You have heard before that puzzles are beneficial to the development of your little one’s brain, and you have probably been gifted with new baby puzzles. However, the question is how puzzles are thought to impact a child’s mental development positively.
Read this insightful blog post right now to find out in what ways puzzles can contribute to your child’s mental development.
1. Let Them Observe the World Around Them
Several theorists have found that observing the world around a child and acting in some way on it profoundly shapes child development.
Puzzles present a chance, which is valuable in making children perform well in their exercises. Children learn to interact directly with their surroundings and transform their physical characteristics when solving puzzles.
2. Build Problem-Solving Skills
The ability to solve a problem is highly desirable and beneficial. When a child spends time viewing different pieces and trying to determine where they belong or where they do not, he/she is mastering this vital skill.
If your child loves pink, then provide your child with dark pink building bricks so that he/she will know better where to put a puzzle brick to form a building. Thus, puzzles help children develop self-propelled thinking; they make children use their heads to come up with the best thinking strategy.
3. Strengthen Memory
Ordinary jigsaws and other kinds of puzzles can also improve a child’s memory. For instance, a child will be required to use his or her memory to remember the size, color, or shape of the pieces as he or she completes the puzzle.
This is somewhat like the technical process of putting together a puzzle; if a piece doesn’t fit, the child dismisses it. But, he/she will have to recall that piece when it is needed to fit at the right place.
4. Improve Hand-Eye Coordination
Whenever children flip, turn, remove, etc., the pieces of the puzzle, they are learning what they see with their eyes and with their hands.
The eyes perceive where the puzzle is, and the mind creates or forms a picture of how the pattern of the puzzle should be, the kind of piece that comes next, and where it should fit. Subsequently, the brain and the eyes look for the piece while the hands handle it properly and place it correctly in the puzzle.
5. Develop Fine Motor Skills
Just like children develop hand-eye coordination, the use of puzzles gives the child the chance to use their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are different and not as apparent as those used for walking as they involve small movements, which puzzles offer. Fine motor skills are crucial for handwriting and many other developmental milestones.
6. Foster Shape Recognition
When it comes to young children, including babies, knowing their shapes and the ability to sort them is a fundamental aspect that must be nourished. Since shapes have to be distinguished before they can be used for assembly, puzzles can assist little ones with this.
