Early Childhood Development: How Puzzle Solving Improves It?

Puzzles such as jigsaw puzzles have undoubtedly been used as educational toys for children. The first-ever study on the topic shows how children interact with puzzles differently depending on their understanding of hand-eye coordination, age, and other factors.

If you compare two groups of children: one who has been engaged in puzzle solving since their early childhood development, the other one belongs to the category who were exposed to the modern scrolling culture and unproductive screen time, you can easily spot the difference between them as they solve jigsaw puzzles.

As a parent, you must know how puzzle solving can help your child develop beneficial cognitive abilities and positively impact their early childhood development.

What is Early Childhood Development (ECD)?

Before discussing puzzle games’ impact on early childhood development, it’s vital to understand the basics of ECD. Did you know? More than a million neural connections form each second in the early years of life (0-8 years). According to science, the early years of life are the most crucial time for a human. It won’t be wrong if I say that during ECD, one can either set a strong foundation for a successful life for their kid or create a haunting childhood, which makes them unfit in society.

It all comes down to the environment a child spends these early years in, the kind of activities he/she engage in, and the people he/she see around often. During early childhood development, parents are supposed to be doing the activities, interactions, mannerisms, and behavior they would want their child to adopt as an adult.

Proven Cognitive Benefits of Puzzle Solving

The following cognitive benefits are the basic benefits a child will gain by solving puzzles which can boost the early childhood development . Let’s get started with it.

1. Builds Problem-Solving Skill

Solving puzzles can develop problem-solving skills. Kids can start solving puzzles at a certain age (1 to 2 years) when they can recognize and solve the problems. It’s difficult for adults because they haven’t developed the logical reasoning and critical thinking required to solve a puzzle effectively. While solving puzzles, the child utilizes the rule of trial and error by trying to solve it differently and analyzing which solution works.

2. Improves Memory & Concentration

Let’s take a jigsaw puzzle, for example. While the kid is still developing the basic cognitive abilities, i.e., memory and imagination, solving a jigsaw puzzle forces the kid to use the brain and mental abilities. As an adult, have you ever told a kid: “Oh, you’re stuck at THIS. It’s so easy. Let me do it”? Let’s be honest, we all have done it. But the thing is, they are at the initial stage and haven’t developed the skills to solve the puzzle as quickly as you can. So, it’s a beneficial exercise for kids in the ECD era to solve puzzles. It improves their memory and helps them build strong focus muscles in their brain, which allows them in the future.

3. Develops Spatial Awareness

Let me introduce you to the ability in which your kid can understand and manipulate shapes, spaces, positions, movement, and directions, known as spatial awareness. This cognitive ability can be developed by engaging the kids in productive math talks and math-based puzzles. Ideally, a toddler who can’t play a puzzle can be introduced to this concept through block play vocabulary to get started. As they grow, you can lift the standard to puzzle games in which they have the opportunity to manipulate puzzle pieces to get the right shape.

Physical & Motor Skills Through Puzzles

Motor skills refer to the movement of the body in day-to-day life. From whole body muscle movement (gross motor) to slight movement, i.e., hands, wrists, fingers are (fine motor) included in motor skills. Puzzle solving can help a kid develop these motor skills. Let’s look at the significant benefits of puzzles for motor skills in childhood development.

1. Enhances Fine Motor Development

When a toddler solves even the world’s easiest puzzles, such as blocks, they subconsciously develop the muscles to move their hands, wrists, and fingers while thinking which block should be the next. Puzzles also help strengthen their hand grip and finger muscles.

2. Boosts Hand-Eye Coordination 

Puzzles engage the brain and empower the child’s body to strengthen its muscles. When the kid is solving a puzzle, he/she will be highly attentive to his/her hand movement and can coordinate it according to what their eyes see. You must help them solve puzzles at a young age so they can easily learn.

Emotional & Social Growth Through Puzzles

As I have categorized the specific benefits of puzzle solving during the early childhood development stage, this section shows how puzzle solving can create an impactful impression on a child emotionally and socially.

1. Encourages Patience and Resilience

During the initial period of life, the children are pure and innocent. They don’t know about anything. So, they’re interested in learning about new things. They struggle when they try to get their hands dirty in puzzles for the first time, or even the first few times. In this situation, they learn to be patient and think critically about the solution to the puzzle.

2. Promotes Confidence

The kids successfully survive the trial-and-error stage, which frustrates them, and then they solve their first puzzle. Booyah! ( I don’t know where that came from 😀). Now, they feel accomplished and confident. They feel like they can achieve anything in the world. It gives them confidence and trust, which is highly beneficial and essential for them at this stage.

3. Teaches Cooperation (in group settings)

Often, the puzzle games require teamwork. It’s an excellent activity for school-going kids to create bonding between the students and teach them about the importance of cooperation or teamwork in life. It depends on the teacher or school how they help the students in this matter. However, you can give your kids interactive puzzle games for their small yet essential accomplishments in school. So, they can play those puzzle games with you, siblings, friends, and cousins.

Types of Puzzles For Different Age Groups

How Does Puzzle Solving Build Readiness For School?

As part of the early childhood development, when the child has been engaging in productive and playful puzzle games before joining the school, learning and understanding the basic concepts of math’s, vocabulary, and alphabet will be much easier.

1. Early Math Concepts

Puzzle games such as Zingo! 1-2-3, Magic Square, Number Series, etc, are a great way to introduce your kid to mathematics concepts to keep them ahead of the other kids. It will boost confidence when they join the school and find it easier to understand & solve the math’s concepts.

2. Language and Vocabulary Growth

Like math concepts, language and vocabulary growth are crucial for kids. The kids who engage in word puzzle games have a good grip on the vocabulary and know more words than those who don’t. Research by Fadya Abdullah Omar from Sabha University shows how word puzzles ease vocabulary and language growth for kids. Therefore, word puzzles are highly rewarding and a great way to prepare your kid for academic confidence at school.

3. Letter and Number Recognition

Another great skill a kid acquires from spending time with puzzles is recognition. They develop the muscle to recognize alphabets, letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, which makes it enjoyable for them to learn at school because they don’t have to force their brains to process the new information.

Let’s Wrap Up!

As per my expectation, if you have read the whole article (and if you have not, what are you doing at the end of the article, go back to the 🔝), you can truly understand the importance of puzzles in early childhood development and how it enhances many aspects of the upcoming years of their life. It will encourage them to participate in extracurricular activities rather than being too shy to come in front of the school. It’s not over-empowering if I say these puzzles can directly shape a kid’s personality. I have walked you through the benefits puzzles can give your child; now the rest is up to you. 
The message of this article is one and clear: encourage parents to engage their babies and children in puzzles during their early childhood development stage.