Crossword puzzles in education and practice

Over the past few years, there’s been increasing interest in the use of crosswords as an educational tool. In a 2021 study by P. Zhamani published on the National Institutes of Health website, a study was carried out on students of speech therapy. The study found that the use of crossword puzzles as an enjoyable and participatory teaching tool accompanied by a lecture could improve management quality in speech therapy sessions.

In earlier studies, it was found that crossword puzzles are effective teaching tools of terminology, definitions, spelling, and pairing concepts with related names, resulting in greater retention and memorization of facts. 

Crosswords have been written for English as a Secondary Language students to develop vocabulary skills. 

Myles Mellor, a well-known crossword puzzle writer, has created a crossword puzzle as part of examinations for sociology students at Texas A & M University. 

He is also currently creating themed crossword puzzles for www.bigthink.com which covers subjects such as philosophy, the universe, matter, physics, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT and many important innovations that could influence the future of our civilization. Mellor has created many of the best themed crossword puzzles which contain multiple theme words in relation to any chosen subject. Subjects he has covered include: 

Accounting Advertising and Marketing Agriculture and Farm, Animal, Antiques Architecture Art Associations Astrology Astronomy Automotive and Recreational Vehicles Aviation Banking and Finance Baseball Basketball Bicycles and Cycling Billiards Boating Books, Printing and Publishing, Bowling Business and Finance Children and Teen Collecting and Hobbies College Communications Computers Construction Crafts Current Events and News Dance and Theater Diving and Ecology and Conservation Education Electronics Entertainment and Games Environment and Conservation Ethnic Disabled Access Fashion and Beauty Fishing Food and Beverage Football, Soccer and Rugby Furniture Gardens and Flowers Golf Handicapped Health and Fitness History House and Home Horse Racing Hunting In-flight Jewelry Legal and Law Lifestyle Literary and Poetry
Management Martial Arts and Wrestling Medical Men’s Military Motorcycle Music Outdoors and Nature Parental and Family Photography Politics Real Estate
Regional and Foreign Religion Retailing Running Science Fiction Senior Sewing Science Sports Television, Film and Radio Tennis and Volleyball Transportation Travel Trucks Weather Women’s Wood Writing Literature Movies 

Many crossword aficionados use Amazon.com to search for both themed crosswords and for more generic crossword puzzles. If you search there you can find Amazon easy crossword puzzles, medium crosswords and hard crosswords. In other words, crosswords of all difficulty levels. There is a very wide selection of crossword puzzles there to choose from. 

One of the interesting things about crossword puzzles is the variety of types and styles there are. For example, the New York Times publishes puzzles that increase in difficulty throughout the week. The “Monday crossword” is the easiest and they go up to the “Saturday crossword” which is very difficult. They also publish a “Sunday crossword” which is a giant and much bigger than the daily puzzles.

Many other crossword writers publish their own books of crossword puzzles which include “challenging crosswords”. While some people claim to write “challenging crosswords” these often contain many very easy clues and so don’t really qualify as “challenging”. A challenging crossword should include: long words, unusual words (but not archaic or too specialized), puns and word play and also unexpected definitions. They may also include some tougher trivia clues. Myles Mellor’s book 

“Challenging Crossword Puzzles: Puzzles to challenge and entertain your brain” does certainly qualify as such a book. So one of the options if you are looking for challenging crossword puzzles is to buy this book which you can do at https://www.amazon.com/Challenging-Crossword-Puzzles-challenge-Crosswords/dp/B0BR1YW8RQ?ref_=ast_author_dp  . The New York Times also has their Saturday crossword books on Amazon which are very high quality and extremely tough. 

Who would appreciate challenging crossword puzzles online? These are for solvers who are already experienced and have reached the point where they are looking for a very high level of difficulty. If you are just starting out and enjoy simple clues and often used words, then you should probably look at the easy level. There’s a website called www.ilovecrosswords.com which has all levels of difficulty starting from super easy up to challenging and includes theme crosswords as well. The site is nicely organized so you can scan through the available crossword puzzle books and when you click on the one you want, you will arrive at the Amazon page where you can read more information about the book and buy it. 

We are fortunate today to have such a wealth of crossword puzzles to choose from. The pastime started in December 1913, when a British journalist called Arthur Wynne created a puzzle called “word cross’ ‘ which was in a diamond shape and had no black squares. In the early 1920s newspapers picked up the game and it suddenly became a craze. In a fascinating turn of history, during WWII, the Daily Telegraph in London ran a crossword contest to see who could solve the puzzle in the fastest time. Some of the entrants were then contacted by the British War Office and started to work as cryptographers for British intelligence. At one point shortly before the D-Day invasion of Normandy, five code words appeared in the Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle which corresponded to the beaches that were going to be invaded. 

MI5 investigated but no espionage was found. 

Today the crossword flourishes and the New York Times is its most famous proponent. There are several people involved in editing and checking every crossword that is published and there are strict criteria for publication. 

Additionally, much more attention is being placed now on ensuring diversity in the crossword writers who are published in the newspaper. 

The crossword puzzle has now become an integral part of the lives of millions of people. From humble beginnings, it is now probably the most played pastime in the United States. It provides enjoyment, a mental work-out and a challenge to solvers of all kinds. It has become an educational tool and helps people gain a larger vocabulary. It’s reported that solving crosswords can slow down the progress of debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. 

A comforting part of doing crossword puzzles is summed up in this quote from Stephen Sondheim:  “The nice thing about doing a crossword is you know there is a solution.”