Many consider card games as entertainment, a useless occupation, but this is not entirely true. Of course, people often play cards for fun, to pass the time, spend an evening with friends. But apart from the obvious benefit in the form of fun, card games also have other positive properties.
First, card games favorably affect the sphere of relations. A deck of cards is one of the simplest ways to gather a company of friends. Positive experience, well-spent time and emotions — bring together. If you are in an unfamiliar company, a card game is an effective way to establish contact with new acquaintances and get to know them better. Card games allow you to learn a lot of new and old friends and cronies. Playing cards, situations of frustration, risk, success are simulated, so at the table, you can see a significant part of the spectrum of human behavioral reactions.
In addition to the fact that playing cards beneficially affects personal relationships and social ties, it generally develops communication skills and emotional sphere. As already mentioned, the card game allows you to simulate different situations that you can face in life, and therefore also allows you to work on your reaction, your behavior, emotions. The game of Bridge, in particular, is a very good opportunity to train in the ability to cooperate.
Some card games particularly well develop emotional intelligence, namely the recognition of other people’s emotions and the management of their own. The emotional component is one of the main in such games as poker for example. In poker, you need to not only monitor the cards but also analyze the behavior of rivals, as well as control your own emotional state.
Another positive effect of playing cards is the development of mathematical and analytical abilities. Poker, bridge, preference and other card games require the player to analyze and evaluate the probability of falling out of cards, composing combinations, scoring points and other mathematical and
analytical operations.
In many games it is necessary to estimate possible variants of development of events, to think several moves ahead. It is also a good training for memory: memorization of the cards that came out of the game is a good strategy for many games.
Recently, card games, due to the positive effect on various mental functions of a person, was increasingly used in the prevention and fight against various diseases, as well as in rehabilitation.
Scientists have proven that some card games help to recover from a stroke. Of course, the game of cards is used only in addition to traditional measures, such as physiotherapy, but due to the training of motor skills of patients (in the snap, players need to quickly turn over the cards), the dynamics of rehabilitation improves.
At a conference on Alzheimer’s disease, it was stated that games such as poker are one of the preventive measures that reduce the risk of developing this disease.
Poker helps to preserve brain structures and cognitive functions that are destroyed by Alzheimer’s. Card games are also used for working with people suffering from dyscalculia (a syndrome of a person’s inability to count and solve mathematical problems).
People with this disorder experience great difficulties with the solution of the simplest examples and generally with an understanding of the category of “numbers” (in particular, with a visual assessment of the number of objects). For the development of mathematical skills in people with dyscalculia (along with the usual card games) card games with modified or lightweight rules are often used, as well as solitaire (i.e. card games for one person). In the game form, they allow teaching addition, subtraction, operations by definition of more or less number, the compilation of a numerical series.
Do you believe in the beneficial effects of card games on the mental and physical health of a person? Do you think they are more useful or harmful? Share opinions, talk about personal experience and give practical advice.
Iren is an editor of Game Table Zone. Iren likes to write reviews on different game tables and about the benefits of Board games.
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