What Are the Benefits of Playing with Building Blocks?

Toy blocks, also known as "building blocks," are solid shapes used in architectural games. Some are simple boards made of wood, while others are similar to interlocking plastic bricks made by LEGO, all of which can be powerful learning tools in any form and storage in any stackable toy bins. Research shows that toy building blocks in the wooden toy storage box can help children develop the following skills:

l Motor skills and hand eye coordination;

l Spatial reasoning;

l Cognitive flexibility;

l Language skills;

l Have the ability of creative and divergent thinking;

l Social skills;

l Engineering skills.

There is evidence that complex square games are associated with higher math scores, as it is easy to stimulate children's motor development by stacking and arranging toy blocks in the large wooden toy chest, but children may need to do more than simply move the blocks in the white wooden toy chest for other skills.

1. Toy Blocks Promote Better Spatial Reasoning

There is a certain relationship between spatial skills and architectural games. For example, when Yvonne Caldera and her colleagues observed the architectural activities of 51 preschool children, they found that those who showed more interest in architecture and built more complex structures performed better on standardized tests of spatial intelligence. Of course, we can't rely entirely on box games for children to develop superior spatial skills, but children with advanced spatial skills may be more motivated to play with toy blocks in the toy storage organizer with bins.

However, there are also good reasons to think that building block in the wooden toy organizer have a developmental effect. When the researchers asked kindergarten children to participate in a guided building block game project, they outperformed their peers in spatial visualization, building blocks, and "mental rotation" - the ability to rotate and analyze three-dimensional shapes in the "eye of the mind.".

A recent experimental study tested the effects of structured block games - Games in which a structure is copied from a model or blueprint. A group of 8-year-olds only participated in structured square blocks in the grey wooden toy box for 5 to 30 minutes, but that was enough to improve their mental rotation. Besides, brain scans showed changes in the way their brains process spatial information, which were not shown in the control group.

2. Structured Block Play May Enhance Cognitive Flexibility

"Cognitive flexibility" is the ability to quickly shift attention from one related stimulus to another, which is obviously important for school education, but it is difficult for some children to accept because some environmental factors, such as low socioeconomic status, put children at higher risk of development delay.

3. Toy Blocks Are Linked with Language Development

Children can also benefit from building blocks in the oak toy chest because there is evidence that very young children would develop better language skills when they play regular square games.

4. Toy Blocks May Stimulate Creative, Divergent Problem-Solving

Psychologists have realized that there is only one correct solution to the convergence problem, while the divergence problem can be solved in many ways. Children can combine blocks in a variety of ways, so building block in the custom toy chest are divergent games. Using building blocks to play divergent games allows children to think creatively to better resolve disagreements.