Puzzles can be used to support the development of a variety of important skills including:
* Hand - Eye Coordination + Fine Motor Skills
The child sees the various puzzle pieces and attempts to manipulate the pieces to construct the complete picture. Wooden puzzles with little pegs in each piece require children to grasp, reach, flip, turn, slide, place, and release pieces of the puzzle. In this way, puzzles provide the opportunity to build hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
* Visual Perception
The term visual perception refers to the brain's ability to understand and interpret what the eyes see. In the case of puzzles, the brain learns to look for correspondences between the puzzle piece in hand and the potential places for the piece on the board.
* Memory
Memory is defined as the ability to store past events and be able to retrieve the information when needed. When children practice building the same puzzle repeatedly, they are developing memory skills.
* Problem Solving Skills
As the child evaluates if a piece does or does not fit, they are engaging problem solving skills.
Learning Sequence for Anika introduced at 19-21 months:
(1) 1-step wooden puzzle with 8 pieces
The puzzle has eight pieces with eight animals including a lion, bird, elephant, dog, cat, turtle, fish. Anika was ecstatic to learn this puzzle. I followed the instructional method of Model - Lead - Test, otherwise stated as I Do It - We Do It - You Do It. First I removed all the pieces, and then would pick up a piece, say the name of the animal, and try fitting it into various places while talking aloud through the problem solving process (ex: No, it doesn't fit there / Yes, that fits!). Next, I would hand Anika a piece, say the name of the animal, and guide her hand to place the pieces using the problem solving language. I timed these efforts. Every time she finished, I would ask, "Do you want to do it again?" She would almost always scream "Yes!" with great enthusiasm. We practiced this puzzle 1-2 times per day for almost two weeks. She began to imitate my problem solving language while trying to fit pieces. In the beginning it took her about 4 minutes to complete the puzzle. By the end, she could complete the puzzle in 33 seconds.
(2) iPad Puzzle Application: Animal Puzzle
We started with the first one-step puzzle with four animals (lion, panther, hippo, bird). As always, I followed the Model - Lead - Test instructional routine. First, I would do it. Then I would help guide her finger. Then I would let her try on her own. Around day 10 I started thinking the fine motor skills required were too advanced for her. And the next day she could do the puzzle. Once she got to this point, she learned (from watching me), how to slide the ruler at the top of the page to restart the puzzle. She would do it over and over again at that point. She progressed to the next one-step puzzle with 5 pieces. And then other puzzles on the application.
(3) iPad Puzzle Application: Tozzle Lite
This provides a good generalization exercise from the animal puzzle application as children need to learn to grab the puzzle piece from the top right corner. Anika practiced the puzzle with the barnyard animals (1-step puzzle with 7 pieces) and the numbers puzzle (1-step puzzle with 12 pieces).
(4) iPad Puzzle Application: Endless ABC
I love this application, almost as much as Anika. She would jump on my bed while I was making dinner and play this for an hour straight. This one captivated her for almost two weeks. It's pretty amazing to watch your 19 month year old build the word Hilarious or Gargantuan - and then quickly flip through a stack of words to start the next word puzzle like it was no big deal. This is a great application to teach initial letter recognition skills.
(5) 6-Step Wooden Puzzle
Once she had clearly mastered the concept of one-step puzzles across both mediums, we progressed to a 6-piece wooden puzzle of a dog. Lots of frustration initially. I spent more time in the Model - Lead phases of the instructional sequence while emphasizing the language of pieces (ex: here is the nose, tail, eyes, etc). We practiced 1-2 times per day. 1-3 times per session which depended on her response to my question - "Do you want to do it again?" By the end of week 2, she could complete unassisted.
(6) 9-Step Wooden Puzzle
We just started this train puzzle a few days ago. The learning to learn phenomenon seems to be in effect such that she she seems to be learning to do the puzzle faster with less frustration in the beginning. Will update upon completion.
* Hand - Eye Coordination + Fine Motor Skills
The child sees the various puzzle pieces and attempts to manipulate the pieces to construct the complete picture. Wooden puzzles with little pegs in each piece require children to grasp, reach, flip, turn, slide, place, and release pieces of the puzzle. In this way, puzzles provide the opportunity to build hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
* Visual Perception
The term visual perception refers to the brain's ability to understand and interpret what the eyes see. In the case of puzzles, the brain learns to look for correspondences between the puzzle piece in hand and the potential places for the piece on the board.
* Memory
Memory is defined as the ability to store past events and be able to retrieve the information when needed. When children practice building the same puzzle repeatedly, they are developing memory skills.
* Problem Solving Skills
As the child evaluates if a piece does or does not fit, they are engaging problem solving skills.
Learning Sequence for Anika introduced at 19-21 months:
(1) 1-step wooden puzzle with 8 pieces
The puzzle has eight pieces with eight animals including a lion, bird, elephant, dog, cat, turtle, fish. Anika was ecstatic to learn this puzzle. I followed the instructional method of Model - Lead - Test, otherwise stated as I Do It - We Do It - You Do It. First I removed all the pieces, and then would pick up a piece, say the name of the animal, and try fitting it into various places while talking aloud through the problem solving process (ex: No, it doesn't fit there / Yes, that fits!). Next, I would hand Anika a piece, say the name of the animal, and guide her hand to place the pieces using the problem solving language. I timed these efforts. Every time she finished, I would ask, "Do you want to do it again?" She would almost always scream "Yes!" with great enthusiasm. We practiced this puzzle 1-2 times per day for almost two weeks. She began to imitate my problem solving language while trying to fit pieces. In the beginning it took her about 4 minutes to complete the puzzle. By the end, she could complete the puzzle in 33 seconds.
(2) iPad Puzzle Application: Animal Puzzle
We started with the first one-step puzzle with four animals (lion, panther, hippo, bird). As always, I followed the Model - Lead - Test instructional routine. First, I would do it. Then I would help guide her finger. Then I would let her try on her own. Around day 10 I started thinking the fine motor skills required were too advanced for her. And the next day she could do the puzzle. Once she got to this point, she learned (from watching me), how to slide the ruler at the top of the page to restart the puzzle. She would do it over and over again at that point. She progressed to the next one-step puzzle with 5 pieces. And then other puzzles on the application.
(3) iPad Puzzle Application: Tozzle Lite
This provides a good generalization exercise from the animal puzzle application as children need to learn to grab the puzzle piece from the top right corner. Anika practiced the puzzle with the barnyard animals (1-step puzzle with 7 pieces) and the numbers puzzle (1-step puzzle with 12 pieces).
(4) iPad Puzzle Application: Endless ABC
I love this application, almost as much as Anika. She would jump on my bed while I was making dinner and play this for an hour straight. This one captivated her for almost two weeks. It's pretty amazing to watch your 19 month year old build the word Hilarious or Gargantuan - and then quickly flip through a stack of words to start the next word puzzle like it was no big deal. This is a great application to teach initial letter recognition skills.
(5) 6-Step Wooden Puzzle
Once she had clearly mastered the concept of one-step puzzles across both mediums, we progressed to a 6-piece wooden puzzle of a dog. Lots of frustration initially. I spent more time in the Model - Lead phases of the instructional sequence while emphasizing the language of pieces (ex: here is the nose, tail, eyes, etc). We practiced 1-2 times per day. 1-3 times per session which depended on her response to my question - "Do you want to do it again?" By the end of week 2, she could complete unassisted.
(6) 9-Step Wooden Puzzle
We just started this train puzzle a few days ago. The learning to learn phenomenon seems to be in effect such that she she seems to be learning to do the puzzle faster with less frustration in the beginning. Will update upon completion.
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