Children Can Develop Skills in Problem Solving with Sudoku

By nature, child’s mind is like a sponge when it comes to learning new things. The old school of thought is that as children reach certain ages, the way in which they comprehend new information changes in stages. However, new research has contributed to theories that demonstrate children do not learn in a linear or straight forward way as previously thought, but instead their learning varies as a result of individual factors or circumstances.

It has been shown that children in fact use many different methods simultaneously to comprehend new information and many of these strategies have been observed at a much younger age than once thought.

Once children have reached the age at which they enter school, they are prepared for developing more complicated methods of problem solving. When children reach this stage of intellectual development, in order to truly cultivate their problem solving skills it is extremely helpful to use of challenging puzzle games like; Sudoku.

The game Sudoku can be considered a logic based math game, but at first sight it appears more like a crossword puzzle due to its grid like layout. Sudoku is played on square 9 X 9 grid totaling 81 squares with each square again divided up 3 high by 3 wide sections. The game does not start off with an empty grid but instead numbers are pre-placed in chosen squares to be used as clues. It is up to the player to figure out where the remaining numbers should go.

What makes Sudoku challenging and unique is that the numbers 1 – 9 may only be used one time in each section, column or row. A decision must be made by the player as to where to place what number and in which square while still follow the rule of not repeating the order in other sections.

Many consider math the language of science and the subject is universally understood, not being bound by any language constraints, regardless of culture or geographic location. In the problem solving game of Sudoku, you solve for the grid through the use of; process of elimination and logic only. Each puzzle only has one right answer and range in difficulty from simple to very complex.

Children are able to apply many problem solving strategies through playing the Sudoku game puzzles like the “Guess and Check” method, which can be applied to so many other aspects of real world situations. Not only do these puzzles develop your reasoning and logic skills, they are great fun to play as well. There is no doubt that Sudoku games encourage creativity, they also inspire children to be more flexible in their Problem solving style.

An additional benefit to having children play Sudoku games, is that it helps foster a positive attitude regarding math and avoid any early age math anxiety that may develop, which could possibly hamper further development in this area.

Not only will the skills developed playing Sudoku benefit them in math and science, but it may also help with the problem solving skills necessary to excel in other academic areas and countless real world scenarios.

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