community experiences for children, such as field trips, bringing over friends from school to visit, and celebrating birthdays and other events with neighbours to enhance their creative process. The more varied their life and personal experiences are beyond their own environment, the wider the range of their creative expression and the more materials they can draw and incorporate when playing.

3. Focus on the creative process

Regarding creativity, it is vital to encourage children to make their own choices. As stated, they should be permitted frequent opportunities and ample time to experience and experiment with different expressive materials. Put emphasis on their creative process and journey instead of the final result, and show your support by offering assistance and expressing your appreciation for their efforts. Control and independence are two critical components of this creative process, especially regarding children with disabilities.

4. Make time for creative play

Creative play is one of if not the most important types of creative activity for our little ones. It is expressed when they use materials they are already familiar with in new and unusual ways or when engaging in imaginative play and role-playing. Nothing nourishes their soul and reinforces their spirit better than giving them lots of time to engage in self-directed, spontaneous play throughout the day.

Through this activity, children can cope and express their feelings and relieve stress and pressure as they can simply be themselves without needing to live up to adult standards. Play lets kids have the opportunity to gain mastery over their environment and control the experience through their imagination and exercise their decision-making skills as they progress through playtime.

Moreover, play develops children’s individual styles and unique perspectives of creative expression as it conveys their personal responses to a given environment. It is a self-expressive, free-form, and open-ended activity that draws on their powers of imagination to build on and experiment with past ideas and try out new ones.

Check out our previous article for the cognitive benefits of play!

Conclusion

Many studies have demonstrated the positive impact of creativity, from childhood to adulthood, on an individual’s emotional intelligence and various skills. Thus, creative expression greatly impacts and is a key ingredient to a child’s healthy development.

For the best and most efficient way of nurturing your child’s creativity, cognitive skills, and other capabilities, look no further than The Brain Academia. As one of the leading learning centres in Singapore, our cognitive development training and enrichment programs combine fun and effective classes that bring out your little one’s full potential.

For information about our offers, do not hesitate to contact us today by filling up this contact form.

Metacognition Issues And How To Help Your Kids Overcome It

Metacognition is referred to as the way we think about our thinking. Children leverage metacognition to carefully consider the right steps to solving a problem or completing a project. This can be observed in puzzle-solving when they say things like “I’ll sort out the pieces first” or “I’ll connect the edge pieces before going to the centre”. These phrases are called “think-alouds”, and they are a good sign of healthy metacognition.

Children with learning disabilities or challenges typically show signs indicating learning strategies and metacognition issues. They may also have difficulty organising their thoughts or reaching critical learning objectives.

For instance, a child with metacognition problems often gives up easily on their assignments or does not start them in the first place. They may have a hard time with long-form projects like research papers or book reports. Moreover, they often forget that the first step to these tasks is to plan out the steps necessary to complete them. As such, it is common for their school days to be filled with frustration and failure, with their teachers commenting that they “don’t do their work” or are “unmotivated”.

Causes of Metacognition Issues

There are several reasons why children can have problems with their metacognition, such as:

Self-monitoring and self-regulated learning problems

Children with metacognition difficulties might say that they read an entire passage yet cannot recall what it was about. In these cases, they are likely not “thinking about thinking” by asking questions such as “what is this sentence trying to say?” or “does this paragraph make sense?”

Becoming overwhelmed

Children with poor metacognition are easily susceptible to getting overwhelmed by the number of tasks piling up in their minds. Their teacher may assign a new set of assignments, and they immediately think it is impossible to complete everything.

Problems affecting general executive functioning

Children with metacognition troubles may find completing the tasks much more challenging than their peers. For instance, they may have a hard time getting started with their homework, finding the tools they need to do it, remembering the steps to complete the task, and coming up with a plan to implement said steps. These are all executive functions, with metacognition being one of the most important on the list.

Tips and Strategies for Poor Metacognition

1. Provide visual checklists

Creating visual checklists, concept maps, and graphic organisers is one of the best ways to help a child develop their metacognition and avoid getting overwhelmed. This is because making a list of tasks more tangible can do wonders to take the pressure off. Moreover, this type of “scaffolding” can also help improve their sequential processing skills.

2. Try model strategies

A model strategy is a technique often referred to as “thinking aloud”. For instance, when making breakfast, a child can list out the necessary steps aloud “I will get the recipe first and the ingredients and cooking supplies I need. Next, I will prepare the ingredients and start preheating the pan.” In this way, they can see a problem-solving approach.

3. Start with the easy jobs first

Starting with quick and “doable” tasks is a good way to help children who are hesitant to start a task become more confident in getting started. For instance, when working on a school paper, they could start with the easiest step of listing out topic ideas that they can explore. That can suffice for the morning, and they can work on the next step of choosing their favourite topic from the list and making an outline later in the afternoon or evening.

Conclusion

Since metacognition is among our many executive functions, it is set to develop until adolescence. If you notice your child saying they often feel lost in class or when reading books and see that their grades have steadily been dropping, it may be best to seek professional help and enrol them in cognitive development training in Singapore to turn things around.

