Puzzle

The Benefit of Puzzles

Last Updated Aug 20, 2008 07:01 PM

Toys & Learning
The beneficial role of toys and games in your child's development are discussed in the following articles:

What are Toys and Games doing in a Library?
What Skills are Being Promoted When a Child is Having Fun Playing a Game?
The Benefit of Puzzles
What are Toys and Games Doing in a Library?
Playing games at any age has the potential to be a lot of fun and for children in particular there can be some real benefits. Playing games can be a fun and motivating way to learn and reinforce skills, can provide an opportunity for all the family to play together or to have "special time" with one child, and skills learnt and mastered at home can be played outside home at preschool, school, with friends. Playing a game can be useful as a reward and can provide the chance to praise a child for achievements such as taking turns and packing up well.

What Skills are Being Promoted When a Child is Having Fun Playing a Game?
Social Skills
Learning to take turns, coping with winning and losing, being patient.
Visual Skills
visual scanning, spot the difference, eye-hand coordination.
Organisational Skills
Setting up and packing away a game, following a task from beginning to end, concentrating, listening, following instructions, decision making, planning strategies, problem solving and logical reasoning.
Motor Skills
Fine motor skills when throwing dice, moving pieces, dealing, turning cards, and gross motor skills such as body awareness and balance.
Language Skills
Many games help to develop language skills, eye contact, making requests, naming and can provide the opportunity for a child to explain the game to another child.
The Bowen Library has many games for children, usually recommended for 3 years and up. Ravensburger produce some wonderful games for younger players and the library stocks a wide range of these. While each of these early games will promote most or all of the above skills, they will also concentrate on particular areas such as matching, using memory, colours, shapes, listening, counting and numbers, language, letters and words, visual discrimination, identifying parts of the body. Easy board games will introduce children to simple concepts of throwing a dice/manipulating a spinner and moving along a pathway to a goal. Board games for older children will require them to think of strategies and work with more complex rules.

So when the computer has beaten you one too many times at a game, or the kids have been watching too many videos, it might be time to think about borrowing a few games. You'll be surprised at what fun a group of any age can have together!

Bibliography
Gibbert, K. and Anscomb, J. September 1998, Games, Insert Cubby House Toy Library Newsletter
The Benefit of Puzzles
Puzzles provide children with many different opportunities for learning, such as visual discrimination, eye-hand co-ordination, social development, concentration, organisation, spatial awareness and direction, and language. However central to the skills gained by children from working with puzzles is the development of problem solving strategies. It is now recognised that problem solving is an essential factor in not only all areas of the school curriculum, but as an important life skill.

Bowen Library's Toy and Game Section, has examples of every kind of puzzle available to children, from inset puzzles (lift out pieces with knobs), form puzzles (pieces make a picture inside a tray), to jigsaw puzzles (ranging from 4 to 80 interlocking pieces) and large floor jigsaw puzzles, in a million and one themes. The library can cater for a child's needs from their earliest puzzle attempts to the needs of school aged children. Very young children can be offered a basic large knob inset puzzle to try as early as 14 months. The benefit of borrowing from the toy library is that you can expose your child to a puzzle every so often if they aren't that interested, or you have a huge resource to constantly borrow from if your child is mastering different puzzles at a fast rate. To attract children to puzzles it can be beneficial to choose ones on a theme they love such as animals, transport, food, or popular characters.

Tips for Assisting Children with Puzzles
Discuss the puzzle picture before it is taken apart
Take the pieces out carefully rather than tipping them out and make sure all the pieces are face-up so that the design of the picture is clearly presented
Talk about the particular part of the puzzle that may be missing, eg the arm from a body puzzle- the reverse also, examining a puzzle piece and discussing what it looks like and represents in the puzzle

Discuss the colour, patterning or shape of the border, and ask the child to look for a piece with those characteristics
Examine puzzle pieces already inserted and discuss the colours of particular areas and ask the child to look for a piece with that colouring or patterning
Ask the child to try and rotate the puzzle piece into position. If this is unsuccessful, then gently move the piece so that it will be placed into position, instead of being forced
Insert a puzzle piece that may be causing difficulties because of its importance in the placing of the remaining pieces- explain exactly what you are doing and why you are placing it into that particular position
Discreetly move appropriate puzzle pieces closer to the child's reach, so that it may be selected next for the puzzle This is useful when the child is becoming frustrated
It is helpful to let your child hear your thinking and problem solving strategies whilst doing the puzzle

See also Puzzle 536 1 - 5