Brain Games for Kids: Boost Your 5-7-Year-Old’s Cognitive Skills In Play!

As a parent, you want to do everything you can to help your child succeed. You read to them, talk with them, and provide them with a healthy home environment. But what about their cognitive skills? How can you help boost those? Brain games for kids are one way! Keep reading to learn more.

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Physical fitness, emotional intelligence, and cognitive skills are critical elements in a child's healthy development. Several physical activities might improve a child's physical fitness. Emotional intelligence is constantly developing through interaction with others. We have a fantastic blog post about daily activities that you must do with your child to grow their EQ.

RELATED: 10 Powerful Emotional Intelligence Activities to Raise Healthy Kids

When a child's brain is engaged in regular age-appropriate cognitive tasks, their cognitive skills improve. Brainteasers, board games, books, and quizzes are great ways to provide kids with enough mental strain and foster new brain abilities through play.

Brain games for 5-7-year-olds

For ages 5 through 7, we can distinguish between two types of brain games: brainteasers and board games.

Brainteasers are designed to develop a specific cognitive ability. They are particularly beneficial when your child needs to enhance visual attention or spatial perception or visual-motor integration, among other things. Brainteasers are fantastic support for building the foundation for successful reading, writing, and arithmetic comprehension in kids in grades K-3. As a rule of thumb, if your kid has never attempted to solve a brainteaser in their life, start with the most uncomplicated activity possible. After learning to complete the simpler task quickly, your youngster will feel encouraged to try more challenging and age-appropriate puzzles.

Brainteasers teach children to think and concentrate on solving problems while developing a growth mindset and self-confidence. Children with a growth mentality are more likely to face life and learning difficulties in an optimistic light. Introducing brainteasers to young children help them develop pre-mathematics, pre-reading, and pre-writing skills that will aid in their later schooling success. In general, solving brain teasers is an excellent approach to preparing children for school.

Board games for 5-7-year-olds also can be used to train the brain. Moreover, board games develop emotional intelligence through interaction with other players, self-control through following the game's rules, and strategic thinking needed to win.

We've compiled a list of the greatest brain games for children aged 5 to 7 years old below.

Smart Games and Brainteasers for 5-7-year-olds

The Smart Games company, in our opinion, produces the greatest brain teasers for youngsters. Their games are colorful, have fascinating themes, and are well-done. The most valuable aspect of these games is a booklet with challenges that comes with it. These challenges are carefully planned in terms of both complexity and difficulty, from the most basic to the most challenging, allowing kids to build confidence as they progress. 

Such brain games attract children's attention and naturally get them interested in cognitive work. With challenges built into it, the booklet's structure resembles the Kumon approach in its gradual increase in difficulty with each activity. For example, there are numerous Tangram puzzles on Amazon. However, we recommend Tangoes by Smart Games because of the booklet with challenges; other Tangrams do not have this smart booklet organization.

The following is a list of brainteasers that we believe are the most age-appropriate and help develop essential talents in 5-7-year-olds. Often, the manufacturer's age labels may vary from those displayed here. It shouldn't worry you because the simplest challenges can solve even much younger kids in most of these games. And gradually build their brain skills.

Games to boost spatial insight and visual perception

All the brain games in this category improve spatial and visual perception. However, the more of them you have, the better result you'll see. Children would get bored with just a few brainteasers very soon. Moreover, all these brain games improve various aspects of the skill and grow the spatial insight in different dimensions. Thus, "Puzzle Beach" is a two-dimensional game that helps a child navigate the plane dimension. On the other hand, "Sleeping Beauty Deluxe," " Temple Trap," or "Temple Connection Dragon Edition" boosts three-dimensional thinking.