If your child is ready to boost their metacognition and other cognitive functions, The Brain Academia’s reliable enrichment classes developed with an outcome-oriented methodology will give their brain power and abilities a significant boost. Whether you are looking for a reading enrichment program or Singapore Math enrichment program, you can count on our effective cognitive brain training programs to help your child unlock their true potential in a fun and engaging way.

Simply fill out this contact form to get in touch and begin your child’s journey with us!

Visual Perception: What It Is, Importance & How To Develop It

Early childhood is when children develop at the fastest rate, and the first years of a child’s life are crucial for their brain development. Although the brain continues to develop throughout life, the high rate at which it does so in a child’s first years is unmatched.

Among the various skills that should be cultivated, most parents focus on the more commonly known ones, such as logical thinking, creativity and more. One crucial skill that is often neglected but needs to be developed in a child’s early years is visual perception.

To learn more about visual perception, its importance and how to develop it, keep on reading!

What is logical thinking?

Logical thinking is basically the ability to comprehend and integrate the rules of basic logical inference into day-to-day activities. It involves thinking in a step-by-step process and utilising what you know to draw conclusions. The ability to think logically is an innate and universal trait of humans. It requires a profound understanding of attributes, sequences, and relationships and is essential both in formal learning and in daily activities.

Why is logical thinking important for children?

Children should be taught to develop logical thinking abilities early, as these skills help them become fast, analytical thinkers. With logical thinking, children become more prepared to face and handle the realities of life. They are likely to make better and more informed decisions, especially when they become adults. Here are some major benefits of developing logical thinking in children:

1. Activates their brain

When children are introduced to logical thinking through quizzes and puzzles, their brain becomes activated, and their memory and concentration are improved. Brain teasers and logical puzzles are hard hobbies that require focus and patience. They help stimulate the mind and keep the brain in excellent working condition.

2. Enhances their critical thinking ability

If children are taught to build their logical thinking skills from the beginning, they will acquire the ability to solve problems more effectively through the application of their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Instead of depending on others, children must be trained to deal with concerns and obstacles on their own in order to develop their critical thinking ability and stimulate their creativity.

3. Serves as a foundation for mathematical concepts

Simply memorising a subject will not help children in the long term. Especially in difficult subjects like Mathematics, what is necessary is that children understand the logic behind what they are learning, so that they can apply them in real-life situations. Most mathematical concepts require children to think and act logically. This is why developing logical thinking is a key focus in many Math enrichment programs in Singapore.

Conclusion

Overall, logical thinking plays a crucial role in children’s development because it enables them to identify the difference between right and wrong. Children with well-developed logical thinking abilities also have better reasoning, thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. As such, logical thinking is undoubtedly one of the most essential life skills that children must be taught at an early age.

If you are looking to sign up your child for cognitive brain training in Singapore that will help them develop various skills like logical thinking, The Brain Academia is the learning centre you should go for! We have a variety of fun and effective cognitive brain training programs and enrichment classes that will definitely allow your child to develop many vital life skills.

With the use of our outcome-oriented approach, we will ensure that your child achieves their fullest potential while enjoying their learning experience at the same time! Check out our article on the cognitive benefits of learning through play to get an idea of how we conduct our training programs and enrichment classes.

For information about our offers, do not hesitate to contact us today by filling up this contact form.

5 Activities That Can Improve Your Kid’s Communication Skills

Every child should learn how to communicate effectively. Children who have good communication skills can thrive in a variety of areas of their lives and form meaningful connections with others. Strong communication skills will also help children express themselves clearly, which can aid in boosting their confidence and reduce the risk of behavioural disorders developing.

Given the many reasons why communication skills are essential, the question lies – how do you see to it that your child acquires strong communication skills?

Well, here are 5 engaging activities that can improve your child’s communication abilities!

1. Reading aloud

One of the easiest ways to help your child develop communication skills is by encouraging them to read aloud. Reading aloud helps to develop a child’s pronunciation, understanding and knowledge of words and how to communicate effectively. It also helps improve their listening skills!

Set aside every day for your child to read aloud. Remember to pick books that are suitable for their age and reading ability. You may even make it more enjoyable but quizzing them about the narrative, characters and storyline.

2. Telephone game

Children of all ages can participate in this well-liked and entertaining activity, which helps build excellent listening skills. You may even gather other members of the family to make it a fun bonding activity!

Here’s how to play: Set up a circle of chairs so everyone can easily speak to one another. When everyone in the circle has had a turn, start with the first individual who will whisper a message into the ear of the player seated to the right, who then whispers it into his neighbour’s ears, and so on. The final participant reads aloud the message.

3. Charades

Your child can greatly enhance their speaking skills by playing games. Particularly, they can improve his or her abilities in speaking, listening, and critical thinking by playing games like charades.

In the game of charades, one participant acts out a word or phrase, and the other participants must determine what it is. Children will learn to communicate without using language by playing this game. This helps to strengthen their non-verbal communication and non-verbal reasoning skills. These non-verbal communication skills complement verbal communication, and will make your child a better communicator.

