[Note: These are studies in the field of human development, favorably reviewed by scholars in psychology, education, sociology, anthropology and other social sciences.]

Maxwell, W. (Ed.) Experiments on Improving Mental Abilities in Children. Suva, Fiji. The School of Education, the University of the South Pacific. 1981.

In this study, conducted by teachers from nations throughout the South Pacific region who had an average of twelve years of classroom teaching experience, the methodology was to give four children out of 17 classrooms some specific experience, such as being tutored in mathematics or language or playing with Legos, or taking excursions, etc. The greatest gain (19 points) was experienced by those children who played games with abstract symbols. We created or adapted forty games using those nine symbols, going from simple sorting through using equations to a game invented by the puzzle editor of the Scientific American, Eleuesis, which we call “Nature,” and which requires the child to discover the “law” or “rule’ governing the sequence of playing a deck of cards, to the 40th game, Inventive Quotient, I.Q., where the child must invent a new game.

Adler, A. Understanding Human Nature. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett. 1927

Adler, one of Freud’s leading disciples and foremost theorists of human development, confirmed child’s play as one of the strongest mechanisms whereby the child learns to develop theories of how the universe operates. When a child masters a game, she projects that mastery into a future. In effect, the child finds a mental stimulus in every game.

Bright, G.W., et al. “Cognitive Effects of Games on Mathematical Learning.” (Eric File No. 166-007, 1979)

This is a revision of a paper presented at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Cincinnati. 1977. This study reviews the previous research and reports a significant experiment. Children who play and enjoy challenging games have a significant advantage over children deprived of those experiences.

Bruner, J.S., On Knowing: Essays for the left hand. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1964.

At that time, Bruner, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, was perhaps the leading theorist of cognitive psychology. In this book and elsewhere, Bruner confirmed the value of play on the cognitive development of children.

Bruner, J.S. Toward a Theory of Instruction. New York: W.W. Norton. 1968.

Under the stimulus of the Soviet space victory with Sputnik, 1957, Bruner, with funding from the National Science Foundation, brought together cognitive psychologists and distinguished scientists to consult on how humans learn the scientific intellect. From this report came several long-lasting innovations in science teaching. The major visible shift was from deductive teaching to inductive teaching where the student was encouraged to independently arrive at a theory that explains the phenomenon under observation.

Groos, K. The Play of Man. New York: Appleton. 1901.

This study, the first systematic and theoretical study of children’s games, was by a German philosopher who broke with tradition and decided to systematically observe the universal “will to play,” and infer the significance of that drive. “Preparation for the future can be seen in every (child’s) game” summarizes this scholar’s observations.

Haggarty, J.B., “Kalah -- An Ancient Game of Mathematical Skill.” In S.E. Smith, Jr. and C.A. Beckman (Eds.), Readings from the Arithmetic Teacher. Washington: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1979.

Huizinga, J. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Elements in Culture. Beacon Press. 1950. This is a standard treatment of play from an anthropological perspective.

Maxwell, W. “Games Children Play: Powerful Tools That Teach Some Thinking Skills,” in Maxwell, W.(Ed.),Thinking: The Expanding Frontier. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. 1983. (Originally published by Franklin Institute Press).

In addition to explaining a theory of children’s games, this article, based upon actual classroom research with over 400 children, proposes some criteria by which parents and researchers may evaluate the usefulness of particular games, since the number of games available today are almost infinite and therefore some choices have to be made.

Pearce, C., Magical Child. New York: E.P. Dutton. 1977.

This is truly a magical book that persuasively argues that all children are born geniuses. “Nature does not program a child for failure.”

Pinneau, S.R.Changes in Intelligence Quotient. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1961.

This is the definitive report of the longest longitudinal study of IQ, the so-called “Berkeley Study.” The “Berkeley Study” follows every white person born in the year 1929 in the city of Berkeley, California. The results: Everyone’s IQ fluctuates at least six points, with the average fluctuation being 12- 14 points. The greatest cause of lowering IQ is family divorce. The strongest predictor of IQ strength is the intellectual and emotional climate of the home, not genetics.

Scarne, J. Encyclopedia of Games.

If every game has a unique mental vitamin -- and the argument for this thesis is often made by those who study games -- then the Wise parent will expose his child to as wide a variety of games as possible. This encyclopedia is useful, but it does not offer guidance on the relative intellectual value of particular games.

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