Modern parents are interested in finding products that might help their child develop specific skills that will support their development and possibly help them later in life.
According to many experts, chess is the perfect solution because this game is perfectly safe, fun and it can help any child enjoy a myriad of benefits simply by playing it on a regular basis. In order to understand why it’s a good idea for your child to start playing chess as soon as possible, we have decided to highlight the 9 most important benefits associated with this ancient game.
Numerous studies have proven that chess can make children smarter. This is quite natural because with the help of chess they can develop analytical skills, solving skills and other types of skills. The best part is that children can use these skills in other parts of their life too. The researchers from the University of Memphis have found that playing this game improves children’s spatial-reasoning ability, attention span, and visual memory. All these things make a child smarter and this is exactly what every parent wants.
Chess for children teaches and improves social skills. Of course, there is not much verbal communication in the process but social skills are more than having a conversation. Chess teaches children that they must learn how to lose and win gracefully. Every child can become skilled at waiting patiently as the other side analyzes their options. Of course, when children play at clubs, schools or homes they also get a chance to talk to other players once the game is finished. In other words, they will find out how to interact with other players in a proper way.
The days when vacations were used only for lying on a beach are long gone. The third reason why your child should play chess is that you can make their school holidays and vacations more meaningful. Of course, physical activity is a good thing, but you should not miss this opportunity to improve their mental capacity and chess is the best way to achieve this goal. This game can keep them busy for hours and they definitely think that this game is fun. You can play with each other or find them friends that know how to play chess. Don’t forget that you can play chess wherever you want.
Modern children spend many hours in front of their computers and TVs playing video games. Most of these video games are completely useless. They are usually featuring violence and other things that definitely don’t support the proper development of your child. On top of that, these video games can be bad for the vision and for the physical health of your child (improper posture etc.). Chess is an excellent alternative to this activity because it won’t affect their physical health in a negative way and it will do wonders for their skills and mental health too.
While playing chess, children will be able to acquire the skill of concentration. As we all know, children have difficulties focusing on tasks and that’s why parents should do their best to help them. Chess requires a significant amount of concentration if you want to win a game. By letting your child learn more about this game, you will help them learn how to concentrate on a single task at once. They will certainly want to finish this task.
Some might say that this is a little bit illogical, but the truth is that numerous scientific studies have shown that playing chess has an indirect impact on language skills. Namely, chess is affecting different functions of the human brain that have an impact on the language skills like logic for example. Developing proper language skills should be one of your top priorities as a parent and chess is a simple way to achieve this goal.
It seems that chess improves logical thinking skills in more than one way. First of all, it helps children think strategically. With its help they can learn how to make plans, adjust to new situations and create a new approach/strategy. Next, chess helps them strengthen their planning abilities. We all know that the most successful chess players are thinking 3-4 steps ahead. Finally, this game increases their brain muscles too.
Finally, it’s good to point out that your child should play chess because chess teaches children some very important life skills. For instance, due to the fact that this game is mostly non-verbal, children can learn how to detect body language. Furthermore, this ancient game helps them develop managing skills and learn how to control impulses. Chess is here to teach them that making decisions too fast or too slow can be wrong. Through chess, children can learn how to delay gratification because it is sometimes better to let go a piece that you can capture in order to get a better one in the next turn.