Manufacturers' ages are frequently set too high, implying that a year younger child can easily complete Starter tasks. For example, the Camelot Jr. age is 4-9, but my son could finish the booklet with challenges at around 5 years. The same goes for Color Code (first 10 challenges at 3.5 years old) or Road Block (Junior level at the age of 5). However, Tangoes or Pirates Jr.- Hide and Seek were too difficult for him at the age of 5, so he started working his way through the first levels by the time he was 6.

We're trying to convey that every kid is unique, so you never know where your child's weak areas are. That is why it's a good idea to have more of these brain games on hand and for your child to work on them simultaneously. Making use of this, you'll be able to identify your child's deficient areas in spatial perception and visual-motor skills and train them right away.

GIGAMIC's Katamino is a must-have brainteaser for every 5-7 year old to enhance visual-motor integration and develop spatial insight skills. The Katamino brainteaser is a good way for your youngster to learn about geometry and 3D forms. These abilities provide a solid basis for further geometry comprehension.

Board games for 5-7-year-olds: boost cognitive skills, self-regulation, and impulse control

Board games are the finest method to improve your child's cognitive abilities, develop their weak areas, and connect emotionally with them. Playing board games can help improve a child's cognitive skills without realizing it.

If you notice that your 5-7-year-old is not engaged in the game, create some customized routines for playing board games and mix the game they must learn with games they enjoy.

How to start playing board games with a 5-year-old?

In our family, we have board game night every Saturday. We bring in some food, have a delicious dinner all together, and then start playing. We never combine playing the game with food as chewing distracts children from thinking.

When our son was 5 years old, he didn't show any interest in playing board games as they seemed boring for him. But he had a sheer interest in everything about money-making, the price of things, etc. My son's interest in money developed because he started getting his first allowance and felt free to buy things he wanted. We played around with this interest and offered to play Monopoly. So, we assured him that this was a game about money and that he might learn how to generate even more money with the current funds. Then we ordered his favorite meal and had a pleasant dinner altogether. 

On our typical day, children have the nighttime routine after dinner. This time, we told our son that he could stay with us like a big boy, and we played the good old Monopoly for several hours. By the way, since that time, Monopoly has been one of his favorite games. Then we started introducing many more complicated board games every other week. And this was a win. Having a lot of games to choose from helped our son not feel pressured and select the game he was in the mood for.

This blog post will show you board games that provide many cognitive benefits for children; therefore, most of these games are not simple and require a lot of thought. They may be difficult for your youngster to learn. You'll need time to practice playing before they genuinely begin enjoying these games. Your child's age, cognitive development, and experience with brainteasers, basic board games, and so on will all influence how well they'll be able to play.

Board games engage several cognitive processes at once, but we organized them by the main cognitive function they improve. Even if they're in the same category, the following games still enhance distinct abilities; therefore, having more than one is preferable. We suggest that you go through each game in the group and choose the one that is appropriate for your kid to start with.

RELATED: The Best Board Game for 5 Year Olds That Kids Really Love

1. Two-player games to boost strategic and flexible thinking

The Genius Square is a clever Katamino-like game with a competitive edge. This game has a few simple rules and is fantastic for long road trips. If your child has previously solved Tetris or Katamino puzzles, they will enjoy this game a lot. There are over 62 000 combinations in this game, so you'll never be bored. Spatial thinking and insight are both enhanced by the game.

The Genius Star is a more complex follow-up of the genius square, with triangles replacing the squares. It offers far more possibilities than the basic Genius Square, with around 165 000 options. This game is more difficult for kids since it includes triangles, the most complicated shape for children to comprehend. As a result, we suggest purchasing this game after you've completed The Genius Square or if your child has strong visual attention and spatial thinking skills. The Genius Star is an absolute must-have in both situations.

Quoridor is a fantastic two-player game for kids aged 5 to 7. The game improves logical thinking, spatial perception, attention, and visual-motor coordination. Quoridor may help you and your child get both brains working and improve your cognitive skills. It's a very engaging game that youngsters will enjoy.

