Turn … turn … turn … click! “Mommy, wook!” My 24-month old son
held up his wooden puzzle to show me that he had completed putting in all the
pieces. “Good job!” I replied, handing him
an animal puzzle. “Now let’s try this
one.” He happily took it, dumped all the
pieces loudly on the table and started to focus on the new challenge.
Puzzles are great learning toys. While doing puzzles, children can learn about
colors, sizes, shapes, animals, vehicles, letters and numbers, dinosaurs, space and more.
Placing small objects together and learning how to orient
them in the correct way requires use of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Your child needs to use his
fingers to grab the pieces, hold it right side up, decide which space is the
right one and then turn the piece in the right direction to insert it. It’s a complex process, and children learn how
to do this as they grow.
A 9-month-old can pick up a puzzle piece, but is more
likely to chew on the piece rather than put it in a puzzle.
A 15-month-old can pick up a puzzle piece and
understand that it belongs in the puzzle. However, she may not be able to orient the piece the right way and may
choose to just play with it. She can
successfully use simple shape sorters, putting a square block into a
square hole. However, she may have
trouble with putting a wooden dog-shaped piece into a dog-shaped space.
A 2-year-old can usually place the piece in the right
place for simple puzzles, but may have some difficulty turning the piece in the
right direction. At this age, my son would try for a little while, but get bored after few tries. He was happy to leave the piece sitting on
top of the appropriate space without needing to put it in correctly.
At 3 years old, a child can successfully put the
pieces in correctly and start to manage more complex puzzles where she has to
put pieces together in an empty frame. From that point, she can do puzzles with a larger number of pieces.
Social skills also evolve when a child works with others on
a puzzle. Taking turns, sharing pieces,
celebrating accomplishments and managing frustration are important psychosocial
skills that result from working on puzzles with others.
I reached over and took a piece to help my son with the
puzzle I gave him. He grabbed the puzzle
piece from my hand and told me emphatically, “My do it!” Oh, and did I mention that puzzles also
teach self confidence?