Special thanks to Occupational Therapy Nikki Brown from Eat Play Learn Grow for collaborating with me on this post!
Did you know puzzles have immense benefits for toddler development? You can even start introducing puzzles even long before your little will be able to complete them on their own to start working on foundational skills such as cognition, motor coordination, social/emotional regulation, vocabulary usage, listening skills, and comprehension of basic concepts.
At 6 Months: babies learn how to transfer puzzle pieces from one hand to another. At 12 Months: Babies are learning cause and effect - "what happens when I turn the puzzle board over and dump out the pieces?" By 18 Months: your little with your help, can put large puzzle pieces into their corresponding spots. At 2 years, your little can now complete a simple puzzle.
What are we working on?
Cognition: working on puzzles helps littles visual perception/motor skills (the brain's way to processing the information you see and then tells the muscles to move to complete the task), problem-solving skills, and increases your littles ability to attend to a task.
Fine motor: For peg puzzles, littles can use a variety of grasps (pincer, 3 jaw chuck) to pick up each puzzle piece. They work on fine motor coordination by rotating each piece to fit the matching cut out. Coordinating the upper extremity muscles help your little prepare for skills such as handwriting and fasteners on clothing while getting dressed.
Social/emotional benefits: attending to a task teaches patience. When the puzzle is complete, your little has also earned a feeling of accomplishment.
Vocabulary: Target naming common objects by modeling “I see a ...” and have your child fill in the blank with the name of the puzzle piece picture. You can also work on identifying by holding up to puzzle pieces and asking your child to point to the target.
Listening: Improve your child’s ability to comprehend spoken language by prompting them to follow simple commands (give me, put in, take out) or multi step directions (get the blue piece and give it to me, first find two cars and then put them in the puzzle).
Basic Concepts: Practice basic concepts during puzzle time by directing your child to get pieces out, in, on top, on the bottom, or next to!
At 6 Months: babies learn how to transfer puzzle pieces from one hand to another. At 12 Months: Babies are learning cause and effect - "what happens when I turn the puzzle board over and dump out the pieces?" By 18 Months: your little with your help, can put large puzzle pieces into their corresponding spots. At 2 years, your little can now complete a simple puzzle.
What are we working on?
Cognition: working on puzzles helps littles visual perception/motor skills (the brain's way to processing the information you see and then tells the muscles to move to complete the task), problem-solving skills, and increases your littles ability to attend to a task.
Fine motor: For peg puzzles, littles can use a variety of grasps (pincer, 3 jaw chuck) to pick up each puzzle piece. They work on fine motor coordination by rotating each piece to fit the matching cut out. Coordinating the upper extremity muscles help your little prepare for skills such as handwriting and fasteners on clothing while getting dressed.
Social/emotional benefits: attending to a task teaches patience. When the puzzle is complete, your little has also earned a feeling of accomplishment.
Vocabulary: Target naming common objects by modeling “I see a ...” and have your child fill in the blank with the name of the puzzle piece picture. You can also work on identifying by holding up to puzzle pieces and asking your child to point to the target.
Listening: Improve your child’s ability to comprehend spoken language by prompting them to follow simple commands (give me, put in, take out) or multi step directions (get the blue piece and give it to me, first find two cars and then put them in the puzzle).
Basic Concepts: Practice basic concepts during puzzle time by directing your child to get pieces out, in, on top, on the bottom, or next to!
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