by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

When our family gets together, often we play Scrabble—just for fun. According to an article in Education Week, researchers are finding that board games have other benefits as well, especially for kids from families with low incomes.
 
In one study, researchers devised a special counting game called The Great Race, similar to the popular Chutes and Ladders. They compared the performance of preschoolers who had participated in the federal Head Start program —players and non players.  Those who played the game showed strong gains over the comparison group in four areas involving numbers-- nine weeks after the last session.

Because of the positive correlation between board games and math achievement, commercial publishers are designing game-like activities for classroom use. McGraw-Hill is marketing Number Worlds.

It’s not just the game, but the use of quantitative language—bigger, taller, shorter, smaller— that helps the children understand concepts.

Many of the activities we take for granted are not commonplace for kids from struggling families. Increasing activities that expose children to math, that are fun as well, can have strong academic payoff.