Another Great Reason to Play Board Games

Researchers find that games like Monopoly and Othello make children better at math.

Before we had pocket electronics, streaming movies, and social media consuming our brains, we had crafts, outdoor play, and real-life actual board games. For many of us who grew up pre-screens, board games were great fun—just ditch the Schwinn Sting-Rays on the porch and lay around in a circle on the carpet playing Clue or Life.

Board games have definitely had a bit of a revival. Nostalgia enthusiasts appreciate them, bars host game nights, and some families never gave up the tradition. They provide cheap, fun entertainment and encourage in-person social interaction in an era where online interactions dominate. They can be a wonderful part of sustainable, simplified living—consider that a single board game can last a generation or two and doesn’t require rare earth metals!

They are known to enhance learning and development, including reading and literacy—and now a new study finds another benefit of board games. Those based on numbers, like Monopoly, Othello, and Chutes and Ladders, make children better at math.

The study finds that for three to nine-year-olds, the format of number-based board games helps improve counting, addition, and the ability to recognize if a number is higher or lower.

“Board games enhance mathematical abilities for young children,” says lead author Dr. Jaime Balladares, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in Santiago, Chile. “Using board games can be considered a strategy with potential effects on basic and complex math skills. Board games can easily be adapted to include learning objectives related to mathematical skills or other domains.”

The researchers wanted to evaluate the effects of physical board games in promoting learning in young children. The findings are comprised of a review of 19 studies published from 2000 onwards involving children aged from three to nine years. In the studies, kids played board games on average two times a week for 20 minutes each over the course of six weeks.

Children were assessed on their math performance before and after the period of game sessions, which were based on skills such as counting out loud.

The study authors looked at four categories, which included basic numeric competency (like being able to name numbers), basic number comprehension (like understanding that one number is greater than another), deepened number comprehension (the ability to accurately add and subtract), and interest in mathematics.

“Results showed that math skills improved significantly after the sessions among children for more than half (52%) of the tasks analyzed,” according to a press release for the study. “In nearly a third (32%) of cases, children in the intervention groups gained better results than those who did not take part in the board game intervention.”

Balladares notes that future studies “should be designed to explore the effects that these games could have on other cognitive and developmental skills.”

“An interesting space for the development of intervention and assessment of board games should open up in the next few years, given the complexity of games and the need to design more and better games for educational purposes.”

In the meantime, break out the Chutes and Ladders for the kids, and don’t forget about the grown-up games as well. We may not have spent the afternoon tearing around on Schwinn bikes, but some good old-fashioned board games can still provide a host of fun, no screens required.