LearningWorks for Kids

New Super Mario Bros Wonder is Nintendo’s latest installment in the Mario Franchise, released October 20th, 2023. Fans of the series have been waiting for something new from these games since (debatably) the release of the Wii version back in November, 2009. The game breathes life into the platformer genre with vibrant animations and custom gameplay mechanics to suit any play style.

What is processing speed? Processing speed is one of the major steps in the cognitive process. It is an essential part of learning, academic performance, reasoning, and intellectual growth. Simply put, processing speed is how quickly the mind can make sense of the information it receives and react to it. This could be reading words on a page, catching a ball that is tossed from across the field, or listening to and keeping up with a friend’s story.

“How often should I let my child play video games?” might be the most common question I am asked as a child clinical psychologist. There are a lot of mixed opinions about the impact of screen time on growing kids. Some believe that video games are harmful to the developing brain, while others believe that they are incredibly beneficial. Some feel that video games have little to no effect on the brain at all. Truthfully, it’s more complicated than that.

If you have a child with ADHD or a learning disability, you must constantly be strategizing for how to get through the school year. Executive functioning deficits are difficult in a school setting. Skills like task initiation, focus, and planning are essential in completing academic work. Homework is especially challenging, considering that the kids are out of the learning environment and at home, potentially filled with easy distractions.

Extreme sports such as skateboarding, surfing, rock climbing, and snowboarding can improve executive functions as well as social and emotional learning. Kids may be pulled to these sports due to their cool, flashy stunts. They require a multileveled combination of balance and body awareness. Typically, learning the basics of these skills can be pretty straightforward for kids, but mastering them is often hard.

Flexible thinking is the secret to adaptability and success. Flexibility is an important Thinking Skill that enables children to adapt to new situations, improvise, and shift strategies in response to different types of challenges. It involves being able to consider different perspectives, generating multiple solutions to problems, and adjusting to changing circumstances. Flexible thinking is essential in a variety of contexts, including school, social situations, and daily life.

Does your child seem bright but take a long time to understand things? Does information go in one ear and right out the other? It’s possible that they struggle with slow processing speed. Processing speed is how long it takes your brain to take information in and do something with that information. This relates to classroom success, social connections, and overall ability to learn. Fortunately, slow processing speeds don’t mean that your child is unintelligent.

Working Memory acts as your on-the-go mental sticky notepad. Working Memory is a thinking skill that impacts how our minds process and remember information every day. This thinking skill is needed to retain and utilize pertinent information while being engaged in ongoing tasks and activities.

Video games are a modern platform that provides a host of opportunities to practice abilities such as creativity, problem-solving, and social skills. There is a wealth of research suggesting that games and technology can improve these skills. Some of the most interesting research about video games indicates that digital natives are more creative, engage in more social interactions, and are more innovative in their problem-solving than previous cohorts raised in the 70s and 80s.

It’s true that just an hour of preparation could shave hours off actually doing something. Being unprepared is a more significant stressor than being ready for something, right? The thinking skill, Planning, involves considering how to complete a task before beginning it. Planning is involved in almost every aspect of life.