Hacker News Reader

Comment by agbell | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if any of the 'Brain Gym' genre of games train this delay gratification? lumosity.com has games targeting attention but they aren't the games mentioned in the article.

View on HN

Executive function is determined largely by the amount of self-directed play before age five. That's why electronic toys and baby videos are generally thought to be harmful.

edit: I don't know much about Brain Gym, but Pamela Paul has a whole chapter in Parenting Inc. comparing the different ECE programs, which might answer your question.

Could you define "self-directed play" for those of us who aren't 100% clear on its meaning?

Self-directed play is simply kids playing on their own terms, making up games with their own rules, making up their own characters etc. You know.. being a Kid and playing with your imagination.

Play directed by the child, ie, the child sees a book next to a soft toy and chooses to look at the book, rather than being directed by a video saying "let's read a story now".

Self-directed play is where the child isn't playing according to "rules". Where there's no "right" or "wrong" way to play, and the child is making up their own game/world/etc as they go. Think "Lego" :)

Answering my own question: Cognitive control, also known as executive processing and Executive function are I believe what this article is talking about.

This game claims to train this ability ( but I cannot vouch for its effectiveness) http://games.lumosity.com/brain_shift.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com