Puzzle – How It Helps The Child’s Development

As a child most of us have tinkered and played with puzzles. Calculating and observing which little piece went where and the joy felt after having successfully completed it are a part of most of our childhood memories. This fun and challenging activity is loved by kids around the world and still remains to be one of the most popular childhood games. At any age, puzzles offer the chance to work towards a goal and piece together a story or picture. With fun shapes and bright colours, large-piece puzzles are a favourite among small children at play school in Garia, Kolkata.

 While this popular game remains to be fun and enjoyable, it does more than enticing your child with its bright colours and shapes. Here’s why you should consider getting puzzles for your little one.

Puzzles and Child Development

Psychologists have found out that a child’s brain development is increased significantly when a child acts on or changes the environment around him or her. Puzzles provide that opportunity. Children learn to work with the situation around them and modify its shape and appearance when they work with puzzles.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive learning is characterized by comprehension, organizing various ideas and applying them through choice and evaluation. When children play with puzzles, they learn to combine specific choices as they begin to recognize and understand how pieces fit together. The best way for your child to gain an understanding of the world around them is by letting them change and create the world around them. 

Fine Motor Development and hand-eye coordination

Playing with puzzles require children to grasp parts of all sizes and decide how to fit exactly into a slot. This process involves sorting and testing of numerous parts until the matching piece is found. Through this task, children develop small muscle movements and dexterity in their hands and fingers. Small and precise movements, such as the movement of fingers to get a puzzle piece in place can lead to better handwriting and finger stability. While developing fine motor skills, playing with puzzles require children to learn to work their hands and eyes together. Child develops a keen relationship between their eyes, hands and brain.

Memory

When working to complete a puzzle at day care in Garia, Kolkata, children have to rely on their memory to figure out which shapes combine to complete the picture. If a piece doesn’t fit, the child will set it aside, but will need to remember the shape and colour in relation to the rest of the puzzle.

Emotional skills such as setting goals and working with patience are also developed. The first goal is to solve the puzzle, the next goal will be a series of strategies the child comes up with to solve the puzzle.

In brief puzzles help to

• Allow a child to learn that a whole is made of various parts and pieces
• Develop  hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skills
• Builds visual and cognitive skills
• Develops their concentration and attention power and mental skills such as recognising, remembering, matching, sorting and problem solving

University of Chicago researchers has found that children who play with puzzles between the ages of 2 - 4 later develop better spatial skills. From early childhood right through to adulthood we love to play with puzzles and like the way they challenge our thinking and exercise our minds. Puzzles are also an important educational tool for children as they provide many skills and mental learning benefits.

You can also read - Features to Look While Recruiting Teacher for Play School.