Anybody looking for a puzzle in a brick-and-mortar store likely will find it located in the toy section, but it isn’t necessarily fair to place them in the same classification as many of the other toys in that part of the store. The truth is that puzzles are excellent manipulatives to help children develop and grow in a number of important ways. Yes, they are fun, and yes, they are satisfying to complete no matter your age, but the wood block puzzles at Hollow Woodworks also can help with a child’s physical, social, and cognitive development.
Physical Development
There are a number of ways that playing with a puzzle or a name puzzle stool can help a child develop their fine and gross motor skills. For young children, this starts with the development of hand-eye coordination, which they improve as they flip, turn, remove, and snap puzzle pieces into place. The brain, eyes, and hands work together to manipulate the puzzle, which are foundational skills that children need.
For babies, these types of activities improve their gross motor skills, especially with the large blocks in our wooden stools, but smaller pieces also are great for the fine motor skills, as they learn to use their fingers to arrange the puzzle pieces in the correct order.
Social Development
Puzzles also can help with social development, most notably in terms of the self-confidence that comes with completing a task. Children also learn that they can manipulate the world around them, giving them a sense of cause-and-effect that easily could translate to real-world application.
Furthermore, puzzles give children a sense of completion when setting small goals. Obviously, goals get bigger the older a child gets, but seeing these small goals come together at a young age is a great way to prepare for the higher-stakes goals at an older age.
Cognitive Development
Perhaps most importantly, puzzles are very effective at helping children develop cognitively. Not only do our name stools help children recognize letters and, eventually, their own names, but it also helps them identify colors and other shapes.
Simple jigsaw puzzles also could help a child develop their memory, specifically as they memorize the order of a certain puzzle they have completed several times before. Puzzles also help with problem solving, since they cannot possibly be completed by cheating. There is no shortcut to completing a puzzle correctly, so figuring out how to solve the small problems of fitting pieces together is a nice precursor to the larger problems children experience when they’re older.
Gift a High Quality Puzzle
There are so many reasons to consider buying a wood puzzle or personalized name puzzle from Hollow Woodworks, but the ability of a puzzle to help children develop and grow is so important. A wood block puzzle is a fantastic gift for a child, so enjoy watching them learn more about themselves and the world around them as they work with these gorgeous puzzles.