How Puzzling? (0-2)

Puzzles are really good exercise for our brains and can help us develop and strengthen our visuospatial skills. Puzzles can be great for children of all ages, even children as young as one year old. At such a young age it is important to find puzzles with large pieces so they do not present a choking hazard.

Allowing children to play with puzzles can help them strengthen their fine motor and visuospatial skills. At the young age of one or two years old, children do not have very strong fine motor skills. So starting young children off with large puzzle pieces gives them a good place to start using the fine motor skills in their hands. As they get older, and pieces get smaller their fine motor skills will be more challenged and get stronger.

Moving the pieces into the right position and in the correct direction requires children to use their spatial reasoning and it strengthens that skill. We can position the pieces in the right direction and give pointers on where to put them but, we must let children struggle. It is important that children learn how to do hard things and keep pushing through.