Memory Games For Kids

Memory is just like a muscle and when your child exercises their memory, it improves their capacity for understanding. Games for kids that enhance memory are considered one of the best activities to practice strengthening their memory muscles, they help to:

• Train virtual memory
• Improve concentration
• Increase attention to detail
• Improve the ability to find similarities and differences in objects

Memory games allow the brain to hold small pieces of information for a short period so that the information is readily available in an active state.

Let’s take a look at memory games for clever kids you can play at home, outside, or anywhere.

7 Memory Games for Kids

Concentration 

The classic memory card game for kids! Concentration involves a set of cards with matching pairs of images on one side, for example, 2 cards show apples, 2 cards show oranges and so on.

How to play

• Lay out the set of cards face down on a table or floor.
• Take turns in turning the cards over two at a time, while players try to memorise the position of each card.
• When a player turns over two cards that match, they get to keep the cards and take another turn.
• If the cards don’t match, they are turned back over and the next player takes a turn.

There are plenty of matching card games available, choose one with characters, shapes or themes that will capture your child’s imagination.

This memory match game for kids helps develop your child’s focus as they try to remember where each card is placed.

Memory Tray

All you need is a tray and a selection of toys or objects from your child’s room or around the home.

How to play

• Choose several objects to place on the tray for your child to see
• Cover the tray
• Ask your child if they can remember what was on the tray and name them one by one

A great memory game for kids to help your child flex their visual memory skills!

We’re Going on a Picnic

One of the free memory games for kids, no props are needed for this activity. This challenge is fun for a bigger group of kids but can still be played in smaller numbers.

How to play

• The first player says to the group “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing….a red rocket (for example).”
• The next player adds another item to the list “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing a red rocket and a puppy”
• And so on. Each player must recall the previous items and add to the list.

As children remember the lists, the repetitive nature of this working memory game aids in the development of their ability to recall information.

Beat the Drum 

Auditory memory games for kids, like Beat The Drum, help enhance their listening skills, which in turn has numerous benefits for memory. It exercises their auditory processing system and establishes the groundwork for identifying various sounds as components of speech, a vital skill for learning to read and write.

How to play

• Each child has a drum or an upturned pot or bucket to generate rhythms.

• One player starts the rhythm by playing it on their drum, and the other player must replicate it on their own drum.
• Children can take turns coming up with new rhythms

What Do You Remember?

How to play:

• Choose a picture that has a lot of details. A photograph, painting, or poster, for example.
• Show the picture to the group for 30 seconds, and then cover it up.
• Children then take turns describing as many details as they can remember about the picture.
• They may mention colours, objects, shapes, items, people and anything else they noticed. The player who remembers the most details wins!

This memory game for kids helps to develop their visual memory. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for processing and recalling visual information. The more a child exercises their visual memory, the stronger it becomes, making it easier for them to recall details in the future.

Magic Cups

How to play 

• Get three cups and an object to hide under one of them.
• Show the players which cup is hiding the object.
• Cover the object and begin moving the cups around.
• The object of the game is to remember which cup is hiding the object after the cups have been rearranged.
• Once you’ve mastered three cups, try adding more cups or more objects to remember!

What is Missing?

This game helps improve visual memory and attention to detail, as children have to remember what they saw and identify what is missing.

How to play

• Gather a group of objects that can be easily identified, such as toys, kitchen items, or school supplies.
• Arrange the objects on a tray or table and give the players a few minutes to study them.
• After the players have had time to study the objects, ask them to close their eyes or turn away while you remove one or more of the objects from the tray.
• Ask the players to open their eyes or turn back around and try to identify what is missing from the collection.
• Players can take turns removing the objects, and the game can become more challenging by removing multiple items at once or by removing items that are harder to spot.

Younger children will cope better with fewer objects because this gives them a better chance of success.