Gemblo is a fascinating strategic game that up to six people may play. The components in this game are gleaming and translucent, looking like precious stones, which will pique children's interest. The game's mechanisms are easy enough for children aged 5 to 7. This is a very entertaining game, but it also has significant benefits for young minds. Gemblo improves visual and spatial attention, planning, strategic thinking, and spatial reasoning. 

The game is frequently compared to well-known Blokus, but it features hexagons instead of squares. It can accommodate up to 6 players, making it ideal for large families or a group of friends. Overall, this game is just another variation of other similar games (including the genius square and star), where you must fit a shape in a specific location. Gemblo is a fantastic game that may help your youngster get ready for math classes, especially geometry, from an early age while being fun and engaging! Gemblo is not available on Amazon; you can find it either on other marketplaces or buy Blokus instead, as they are so similar.

Hive is a terrific game that prepares children for Chess. Even 5-year-olds can recall all of the insects' allowed actions and play accordingly. Depending on your child's abilities, they may enjoy or dislike this game. If Hive is still a challenging game for a child, start with checkers and work your way up to this more complex strategy. That said, most 6-7-year-olds play this game without difficulty and even win when playing with adults. This game is well-made, portable, and ideal for vacations. Hive is an excellent method to get your child interested in strategy games while also developing their cognitive abilities.

Pentago is a more complex version of tic tac toe. For a very good reason, this strategy game has won numerous awards. This game requires you to consider, plan, and picture your future actions as well as the potential moves of your opponent. Pentago improves various cognitive abilities, the most significant of which are visual-motor skills.

Checkers is the first introduction to the world of two-player strategy games for a young kid. This game is easy to learn and quick to play for most 5-year-olds, especially if they have previously played tic-tac-toe and understand the idea of diagonals. Checkers is a simple game that children can learn in minutes. Checkers teach children logical thinking, planning, and prediction abilities. The game is also an excellent entry point into more complex two-player board games like Pentago, Hive, Chess, and so on.

Kamisado reminds Chess but is more simple and colorful. Kamisado is an abstract strategy game. The game has straightforward mechanics, and it is more engaging for kids than Chess because of its vibrant colors and short playtime. Kamisado is a fantastic game to practice your kid's planning skills, strategic thinking, visual attention distribution, and other cognitive functions. Regardless of age, the game significantly improves all players' brain abilities. Children familiar with Checkers, Hive, or Chess will have no trouble playing the game. Kamisado is not available on Amazon; if you find it anywhere else, do not hesitate to buy it!

Aqualin is a new quick and easy-to-learn strategy game. In our opinion, it is somewhat easier than Hive, so a 5-year-old should be able to play it with ease. The game improves combinatorial abilities, visual attention, tactical thinking, and strategy skills. The rules are straightforward, even for those unfamiliar with board games. The more you play this game, the more varied approaches you discover to win it, and your playing skills improve. However, if your kid enjoys playing Chess, Aqualin may appear too basic for them. On the other hand, since the game is so quick and thrilling, it might help to relieve tension and relax a child. Aqualin is small enough to take with you on a trip.

The timeless classic Chess is a strategy game benchmark that engages kids' brains. 5- to 7-year-olds are well-equipped to start playing this sophisticated game, so you may either teach them yourself or use one of the many available apps where kids learn the rules while they play. Although there is little evidence that chess skills can be transferred to other areas of life, playing Chess is beneficial for the young mind. Chess improves deep thinking skills and teaches youngsters to plan their actions, control emotions, and focus on tasks. We couldn't possibly recommend a chess game for 5-7-year-olds more highly!

2. Educational games to improve math and literacy skills

Sleeping Queens is a wonderful card game with a stunning design that kids adore. The game is a major success among 5-7-year-olds since it is genuinely hilarious so that parents can enjoy it as well. Sleeping Queens game improves basic arithmetic abilities, attention, and reaction speed, and this is an essential game for all 5-7-year-olds.

