The game of Scrabble is a family favorite that young or old can play. This article will explore why Scrabble is a great game for kids and the kinds of skills you pass on to your kids while playing scrabble with them.
Few games teach as many relevant life skills to children as Scrabble. First, there is the obvious development of vocabulary, spelling, and word use skills. The regular game of Scrabble with an adult develops a vocabulary beyond what a child experiences in the classroom, on television, or in the books he reads. If an adult can encourage the child’s use of words by using scrabble in this way, then encourage him to use a dictionary to find the definitions of words that he has not found before the child’s vocabulary develops much faster.
This type of gamification of the learning process builds a healthy understanding of words and allows the child to find the definitions of the words on their own. Encouraging this will allow the child to explore new word concepts on his own and develop a muscle memory for recognizing common patterns in words, as well as recognizing unknown patterns such as misspellings.
Second, Scrabble encourages basic number skills in terms of counting word scores, calculating triple word scores, double words, triple letters, and double letters. This level of math is a good practical example of how numbers are used in the real world and, coupled with the competitive atmosphere of Scrabble, encourages the child to score correctly.
Scrabble also builds a healthy competitive streak while encouraging patience and taking turns. Scrabble requires concentration to create word combinations from the tiles available on the player’s shelf, and it can sometimes take time and a lot of patience to find a scrabble word. Encouraging a child to take the time to create the best word possible develops problem-solving skills for other areas of his life. Playing with multiple children requires them to wait patiently for the others to finish, a very useful trait.
Finally, the “challenge” aspect of Scrabble, whereby a player can challenge a word because it is misspelled or does not belong in the Scrabble dictionary, allows the child to test the limits of authority, strengthening their confidence. This is a safe environment for a child to challenge an adult and develop the ability to recognize when it is appropriate to defend himself. Scrabble remains a family favorite for these reasons and for the simple fact that it is fun.