Participatory Content Through Word Puzzles
Word puzzles are a great way to stimulate the mind and increase mental awareness. They aren’t just for older people, though. They are a great way to help anyone, regardless of age, to keep a busy mind working efficiently. These kind of brain-teasers are not terribly difficult or complex; in fact they can sometimes be solved while waiting in line, at the airport, on a train, in the doctor’s waiting room etc. Choices range from cryptograms to word searches and logic problems to that old classic, the crossword puzzle.
The aim of all crosswords is to put the correct words in the white squares after solving the clues given for the answers. A number of variations are around but the two most popular ones are 1.) the ‘straight’ crossword and 2.) the ‘cryptic’ crossword. Cryptic crosswords are quite a bit harder than straight crosswords, mainly because the clues are themselves a sort of puzzle and are not necessarily logical to the ordinary reader’s mind. In straight crosswords the clues are usually presented as a simple definition. “Crossword puzzles, anagrams and other word puzzles” says Will Shortz, Crossword Editor for The New York Times, “can build problem-solving skills that are useful both academically and in everyday life”.
Word games and word puzzles have never been more popular than now. There are also a whole new range of puzzles, games and educational mind-benders featuring the unscrambling of words or phrases whose letters have been jumbled and where the idea is to reconstitute the original word or phrase, or create a new one. Godoku is a good case in point. Anyone familiar with sudoku will catch on quickly to godoku because the game is an alphabetical variation on the conventional version and is almost identical: the only difference is that instead of nine numbers, godoku has nine letters. They are already beginning to appear in national newspapers and elsewhere.
The Big Brain Puzzle Book by Terry Stickels is near the top of the best-seller lists and his puzzle columns, the most famous of which is ‘Stickelers’, are syndicated in some of the largest newspapers in the USA and even feature regularly in the print media of other countries around the world. One of his books (he has written or co-authored more than thirty) was even approved by the Alzheimer’s Association, so useful do they consider his puzzles to be for those so afflicted. He specializes in word puzzles and other brain teasers, such as his ‘frame games’, that also use symbols or pictures in place of words. His wide range of very popular word puzzles are keenly sought after by people of all ages and of both sexes.
Anyone who has spent much time on the Internet has encountered websites that require you to solve a distorted word puzzle to “prove that you’re a human” when filling out a form. These are called ‘captcha’ puzzles (short for Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart) and display a graphic of a scrambled word or words that can be read by a person but not by a web bot (an Internet robot). It occurred to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University that, because people were decoding distorted text every time they solved a captcha puzzle, they could also be used to help digitize books, such as ancient or classic texts. So, believe it or not, we have the scourge of spammers to thank for enlisting people across the globe to unknowingly help in digitizing important historical works nearly every time they solve a simple word puzzle to register at a website or buy something online!
Word puzzles first became widely established in the popular media such as newspapers, magazines and of course, through the publication of puzzle books. More recently they have established a presence on radio and television but the most significant change is their current ubiquity online. Word puzzles are now available to millions of people on the Internet and have undertaken a considerable revival in popularity. This is nothing short of amazing really when you consider their humble start in New York in the early 1900s. Crosswords are still the most popular of the various types available and probably will always remain so. As well as their entertainment value, which is deemed considerable, studies show that they have very useful potential educational benefits too, such as with spelling, augmenting the vocabulary and helping slow learners and the dyslectic.
Schoolchildren can benefit greatly from the various different types of word puzzles that are available now, especially those who are having problems picking up word skills. In fact, according to a recent feature in ‘USA today’, they can grow their mental flexibility and build their vocabularies through the repeated use of various different word puzzles. At the same time, most children, once they get accustomed to how they work, really enjoy them and are constantly on the lookout for new and exciting variations. On the whole then, both for young and old alike, word puzzles are extremely beneficial.
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