Increasing Cognitive Development: Brain Game Time

Cynthia Gunner • Cahn Fellow 2021

According to data from a Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, both poverty and poor health have statistically significant negative effects on children’s cognitive skills. Chronic stress from repeated contact with living in poverty, the witnessing or experiencing firsthand of trauma, and the constant experience of the sensations from past trauma creates constant stress for students. Constant stress without relief increases the baseline resting stress level of a person, and changes the brain. The good news is research has also proven that the brain can and does change, even after the devastating effects of poverty and trauma have been experienced by a student in childhood (Jensen, Teaching, 47-48).  

This cognitive development-based project will address the brain development in our students. Brain Game Time (35 minutes daily) will provide an opportunity to build and strengthen students’ cognitive skills. To maximize learning during “play,” teachers will be intentional and explicit about the skills students are building. Learners will engage in discussions about the brain power needed to play each game, and strategies for extending that power beyond the gaming experience to other learning domains. This discourse will  help students “build metacognition and shared vocabulary around the skills they are learning.” Through a set of debrief questions, teachers and students will think together about how to use these skills at other times of the day, connecting ‘brain powers’ to work ethic in the classroom, teamwork and relationships, and successful behavior in school.