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Reasoning Skill Games for Toddlers

Young children often learn many of the basic skills needed in life through the games they play. Among the skills that toddlers need to develop are their reasoning skills. Reasoning skills help children with memorization, problem solving and decision making. Each of these skills provides a solid base on which your toddler can build toward becoming successful through school and beyond.

Board Games
- Board games in which toddlers must move their playing piece a specific number of spaces and make decisions can help promote learning reasoning skills. Counting spaces helps children with counting skills, as well as making decisions in regard to direction. Choosing board games that require your toddler to decide which way to go work best. Some commonly-used board games for reasoning skills with toddlers include Chutes and Ladders, Sequence for Kids, and Cariboo. Each of these games provides either counting or matching skills, which help with reasoning skills.
Matching Games
- Whether you choose a traditional matching game, such as Memory, or create your own, learning to memorize and categorize objects is part of reasoning. In the game of Memory, you mix up the cards upside down and take turns picking two cards in hopes of finding a match. The person with the most matches wins. Toddlers can work to remember where simple picture cards appear to help them make matches. You can play other variations of this game with your child by matching things you see as you go about your day instead, such as finding a match for the bird flying outside or a flower you found on a walk.
Online Games
- While some parents avoid allowing toddlers to spend time on the computer, some online games help teach toddlers problem solving and other reasoning skills. Websites aimed at younger children, such as NickJr.com, Fisher-Price, and PBSKids.org, all offer a variety of games for helping toddlers learn how to solve problems. Allowing your toddler to play games under your supervision for about 20 minutes a day can help promote the development of reasoning skills without causing issues with overexposure to the Internet and other electronic media.
Thinking Games
- Making up your own thinking games to play with your toddler helps to focus on reasoning skills and adds an element of creativity as well. For instance, make a game out of problems you encounter in your toddler's daily life, such as finding lost toys or deciding what to eat for lunch. Involve your child in all aspects of the process, explaining what you need to do at each step, such as thinking about where you last saw the toy or what types of food you have available to make lunch. Making a game of everyday happenings helps change every experience into a learning opportunity.

Kids Games