4. Writing

Writing exercises are an excellent method to help your child better their speaking skills. Writing helps children improve their language, spelling, grammar, and sentence construction. It also improves their creativity and critical thinking abilities.

Encourage your kid to write stories, notes, or journals every day. You can offer them a subject or prompt to write about, or let them choose their own. You can also provide comments on their work and help them better their language and sentence construction.

5. Speech and drama

Speech and drama is another way to help your child improve their communication skills whilst having fun! Speech and drama helps children develop their public speaking skills and learn how to organise their thoughts and speak effectively. Moreover, it also helps fosters their creativity and builds on their confidence. Learning to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are playing will also aid in the development of their social skills and empathy.

Conclusion

To sum up, communication skills are essential for a child’s overall development and success in various aspects of their lives. By getting your child involved in activities like reading aloud, the telephone game, charade, writing, and speech and drama, you can help them develop their communication skills and encourage creativity, boost their self-esteem, and more!

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, you should also think about signing your child up for cognitive development training. Whether you’re searching for a Singapore Math enrichment program or English language enrichment, The Brain Academia’s comprehensive programs are designed to enable kids to reach their maximum potential by enhancing their cognitive abilities. Our programs can assist kids in overcoming learning difficulties and acquiring fundamental abilities like communication skills, visual awareness, critical thinking, originality, problem-solving, and more.

To learn more, feel free to contact us by filling out this form.

5 Strategies To Develop Reading Comprehension Skills In Kids

Reading comprehension skills are essential for children to thrive intellectually and in life. These skills include the capacity for reading, interpreting, and evaluating written material, which is vital for success in academic settings, professional settings, and interpersonal interactions.

However, it is common for kids to have trouble understanding what they read, which can cause frustration, subpar scholastic results, and low self-esteem. Luckily, there are a number of methods that parents can employ to support a child’s reading literacy development.

Without further ado, here are 5 strategies to develop reading comprehension skills in kids.

1. Start with the basics – phonics and vocabulary

The ability to identify and sound out individual letters and letter combinations is known as phonics. Phonics is one of the most crucial components of reading literacy. Children who are learning phonics can decipher syllables and comprehend word formation. Vocabulary is also important for reading comprehension because children need to know the meaning of words in order to grasp what they are reading. As a result, it is crucial to teach children vocabulary and phonics before advancing to more complex reading comprehension techniques. Flashcards, word games, and reading activities are just a few of the resources that parents and teachers can use to teach phonics and vocabulary to young children.

2. Encourage active reading

Asking questions, drawing links, and visualising the material are all examples of active reading. Children who read regularly will be better able to comprehend and retain what they are reading. By posing questions about the text, parents can encourage children to be active readers. Engaging them in discussions about the text allows children to learn reading techniques, such as making predictions, summarising the material, and asking questions.

Children can use a variety of techniques, such as summarising, predicting, asking questions, picturing, and drawing links, to increase their reading comprehension. These techniques aid kids in comprehending the book, retaining crucial information, and engaging with the subject matter.

3. Provide books at the right level

Ensuring that your child receives plenty of experience reading books that are not too challenging is imperative. They should be able to identify at least 90% of the words on their own. Children will find it difficult to concentrate on the general meaning of the story if they have to pause more frequently to attempt to decipher the words.

Look for books that are designed to bridge the gap for growing readers who are transitioning from books of varying difficulty levels.

4. Use graphic organisers

Children can develop their reading comprehension skills more easily with the aid of graphic organisers. They can use them to summarise the information they’ve read, link various informational components, and illustrate the information. Since they give the information a visual depiction and make it easier for kids to understand how various bits of information connect to one another, graphic organisers can be particularly beneficial for kids who have trouble understanding what they are reading.

5. Make reading fun

Making reading pleasant and entertaining for kids is crucial for developing their reading comprehension skills. Children who appreciate reading and view it as a fun activity are more apt to acquire good reading comprehension skills. By selecting books and materials that are fascinating and engaging for kids, parents can make reading enjoyable.

Additionally, when reading aloud to their children, parents can use a variety of voices and intonations to make the characters come to life. You may even ask your kid to act out certain scenes or illustrate their favourite passages in the book.

Conclusion

Children must master reading comprehension skills if they are to thrive in school and beyond. Parents can help kids develop their reading comprehension abilities and become effective readers by employing the five tactics we have listed above. With these strategies, your child can become a confident and proficient reader and build solid reading comprehension skills that will benefit them throughout their lifetime.

Besides these strategies, consider enrolling your child in a reading enrichment program in Singapore. Here at The Brain Academia, our literacy enrichment program focuses on strengthening the weak underlying cognitive skills that could be the cause of your child’s literacy struggles. This could include auditory processing skills, visual processing skills, attention skills and more.

What sets us apart is our ground-breaking “sound to code” reading and spelling method, which is based on how young children first learn spoken language. Students who participated in our literacy enrichment program have been found to make reading progress equivalent of 3 to 4 years in just 6 months.

We are an established learning centre that offers a range of fun, extensive and effective cognitive development training programs for children. To learn more, feel free to get in touch with us by filling out this contact form!

5 Easy Games To Develop Your Child’s Auditory Memory