Escape rooms are great for kids. No matter what theme you decide to play, children will always find excitement and be inspired by the immersive layout of the escape room they’re in. As well as being fun, escape rooms can also benefit child development, especially regarding cognitive function and problem-solving.
As children grow up and age, they will face many different problems and scenarios in their lives. Whether at school or work once they get older, so learning these skills early is a great benefit. Escape rooms provide a fun, safe, and engaging environment. Here children can learn and practice the various problem-solving skills they’ll need.
Problem-solving isn’t just one skill. Instead, we as humans use various skills and methods of thinking to overcome and tackle problems. All of these are flexed when taking on an escape room.
Problem-solving skills in an escape room can help to develop
Adaptability
In life, it’s unlikely that your first idea will be the solution. A key aspect of problem-solving is adapting to your ideas and trying something new to overcome an obstacle. Escape rooms are excellent at instilling this skill in children, as they’ll need to try different ideas and methods to beat various puzzles. Plus, as escape rooms include various challenges, they will also adapt to different ways of thinking.
Analytical skills
Being a good problem solver involves taking in all the available information and using it to influence your actions and decisions. This is a vital skill that can help problem-solving ability, as being able to analyse a problem will give you a clearer picture of what the solution needs to be.
Creative thinking
Sometimes rigid thinking may not always be the best way to solve a problem. Children often learn to follow the rules and formulas to find solutions, but on occasion, tough challenges require a more creative type of thinking where you need to look at something from a fresh perspective. This is something done often in escape rooms.
Teamwork
When trying to find the solution to a problem, it’s unlikely that you’ll do so alone. Instead, a team of people will often be working on one issue. This means that teamwork and communication is a vital aspect of problem-solving. Knowing how to communicate thoughts and ideas and listen to other ideas is essential and is something that an escape room can help teach.
Resilience
If you give up on a problem after one try, you won’t be a good problem solver. Building up resistance and the determination to try different things and to spend time on a problem is an essential aspect of problem-solving. Playing escape rooms will help teach children not to give up and to keep trying, making them better at problem-solving.
How an escape room can develop problem-solving skills
Escape rooms are known for improving and testing your problem-solving skills, and the best part is that you may not even realise that you’re training these skills when playing. As you’ll often be so immersed in the scenario and challenge, you may not be actively thinking about how the game is improving your problem-solving ability. Here are a few ways escape rooms can improve a child’s problem-solving skills and cognitive ability.
Need to communicate
You’ll struggle to beat an escape room in silence. Everyone needs to communicate and share ideas to help find solutions. This need to talk to each other can help teamwork and collaborative thinking, an essential part of problem-solving.
Escape rooms will teach kids how to share ideas effectively and help them learn methods that allow a whole team to talk and communicate effectively. If a group struggles to share ideas and thoughts, they’re more likely to struggle and fail the task.
Lateral thinking
Often, your first idea on how to solve a puzzle may not be the right one. That’s the whole point of escape rooms; you’re encouraged to think differently and consider new ideas to beat the game. This helps to improve your adaptability in how you think, an important skill in problem-solving. It will stop you from thinking about potential solutions that won’t be right. It can also help your resilience. Getting things wrong in an escape room will help children learn not to give up on a problem when they can’t figure it out, which is invaluable.
Some solutions in escape rooms are not the obvious answer, which will teach children to question everything and be more inquisitive, which can improve their problem-solving ability.
Pressure management
Escape rooms force players to make quick decisions due to the clock counting down as you play. This can create a sense of pressure and stress. This is important for children to feel and experience, as many problem-solving tasks will have similar stakes and deadlines.
Being able to analyse options and make an informed decision under pressure is a great skill to have when problem-solving and is something that escape rooms can instil in your child. Getting used to this type of pressure through playing escape rooms will help them remain calm in high-stake situations and allow them to not panic, helping them make more measured decisions.
Conclusion
The ability to solve problems and think for themselves is an excellent skill for children to learn. Life will be full of high-pressure decisions and challenges that will require some of the skills that make up problem-solving. The problem is that this skill can be hard to teach, especially in a school environment.
Escape rooms can be hugely beneficial. They help develop and instil these skills in a creative and fun way that will be much more engaging for children. Younger people who play escape rooms regularly show a greater ability to analyse situations and develop solutions to challenges and issues. Start nurturing your child’s problem-solving skills. Take them to an activity that they will enjoy, using escape rooms to help improve their cognitive abilities.