Logic games for children: thinking ahead, puzzling things out and developing strategies

Above all, they challenge spatial reasoning: turning, mirroring and combining shapes in your head. In a long-term observational study, children who had played with jigsaw puzzles between the ages of two and four solved a spatial task better at four and a half. This shows a link, not proof of cause and effect. However, an analysis of more than 200 studies shows that spatial skills can be improved through practice, that the gains last and that they also show up in other spatial tasks that were not practised.

Children already practise this between the ages of 4 and 6. There are child development experts who recommend increasingly challenging puzzles for three- to five-year-olds, as they call on visual working memory and planning. Between five and seven, logic puzzles and board games with a little strategy become interesting. Younger children tend to react to what is happening at the moment, older ones increasingly plan ahead, and they keep improving at planning tasks into adolescence. The age on the box is therefore a guideline: what matters is whether your child is challenged but not overwhelmed.

Perhaps the challenge is simply one level too hard. Go back a level so that your child succeeds again, and then increase the difficulty slowly. This matches the research: progress shows mainly when demands increase step by step, while tasks that are too easy soon become boring. Rather than the solution, a small hint can help, for example where the first piece goes. And praise perseverance and the approach, not just the result.

That cannot be demonstrated. A review of the studies did find small to moderate benefits for children who took chess lessons, but in the only study with an active comparison group, they were minimal. With other kinds of thinking training, too, the effect usually remains limited to similar tasks. Strategy and logic games are still valuable: game after game, they offer demanding practice in thinking ahead and changing plans, and many children simply enjoy them.