Getting children to engage with their maths homework isn’t always the easiest of tasks, but the irresistible appeal of a games console will help to sweeten the deal. The full range of Brain Training games on the Nintendo DS boosts the mental agility of children and adults alike, but the console also offers a more targeted and structured way of learning mathematical techniques.

Professor Kageyama's Math Training: The Hundred Cell Calculation Method encourages children to put away their calculators and engage their brains with a series of puzzles designed to teach crucial number skills. The software is pitched at children aged between 5 and 13, encouraging younger users to build up their abilities and helping older ones to brush up existing skills. The techniques they learn will boost their confidence with numbers both at school and in day-to-day settings .

The Hundred Cell Method has been developed by Professor Hideo Kageyama, a deputy headmaster of a Japanese primary school. The concept is designed to assist childhood development; it involves answering 100 questions based on a ten-by-ten grid. Players have to add, subtract or multiply the figures and fill in the answers on the appropriate squares. The ability level can be varied between simple one-digit sums and more challenging three-digit exercises, allowing players to find their level and then push themselves beyond it. As their skills improve and they achieve the satisfaction of having completely filled the grid, the children will encounter harder sums and their mental arithmetic will progress yet further.

The touch-sensitive Nintendo DS console is designed so that using the software is as simple and enjoyable as possible. Holding the device vertically so that it opens like a book, players enter their answers directly onto the screen using a pen-like stylus. This familiar and natural method of interaction frees up the player from thinking about controllers and keyboards, letting him or her concentrate on writing down the answers as quickly and accurately as possible.

The software includes a ‘daily test’ mode, which encourages children to spend a short, productive amount of time honing their skills every day. A built-in calendar allows them to keep track of their achievements, awarding them bronze, silver or gold medals at the end of each exercise and keeping track of their overall performance. Once five days of exercises have been successfully completed, the difficult level is automatically increased.

Solving the puzzles can also be a social experience, thanks to the Nintendo DS’s wireless internet connection. This lets children play against up to 15 friends, classmates – or family members, if they’re up to the challenge. Only one copy of the game is needed for each group, allowing children to involve other players who can offer either support or competition.

The involvement of friends and family – along with the use of the games console itself – helps children to get out of the classroom mentality, stop regarding the puzzles as work and start seeing them as a fun, sociable and satisfying method of improving their own skills.

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