Monopoly is another game that children adore. This classic board game helps youngsters learn to count and add hundreds and thousands using the most effective material ever, money. When children can join "business" with adults and make money, they feel like big people. Monopoly is one of the finest ways to teach young children about money, other than real cash. From the age of 5, kids grasp the rules of Monopoly quickly, but additions may take some assistance at first.

6Nimmt is a 20-year-old classic game that is easy to understand and can accommodate ten people. While as many as ten persons may play this game, it's ideal for a family of 4 to 6 people. 6Nimmt is an outstanding game to improve children's comprehension of the two- and three-digit number series. Fast, fun, and educational game for 5-7-year-olds that we highly recommend.

Show Me The Kwan is a challenging game that will strain your brain. This game is a fantastic method to enhance your child's spelling abilities and develop their brains! In Show Me The Kwan, you roll the dice that display the letters and their position in the word: first, second or last. Then you must quickly think of the words containing the letters in the proper position.

To simplify the game for 5-year-olds who are still learning letters and sounds, avoid the order cube and agree to say only words with the first letter position, for example. When your child improves in this game, you may gradually add dice and make the game more challenging. Show Me The Kwan is a must-have if you want to boost your child's literacy skills and thinking speed.

Scrabble is a great game to improve spelling abilities in 5-7-year-olds. The game is perfect for kids to play with their grandparents since everyone will be equally engaged. If your 5-year-old is still working on a letter or sound recognition, you might give them a simpler Scrabble Junior. 6-7-year-olds should be able to form at least three-letter words, however. Scrabble is a timeless classic that will last a lifetime, and you may play it with your grandchildren one day.

Bananagrams is a fast-paced version of Scrabble in a travel-size case. Everyone loves this game, as it is so fun and educational at the same time. Moreover, Bananagrams can accommodate a lot of players making it perfect for large families or group of friends. 

Labyrinth is a fantastic game that we consider the finest educational game for 5-year-olds. Labyrinth increases necessary visual-motor abilities, literacy skills, and spatial abilities that have a significant impact on learning. Every 5-7 year old should have this game!

Triominos is a domino-style game with numbers instead of dots and triangles rather than rectangles. Because there's a lot of number recognition and arithmetic in this game, children can practice their math abilities through play. Additionally, Triominos is an excellent game for improving visual attention and distribution. As the game advances, children must check increasingly more numbers. You may attempt to play this game with kindergarteners. Still, you'll need to assist them both with estimations and looking for numbers.

Rummikub is a classic game with a 70-year history best suited for children seven years old and up. We recommend buying the large numbers edition of the game, which would make it simpler for kids to play, so they'll like it more. Rummikub is a one-of-a-kind game that develops pattern recognition, sequencing, planning, logic, thinking speed, combinatorial skills, and numerical series comprehension.

3. Family strategy games to improve executive function, self-regulation, strategic thinking, empathy in kids

Ticket to Ride is the greatest board game for 5-7-year-olds. The game's mechanics are simple enough that even those with limited experience in board games will be able to grasp them. Ticket to Ride is a light strategy in which you need to link routes using the trains you have and earn points. According to several reviews, this is the game for 8-year-olds, which is only valid if your child has never played a board game before. For 8-year-olds with prior board game experience, there are more complex but far more exciting board games. Ticket to Ride will last you a long time because it offers a lot of re-playability. We could not recommend this game highly enough as a beginning strategy game!

Agricola is one of the most popular games in history. Despite its apparent complexity, the rules are simple and easy to understand, allowing you to play with 6-7-year-olds easily. A good idea would be to start playing Agricola without the cards. Removing cards would make the game much clearer and considerably easier as you learn it. Add the cards in after you've mastered the game's rules. In Agricola, the chance element is insignificant, so children learn to plan ahead, resolve issues, make judgments, and think critically. Agricola is an excellent game to enhance your child's executive abilities. Kids who've played Ticket to Ride or Settlers of Catan will pick it up quickly.

