I’ve written several posts, and write extensively in my latest book, about strategies to help students develop self-control (see My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control).

A new study reports that training people through online games to strengthen their working memory results in a substantial increase in their impulse control.

This could be just one more tool in a teacher’s toolbox. I could see trying something like this out with a student who has not responded well to the multiple other strategies I might have tried — perhaps, for a couple of weeks, during the fifteen minutes of practice reading time we have at the beginning of each class, instead just inviting him to use my computer to play some memory games to see what happens (after, of course, explaining to him its purpose and the research behind it).

As always, of course, often the fact that students see that the teacher is going the extra mile to help them has as much of an impact, if not a far greater one, than any potential direct cognitive impact an intervention like this might have.

Here are a few online memory games I’ve found that appear decent — please share others you suggest in the comments section (I primarily want to find games that don’t have easy links to other non-memory games that could prove tempting):

Simon Says

Another Simon Says Memory Game

Short Term Memory Test

Play With Your Mind Memory Games

Brain Concentration

Sensory Concentration

BBC Explore Your Memory

Test My Brain

Name That Name

Name That Number

Objects In Order

Your Amazing Brain

Test Your Memory

Busy Bistro

Memory Matrix

Memory Games

Memory Game comes from National Geographic.

Please leave additional suggestions for memory games in the comments section of this post….