We recently discovered the benefit of playing with Lego and found it’s great to help children with their social and emotional wellbeing — but there’s also another household toy in town that could give your child a chance at being an engineer.
According to experts at Lovevery, where toys are designed by academics, the simplicity of wooden blocks shouldn’t overshadow how important they are for your child. Introducing the toy is actually great to help children discover the fundamentals of science.
Who knew?
Building blocks offer numerous advantages for children ranging from emotional growth and resilience, to art, visual-spatial practice and engineering skills.
“The simplicity of blocks hides their incredible versatility, making them perhaps the most adaptable toy ever created. Despite attempts to incorporate academic elements, like letters, into block designs, children instinctively focus on the joy of play rather than the educational components,” according to subscription toy company Lovevery.
Building blocks have been the favourite toys for generations of children, and with good reason. Nicola Butler, chair of Play England, the national children’s play charity, says part of their continued appeal is that these block stimulate creativity and provide limitless possibilities in small hands.
“Children love building blocks because there’s no right or wrong way to use them, especially compared to tech games which are often prescriptive and repetitive, doing the same thing over and over again,” she says.
“The joy of building a tower and knocking it down again gives children huge fun and freedom, especially because there aren’t many times when they’re allowed to knock things over again and again.
“But building bricks can be used any way your child chooses in ‘free play’ and all the time they’re improving your child’s hand-eye coordination, problem solving, creativity and imagination,” Nicola concludes.
If you’re looking to buy wooden blocks for your child, you can grab the block set from Lovevery. The set is great for ages 12+ months.