Andor is a fantastic cooperative game that puts you on an adventure in a fantasy world, where your heroes complete tasks and combat monsters. The way it gets you playing within minutes of opening the box is what sets this game apart. Legend 1 teaches you how to set up the game, followed by the fundamental rules. There is a lot of strategic thinking and planning in the game, making it so enjoyable. Although the marking says 10+, you may play with 6-7-year-olds without problems if an adult leads the group of heroes. Andor is a fantastic game that your family will enjoy.

The hilarious cooperative game Magic Maze is a must-have for any family. This game is more suited for children six and older, and it improves several critical cognitive abilities. Visual attention, visual-motor integration, reaction speed, spatial thinking, planning, and even emotional intelligence are just a few of the skills improved by playing this game. This game is beneficial for people of all ages. Magic Maze has 17 levels of difficulty that increase gradually with each level.

The most challenging aspect of Magic Maze is that players are not permitted to talk, so they must cooperate and concentrate on winning the game. When it comes to playing with children, the ideal approach would be to play a couple of times using spoken language and to discuss the rules and actions. You can only begin playing in silence after they are comfortable with the rules. Magic Maze is a fast-paced, fascinating, and amusing game that we think is a family must-have.

4. Board games to boost thinking and intelligence

This section combined all types of charades, including visual, acting, and description. They all improve a child's creative thinking, emotional intelligence, non-verbal communication skills, social skills, and many other cognitive skills. This activity is fun and beneficial to a child's developing brain, making them actively use their brainpower to fulfill an action.

Depending on your child's abilities, you may play charades differently. If your youngster needs to enhance verbal skills, ask them to describe the word rather than act it out. In case your child is shy and must improve social skills, have them perform the word.

Charades For Kids is a well-adapted version ideal for everyone, from non-readers to beginning readers to adults. The game is perfect for 5-7-year-olds. According to several Amazon reviewers, younger children have difficulties acting out the word. As a result, the family was dissatisfied with this game. If you discover that this is your situation, try selecting one adult to assist the youngster somewhat at the start, either by explaining how to express it or discussing how to describe it. This game is a wonderful way to practice language skills, increase your child's vocabulary, and have fun.

Alias Junior (and Activity if you are in Europe) is also the type of game just like the above two, but it is colorful and engaging. If you've never had your children play these sorts of games, this is the one to start with. The Activity game by Piatnik is similar to Alias, but it is not available on Amazon. If you can get it for a reasonable price, definitely do so.

Imagine is a fantastic game where players must describe things using cards with various symbols. This game is unique because it improves visual attention, flexible thinking, imagination, creative thinking, and various cognitive processes. Unfortunately, it isn't available on Amazon right now. Still, you may attempt to find it in other online or physical stores. This game has similarities with the Concept game, but Imagine is more suited for 5-7-year-olds.

Rory's Story Cubes is a must-have for any serious storyteller. Being the simplest game ever, it exercises so many thinking abilities that you shouldn't pass up the opportunity! In this game, you roll the dice and create a tale with pictures on them. The quicker, the better. This game encourages creativity, the ability to stay on topic, impulse control when you need to listen to the story of others, verbal communication skills.

5. Games to fire up the entire brain

Braintopia (Cortex in Europe) encourages attention, visual discrimination, memory, sensory skills, reasoning, thinking speed, and cognition. Braintopia is a must-have since it improves all cognitive processes and is fun.

Hands Up by Schmidt is a game that encourages interhemispheric communication and processing speed. It activates all cognitive functions in the brain, particularly among youngsters. We consider Hand Up a must-have game for 5-7-year-olds. Unfortunately, the game is not available on Amazon.com, but you could find it offline or on Amazon.de.

Yogi is a hilarious game in which players must pay close attention to the instructions on twisting their bodies in space. This game is one-of-a-kind and exercises many cognitive abilities such as auditory attention, body awareness, motor planning, and so on, which are rarely engaged in one game. Yogi is a fantastic game; we strongly suggest you play it!

