These are the Lego. These little building blocks keep children busy for hours, allowing them to create perfect creations.
THE educational benefits of Lego are so numerous that it is no wonder that many consider them to be the best toy of all time. It is a great tool for brain development in the early years of life.
Let's take a look at some of the skills that Lego helps develop.
Creative thinking
The true learning power of Lego lies in its evolving nature. Lego is not a single-function toy.
Few things can stimulate creative energy as much as a box of Legos mixed.
Children need to think about what they want to build, how to build it, and then find a way to bring what they imagine to life.
While the suggested model ideas can be fun to introduce your children to the possibilities, the real learning happens when children build freely.
Fine motor skills
It takes a lot of skill and finger control to manipulate the small blocks.
Lego is therefore an excellent fine motor activity that will develop your children's fine motor coordination and strengthen the small muscles in their hands.
In fact, the classic Lego blocks are too difficult for young children to handle, as their little fingers are better able to handle larger blocks like Lego Duplo.
As they gain more proficiency, they can move on to smaller pieces.
Hand-eye coordination
Playing with Lego and other construction games help develop multiple physical skills.
Manipulating pieces helps develop hand-eye coordination, training the eyes and hands to work together, as well as bilateral integration - where both sides of the body (or both hands) learn to work together.
Problem solving
Problem-solving—a skill often considered one of the most important for standing out in the job market—develops early in life through play.
While you can do exercises as an adult to try to improve this ability, the best way to encourage this skill in your children is to immerse them in games that regularly involve them solving problems on their own.
What does Lego have to do with problem solving?
Quite.
When children build, they solve one problem after another, trying to make the pieces fit together, make the structure look as they imagined, and make the pieces structured according to different functions.
They thus acquire skills in technology and engineering.
Attention span
One of the reasons why Lego is so good for the brain is that it develops the ability to concentrate.
The more a child is immersed and "lost" in an activity, the more their ability to concentrate develops.
Toddlers may only play for 5 minutes, but as they grow and become more engaged in their play activities, the time they spend on an activity increases.
Unlike screen time, which is a passive activity, any playtime where the child is actively involved in thinking will have a positive impact on the development of their attention span.
Planning
Learning to plan is a skill that needs to be practiced like any other.
At school, you may notice that a child is unable to plan their work. For example, they run out of space on the page, start without a clear direction and change course later, or ask to start over.
Have you ever seen a child's drawing of their family, with the last person squashed into a corner? This shows that the child is developing their ability to plan before starting a task, as well as their spatial skills as they plan their page or task.
Lego is a great tool for practicing having a plan in mind and putting it into action.
A young child can start by experimenting with Lego, discovering that they fit together and can be stacked to form a tower.
Later, as his brain develops, he begins to build structures with intention.
Knowledge of colors and shapes
Learning about colors and shapes in early childhood does not necessarily have to be done through color and shape activities.
Simply exposing children to educational activities, games, and toys is all it takes to help them learn these concepts incidentally.
It is very useful to multiply practical experiences, such as feeling the shapes of blocks and Legos when playing with them.
Social skills
While learning with Lego can be done through independent play, one of the most educational aspects of this game is that it helps develop social skills.
When children build something together, they learn to share, consider each other's opinions, take turns, be patient, and give constructive feedback and criticism ("This might fall over if we do this; why don't we try it this way").
They also discover the joy of working collaboratively with someone as well as the simple pleasure of spending time with friends.
Emotional development
Playing with construction toys is not only a therapeutic and stress-relieving activity, but it also encourages symbolic play (or pretend play).
When children play pretend with others, they have the opportunity to "play life," so to speak, in a safe and healthy way.
They role-play, discuss, pretend to be adults and try to understand all aspects of life through play.
Early Mathematical Skills
One of the reasons why Lego is good for development is that it helps build an early foundation for mathematical concepts such as shape, number concept, measurement, etc.
By manipulating the small blocks, children learn mathematical concepts and terms such as:
- One more, one less
- Bigger, taller, longer, shorter
- Not enough, too much, how much
- Straight, zigzag, round, edges
- The same as, more than, enough, etc.
Perseverance
Feeling determined to complete something strengthens a child's perseverance, an important value to teach children.
An activity like building a structure has a starting point and a goal to achieve. Few children would simply abandon their construction halfway through, which motivates them to persevere.
These are just a few of the reasons why Lego is good for the brain and overall development.
Ready to boost your children's intelligence with Lego? With all the choices of Lego games, where to start?
It's hard to go wrong because they're all educational. However, in my opinion, a simple Lego Duplo set is perfect for toddlers, and a classic Lego brick set for older children is all you need.
Unless you plan to buy multiple brick games more specialized (like this animal safari brick set), it's easier and more advantageous to have a regular set with a few standard extra accessories, with which you can build anything.
11 Benefits of Lego Toys
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