Is developing of mathematical intelligence through playing possible?
Mathematics has always had a playful side. Many of the deep thoughts surrounding mathematical problems have been tinted by motivation and a passionate challenge that produces pleasure and a sensation of search and accomplishment. For Archimedes, Euclid, Leibniz or Einstein mathematics had the traces of a passionate quest of spirit. Mathematics is present in all we know, and of course as well in games and riddles.
Just like mathematics, playing is part of life and has a determinant role in the intellectual development of childhood. For children, playing can be serious, absorbing and quite tiring. Some games are played imitating; some have to do with fantasy; some might be fixed rituals. Playing can be a group activity or be done by oneself. Playing as well can be a source o pleasure and great effort or even grief.
The first type of game for babies is sensorial motive manipulation. As soon as the baby is able to control her movements, she starts to use them and explore playing. The sensorial motive game might consist of sucking on one’s finger, kicking the sides of the cradle, etc. These games are important because they are the way babies explore new things. With these games babies manipulate, explore and act but also get confidence.
In other types of games children let their imagination fly. For children, any object can become anything else: a stick can become a horse and four lanes a house. These games have been named symbolic. Symbolic games are important to understand meanings and are determinant for intelligence and relations.
Later ruled games add a new dimension to the development of intellect and imprint a social sense to games. In these games children voluntarily accept rules as conventional limits, thus submitting to the consequences and rewards of their actions. Rules structure the game and rise up the challenge.
In conclusion, playing is a way of acting, expressing and living experiences highly developed and not replaceable for the intellectual growth of children. Playing can take different shapes through a person’s life and his historic, social and technologic background.
Playing is associated to the toy. A toy might be anything from little pebbles, to a stick, a piece of sheet, marbles, to even a television or a computer. The value of the toy as a gaming tool for intellectual development is related to the active participation that the child has. If the child operates and creates upon the toy, it is far more valuable than if it is only passively received.
Playing and toys are processes and tools with which children naturally develop their mind. The development of intelligence of children does not mean to saturate their minds with the so-considered necessary information, but to favor the use of their potential intellect in a gradual, respectful and harmonic to their natural processes manner. Playing is a real possibility to master adequate thinking abilities to solve mathematical and non-mathematical problems under a logical thought schema.
Tetrakys is a material that facilitates different kinds of games. Children manipulate, represent symbolically and get introduced in games with group rules and individual challenges. Playing with Tetrakys is a way to live the mathematical experience.
