Best App for Boosting Executive Skills
Updated: Aug 3, 2019
Kids use apps to entertain themselves. But what if apps could stimulate portions of the brain that create meaningful and useful connections for life? Kiko's Thinking Time
Best App for Boosting Executive Skills
Updated: Aug 3, 2019
Kids use apps to entertain themselves. But what if apps could stimulate portions of the brain that create meaningful and useful connections for life? Kiko's Thinking Time does that.
Developed to boost memory, reasoning, and problem solving, Kiko's Thinking Time delivers. Created by Harvard and UC Berkeley neuroscientists and supported by the US Department of Education, this app develops kids' executive skills, which are instrumental for school success.
In one game, children learn sequencing skills by building patterns that get more complex over time. This particular skill set targets logic and visual processing.
The app boosts executive skills in areas like thinking before doing, paying attention, and cognitive flexibility. Here, players visualize in their mind's eye a particular order on a sushi roll from a horizontal pattern. By doing so, children work on visual spatial skills that are important for understanding math concepts.
Kiko's can be used with children in preschool through the elementary grades. The level of difficulty is matched based on a child’s current level of mastery. Kiko's also rewards kids with colorful aquarium fish for completing the Daily Quest.
Kiko's Thinking Time is my top recommendation whenever a parent of a child in educational therapy asks for suggestions on developing executive skills at home.
I don't feel guilty allowing my children to play Kiko's as I know that playing the app is helping them maximize the connections in their brain.