6. Games to expand visual attention

Jungle Speed is an entertaining game that improves visual attention, impulse control, and reaction speed. There are currently two versions of this incredible game on Amazon, the Classic game in Spanish and the English 2020 edition, known as Jungle Speed Eco Box. Even though most people would choose the English edition, reviewers claim that this version lacks essential color-switching cards, making the game pointless. So, you may look for earlier versions on eBay or Facebook or get a Spanish edition since there is no reading required and the rules are easy to find online.

Ghost Blitz is my son's favorite game, and he always wins. This game develops visual attention and reaction speed while also developing impulse control. The game is not as easy as it seems since there are two mixed types of cards: the first directly shows the object present on the table, and the second doesn't show the object. Hence, players need to quickly deduct what is missing from the card and grab that object. However, with every con, your skills in recognizing objects get better. Ghost Blitz is a fascinating, intense, and competitive game for fun family time.

Set is literally called the family game of visual perception. This fast-paced, simple game improves visual attention, logic, and abstract thinking. We highly suggest this entertaining game for playdates because every youngster will grasp the idea quickly and be engrossed right away.

Spot It is an old classic that improves observational skills, visual attention, reaction speed, language. Spot It is a very simple (if not basic) but fun card game that children love.

Tween It boosts visual attention, especially when you spread cards around the table to make searching for pairs more challenging. Due to their prolonged staring at tiny screens, today's kids have a relatively restricted field of view. Tween It improves visual attention and reaction speed. It broadens children's field of vision, encouraging them to pay attention to more details in the environment around them. Playing Tween It may help children improve their reading skills and speed up the reading as they can see a greater variety of words and letters in the text.

However, Tween It, and several other fantastic games for visual attention, like Kaleidos or Difference are not readily available at Amazon, but you may find them in offline stores, eBay, or Walmart.

7. Trivia games for 5-7-year-olds

Trivia games are a fantastic way to increase children's knowledge base improve their literacy and information processing speed. Trivia games cover a wide range of themes, so you may quickly scan your children's overall understanding while playing such games. If you detect a knowledge gap on any topic, buy your child an encyclopedia about it and read it together. By expanding the conceptual field of the child, you make it easier for them to study at school. This effect is so-called priming, when familiar information seems to the brain easier than it really is, even if it is just a small part of the new incoming information. Moreover, when children have an expansive conceptual base, they can better comprehend what they read because they can imagine the word. Such ability leads to a higher level of information processing.

5-Second Rule Junior game has very easy tasks, but they become more challenging for kids under time pressure. You can even start playing without the timer first if you think it would be too challenging for your child. This is a great game to improve thinking speed and information processing.

Brain Quest Q&A Cards is a very convenient Q&A game perfect for road trips. With over 750 age-appropriate questions in different disciplines, your child can refresh and expand the knowledge from school in a fun way. We highly recommend Brain Quest, it is a fantastic tool when you are feeling bored but still want to spend quality time with your kids. 

Timeline card game is the best way to learn history. It's probably not a good idea to play it with a 5-year-old since they wouldn't be able to participate. It's better for 6-7 year-olds who have some historical knowledge already.

Even with younger kids, you may choose cards that they are familiar with and begin there. Fortunately, several versions of this excellent game cover a wide range of themes. Then you may introduce new cards one at a time and have children try to figure out the year based on the event depicted on the card. If this is still too complex, simply let the children observe you while you play and listen to your talks. Nonetheless, it will be an educational experience for them. However, with 7-year-olds, you may certainly play Timeline; it's both easy and educational, yet incredibly entertaining!

P.S. There's another approach to improve your 5-7-year-old's cognitive performance that doesn't require any board games. These are special physical exercises intended to improve several skills of the brain. Because these activities are often game-like, children will like playing them. 

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