Last Updated on December 16, 2021 by

The games to develop intelligence are one of the best form to train the ability to think, understand, reason, assimilate and process information.

Nowadays, it is scientifically proven that despite the genetic characteristics of each person, intelligence is a concept that can be  developed if we enhance our mental work.

Intelligence in Children

In addition, the development of intelligence can be done through any activity that motivates an effort of our mind.

In this way, there is a great variety of entertaining activities that can be very useful to increase our intellectual capacities.

8 Games to develop intelligence in children and adults

1. Acquisition of information

One of the most important aspects of intelligence is the ability it gives us to be able to acquire and store new information in  our brain, be wiser and possess more knowledge.

However, the direction between intelligence and knowledge is not directional, it is bidirectional.

That is to say: a greater intelligence allows us to learn more easily, but a greater wisdom also makes us more intelligent individuals.

In this way, the first game that I propose to develop intelligence is one that allows you to acquire information and knowledge.

There are many games that fulfill this purpose, such as the famous trivia , but you can also create a game that fulfills such functions yourself.

Propose to your group of friends that each of them write cards with questions about different aspects or knowledge they have. Once you have  them done put them all together and go drawing cards at random.

This game will allow you to share everyone’s knowledge and acquire many interesting knowledge in a fun and entertaining way.

Hopefully, if a person in the group knows a lot about history, they have written questions related to that topic, if you are a doctor you have made  interesting cards about medicine or if you are a movie fan you have asked questions about movies.

2. Arithmetic

Performing mathematical problems is one of the most important activities to develop intelligence, however, they can often be boring  and uninteresting.

However, mathematics can be an interesting game if you can adapt appropriately to a playful environment.

The game I propose for this purpose will try to relate mathematical problems with creativity and speed of thought.

To play you have to make two teams and perform in a quiet place such as the living room or dining room of a house.

To begin with, a team must leave the room where they are playing. Meanwhile, the other team will stay in the room and must  formulate a mathematical problem within a time limit of one minute.

However, they can not pose a mathematical problem in any way, but must use the elements present in the room to  do it.

For example: 

If in the dining room there is a cupboard with 8 glasses, a box with 20 forks and a table with 4 candles, you can formulate the problem of: multiply the forks and  candles and divide it by the glasses.

Once the minute has passed, the other team will enter the room and the problem will be formulated. In this case, the second team will have 3 minutes to  solve it, looking for the objects mentioned in the problem and performing the mathematical action ..

The example we have set is quite simple to have only multiplications and divisions, however, mathematics provide endless  opportunities.

The more creative and ingenious you are during the approach of the problem, the harder you will put it to the other team.

3. Language

Another very important aspect when defining intelligence is the language and the amount of vocabulary that a person has.

In addition, we rarely pay attention to our language or vocabulary, assuming that we already speak well enough and we already know  perfectly the majority of words of the language of our language.

However, this is not always the case, since language is a mental skill that can be developed constantly.

To improve the language, I propose to perform an exercise that increases the knowledge of words.

Each team should write a list of words in different small roles. It is preferable to write words that are less known or that are not  used very frequently in the common language.

Once written, all the papers will be placed in a bowl. A participant of a team will draw a piece of paper and must define the word, and the rest of the  participants in their group must guess which word they are trying to describe.

Each time the participants of the group correct the word, the player who was defining will take out another role and do the same with the new word. You must go through this process for one minute, at which time you will change equipment and a participant from the other group will define words.

The equipment will alternate in periods of one minute until there is no paper left in the bowl. At that time, the team that has managed to guess  more words will be the winner of the test.

4. Processing speed

This exercise allows to develop the speed of thought and information processing, which is a very important mental ability to dictate the intelligence of a person.

It can be played both in a group and individually, although it can be more enjoyable if played with several people.

The game consists of writing the numbers from 1 to 9 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) on the top of a page.

Once written, a different symbol for each number will be drawn directly below . The symbol can be of any type: a star, a stick, an inverted u, an L, etc. Let’s see an example:

Once we have the numbers with the corresponding forms at the top of the page, numbers will be written, in order, altered by the rest of the page. For example:

The game consists of drawing the corresponding figures for each number during a period of two minutes (being able to visualize the examples of the upper part). The objective will be to complete the maximum number of possible numbers during this period of time with the correct figure.  

5. Letters and numbers

This game allows to develop the working memory and the conceptual organization.

It consists of a person from a team saying a series of numbers and letters to a participant of the other team. For example: 8.2, C, 6, W, 1, S.

Once the contestant has said the series, the participant of the other team must be able to repeat it but not the same order, but must first say  the numbers, from least to greatest, and then the letters in alphabetical order.

For example, in this case the correct answer would be: 1,2,6,8, C, S, W.

You can make series and as they are completed properly, increasing the degree of difficulty, putting more numbers and more letters in altered order  .

