When we search for words in a word search puzzle, we are both consciously and unconsciously processing the individual letters that make up the word in question.
There are several approaches you can take to finding the hidden words from looking for the beginning of the word, to hunting for common word endings such as ‘ing’ or ‘ed’. You may even initially prefer to seek out the overall pattern of a word through using a more generalised scanning technique.
For children, engaging in word searches can be an excellent and practical way to get up-close to new words and their construction, placing spelling directly at the forefront.
Vocabulary is essentially another way of saying ‘all the words we know’. If we can increase this knowledge and the amount of words that we have at our fingertips, then we can become more articulate speakers and better at spelling.
But most importantly of all, we can find the most creative and imaginative ways to express our innermost thoughts and feelings to the world. Drawing upon a wider range of words can be a powerful tool and this in turn could help you to relate to as many people as possible.
Word searches often present as a family or grouping of words that fall into a given context. For example, a word search puzzle about pets would obviously have the animal names in it such as ‘cat’ and ‘dog’.
However, did you realise that there can also be lots of hidden synonyms in this example such as ‘kitten’ and ‘puppy’. Although we are aware that a puppy is a baby dog and that they are the same animal, it makes us proactively reflect on the different terminology that we can give to one creature. Thus vocabulary skills are increased twofold.
When we actively seek out individual words, our brains have to really concentrate to locate them because the words are surrounded by a sea of other unrelated letters. One wrong slip-up can mean that you have to start the whole word-searching process again, and this can be time consuming.
However, did you realise that this act of searching for words in a word search puzzle is also in turn improving our time management skills? This is because our brains quickly realise that if we waste time and do not concentrate, that then we will not reap the benefits of sourcing words efficiently.
We are therefore unconsciously employing our focusing abilities and high concentration levels in order to reach that reward of finding the hidden words.
Leading on from this sense of focus and concentration, when we actually find the word we have been searching for, our brain releases a neurotransmitter known as dopamine into our body. This acts like a reward that can improve our mood and behavioural patterns.
The reward of dopamine can give the brain motivation to complete a task and this can be applied across a wide range of obstacles that we may face in life.
As you search for a word and can not locate it immediately, the brain comes up with ingenious solutions to try and find that word. For example, you may have been searching for the word ‘bonfire’. The brain can break it down into ‘bon’ and ‘fire’. Using different searching techniques to look for separate parts of the word, you are improving your problem-solving abilities.
You also have to commit sections of words to your short-term memory in order to visually scan the word search grid for them. Hence, your memory skills can be improved through word search puzzles.
To save even more time, instead of looking for parts of words as mentioned above, you could even choose to just visually seek out patterns of letters in word searches instead. The brain hones in on this skill almost naturally as we come to understand word formation. Patterns such as ‘que’, ‘the’, ‘ry’, ‘ing’, ‘ed’ and so on.
Trying to seek out these letter patterns can be a great way to improve word fluency more generally, as you can start to see more and more patterns display themselves. This in turn can help improve your spelling ability too.
Every time you find that next word, not only are you getting the neurotransmitter dopamine releasing a boost of happiness into your body, you are then more likely to persevere and keep going to complete the challenge.
Your brain starts thinking about the happiness you will feel once the word search is completely done and this can motivate and propel you to carry on. Your confidence grows with every word you find and a belief system starts building inside you, saying that you can complete this and find every word.
What a valuable life skill perseverance is, and when centred around education and learning, how wonderful it is to cultivate this for children. Word searches are just one of the many ways that learning can improve confidence levels.
Ultimately, word searches are helping us to recognise words and improve our spelling. But we should not forget that at the heart of it, they are about having fun with words too!
If you are travelling on holiday, have a long car journey coming up, or are simply looking for ways to encourage your children to increase their vocabulary, then word searches can be a great option. Not only are they self-contained on a single sheet of paper, they are mess-free and peaceful activities that promote concentration too.
