Play games to find missing or hidden things or people. Vary the hiding place and length of time before letting your child look for the object.
Playing "Hide and Seek" or games that involve hiding objects helps children to develop their memory . Child-initiated play within a safe boundary allows them to move at their own pace, try out new ideas and feel unrestrained by adults' rules. This experience helps children develop their own identity and learn to navigate the world independently.
Playing games that involve children hiding toys for others or themselves to find also helps exercise their short-term (working) memory and processing speed. Such games also help develop visual-spatial abilities as children need to look and make comparisons to assess if something can be entirely hidden, and categorize things in which items can and cannot be hidden inside.
Varying hiding places, and the length of time before looking for the objects, helps exercise the brain’s ability to retain the information on where to search (or where has been searched) and practise retaining relevant information about the object in working memory.
All these skills lay the foundation for building children's cognitive abilities. Haden, C. A., Ornstein, P. A., O'Brien, B. S., Elischberger, H. B., Tyler, C. S., & Burchinal, M. J. (2011). The development of children's early memory skills. Journal of experimental child psychology, 108(1), 44–60. Pelphrey, KA.; Reznick, JS. Working memory in infancy. In: Kail, RV., editor. Advances in child development and behaviour. Vol. Vol. 31. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2003. p. 173-227.
Read more at CD-MEM-C03.