Likewise, a maximum number of series can be agreed upon. The team that has made the most hits in those series will have passed the test.

6. Sequencing

Planning and sequencing is that capacity that allows us to put in order all the concepts that we have stored in our mind.

This ability becomes a key skill for problem solving, conceptual organization and reasoning.

To develop this skill, you can make a very fun game.

This game will consist in the realization of history through drawings, which must be deciphered by the other team.

So, to begin with, each team must draw a story on different cards. That is to say: in each card there will be a drawing in such a way, that if they are  put together properly all the cards make a story.

For example, if you want to represent a person making fried eggs, in the first card you can draw a man taking some eggs from the  fridge, in the second pouring oil in the pan, the third pouring the eggs, in the fourth throwing salt and in the fifth, removing the eggs from the  pan.

Once done, the cards are messed up and given to the other team, which will have two minutes to be able to sort and guess which  story is represented.

The more ingenuity is invested in making the cards, the more difficult it will be for the other team to perform the proper sequencing of the cards.

7. Creativity

No one can deny that creativity is a key element of intelligence, since those people with greater abilities to create new things and draw  different conclusions through the imagination have a highly important skill.

To work these aspects you can make a game based on the scamper method.

It is about asking yourself 7 questions about the object or process about which you want to be creative. Although the technique is focused to innovate on the same object or process, I will give you examples of different things:

S (sutituir) : What can I substitute? Who else? What else? Another approach? Another process?

A plate can be used for eating and decorating on the wall.

C (combine) : What will happen if I combine one idea with another? What other items could we merge with this one? In what ways could we agree on a combination? What can be combined to multiply the uses? What other attractions of others can we combine in ours?

If you combine a car with a plane, this comes up:

A (adapt) : What else is like this? What other idea does it suggest? What could be copied? What could I emulate? What idea could we incorporate? What process could be adapted? What idea outside my field could I incorporate?

For example, currently have emerged sports cameras, cameras adapted to record sports practicing.

M (modify or magnify) : What could be magnified or enlarged? What could be smaller? What can be added? More time? Stronger? Higher? More durable? What can add more value? What can be pleaded? What can be modified?

The menus of fast food chains could be made smaller so that they get less fat.

 P (put other uses): What else could be used for? Are there other ways to use it as it is? Could it be used for other markets? Other users? Objects? Animals?

A wheel can be used for the chair of a swing.

E (delete): What would happen if it were smaller? What is left over or not? Should I split it? Split it? Separate it? Remove importance? Compact it? Subtract? Delete? Delete rules?

If the roof of a car is removed, a convertible emerges.

R (reorder): What other arrangement or arrangement could improve? Another drawing? Another provision? Another sequence? Change the order? Does invest cause effect? Change the rhythm? Change the programming?

There are people who work better in the afternoon and others in the morning. If you reorder your schedules, you can be more productive.

8. Chess

Finally, the last activity to develop the intelligence that I would like to comment on is chess, a highly known game that encompasses a great  variety of abilities and mental efforts.

As you already know, chess is a game between two people, each one has a total of 16 pieces placed on a board, and the objective is to  go killing the opponent’s pieces through the characteristic movements of each one, until they can kill the figure of the opponent’s king.

The characteristics of chess have turned it into a game highly related to intelligence, fact that has motivated a great variety of  scientific studies to verify what intellectual involvement this game possesses.

It has been connoted that the practice of chess implies a greater work and development of the capacity of concentration of the people, the capacity of @nalysis  and different calculation mechanisms.

Likewise, it is also considered that chess favors creativity and strategy, as well as planning and decision making, very relevant aspects  of intelligence.

What is intelligence?

Defining intelligence is still a subject of debate and controversy among experts working on this human quality.

The term of intelligence was introduced by Cicero to signify the concept of intellectual capacity.

Nowadays, intelligence is considered to be that word that describes certain properties of the human mind, such as capacity for abstract thinking  , understanding, communication , reasoning, learning, planning or solving problems .

In fact, the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy  (RAE) defines the concept of intelligence as the ability to understand or  understand, and to solve problems.

On the other hand, the scientific organization American Psychological Association defends that intelligence is that capacity constituted by the  abilities to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, as well as to learn from experience and find different ways of reasoning.

It is not the objective of this article to get me to review and debate the concept of intelligence.

However, this small appreciation allows me to show that intelligence is a concept that defines a skill of our brain that  is closely related to other mental abilities such as attention, concentration , memory or learning ability.

Also Read: Emotional Education in Children: 5 Keys to Building It

In this way, in my opinion, there is no unique and magical activity that serves to develop our intelligence, on the contrary, we can develop it  through a great variety of exercises.

Next I will comment 8 games that due to their qualities allow to work many aspects of our mental capacity and, therefore, collaborate in  the development of our intelligence.