Why Playing With Blocks Is Good For Young Children
There are so many educational benefits of block play for preschoolers that this should be a regular activity in your home. When it comes to play, traditional toys and equipment are often the ones that still bring the most educational benefits. Playing with blocks has many more benefits than you can imagine.
What your child needs are good old wooden blocks in a large wooden box. Small, flimsy, plastic, or tiny alphabet blocks won’t provide the same experience, for example.
Benefits of playing with blocks in early childhood
Next, we are going to explain some of the benefits of playing with blocks and that you need to know so that you can promote this type of game in your children. Your little ones should play with them every day!
Improves attention
When children play with blocks and begin to build, they usually get engrossed and spend a lot of time on their creations. They often play for longer than they normally would in other activities.
This is because they are persevering to create something that they have a particular vision for. They want to build the tallest tower they have ever built or they want to make a ramp so that their cars and toys can climb to get to the fort.
This causes them to push the limits of their concentration and increase their general attention span over time. Developing perseverance and determination are also two great advantages!
Playing with blocks enhances cooperation
When children build with siblings or friends and are developing social skills, cooperation is most important. Building a structure together takes a lot of effort to give and take. The little ones have to share blocks, agree on what to build and how to do it, negotiate the tasks involved, and resolve disagreements.
Building with blocks is a great opportunity to learn to work together in harmony with others and towards a common goal. They are benefits that will serve them for a lifetime; It is necessary for them!
Motor skills
During block play, children develop fine motor and gross motor skills as they move and manipulate the pieces. Gross motor refers to the large muscles responsible for large movements and fine motor refers to the small movements of the fingers and hands.
The development of these muscles is important for children to be able to perform everyday tasks and eventually have the muscle control to write in school. In addition, they will have a great time playing.
Play with blocks to learn science concepts
Many early science concepts are developed through block play. Children learn about gravity, weight, stability, and balance as they build and explore. By learning through cause and effect, children discover the properties of objects and how they affect each other.
Mathematical concepts
Children learn math concepts from an early age, before they begin to formally learn the skills. One of the best activities to learn these skills is playing with blocks.
As they build, the little ones develop many fundamental concepts. A child may be able to recite the numbers up to 10, but only by playing with objects such as blocks does he develop an understanding of the value of 1 object, 2 objects, etc. They develop a one-to-one correspondence.
Blocks provide endless opportunities to learn about values and numbers, compare numbers, sizes, and lengths. Youngsters learn what it means to need “1 more block” to match the towers, why one building is taller than another, how to remove construction pieces or add blocks to lengthen the ramp.
Through block play, children learn about the concept of number, measurement, and geometry without even realizing it. For this reason, playing with blocks is very complete and helps improve your mental capacity.
Language development
As children build, they will want to verbalize what they are creating. This is a great opportunity to develop vocabulary and language because new concepts and words may emerge. For example, when you ask your child about what he is building, introduce new words to describe the building, such as levels, floors, ramp, barn, extension, higher, lower, complex, etc.
When children are building with siblings or friends, they will naturally develop their language as they discuss the process with each other. In addition to enhancing language, they will also improve communication.
Troubleshooting thanks to blocks
Building with blocks is the best way to solve problems for young children. Almost anything your child builds will require some level of thinking about a solution.
Before you start, you need to think about and plan what you will create. Then you have to work out the mechanics of how it will work : how it will stand upright, whether it will be stable, whether it will be thick enough or large enough, etc. And, surely, problems will arise.
The roof of the house may collapse or the entrance to the castle may be too small. This is the part where you see the little ones looking for solutions. You may not realize it, but this kind of thinking at such a young age is what develops the skill that allows children to solve math word problems or work creatively on their school projects.
