Yes, Jigsaw Puzzles are great for children especially from very early age. Jigsaw puzzles have a lot of educational value for children of all ages. This is because to do a jigsaw requires a child to use several different aspects of the thinking process.
Jigsaw puzzles come in all shapes and sizes. There are few main types in Jigsaw puzzles for kids.
A baby learns to recognize objects by their shape and not necessarily what position the object is in. A chair is a chair whether it is upright, lying down, or upside down-it doesn’t matter. The simple puzzles produced for younger children develop more refined and defined skills and recognition. One of the first things a young child will learn is that it does matter which way up the pieces to fit in the hole.
A typical early childhood puzzle is wooden with a picture and has spaces where the pieces fit to complete the picture. With a street scene, for example, there might be a separate car shape, bus shape, and a truck shape that complete a puzzle. These puzzles are typically robust as the first response of a child is to try to force the piece into place taking no notice of its shape. With adult guidance the young child learns to manipulate the piece until it does fit exactly.
There are several learning experiences that can be drawn from these very basic puzzles. Firstly it’s the hand eye coordination to manipulate the puzzle piece into position. To get the piece in also involves observation of the shape of the hole and the shape of the puzzle piece. At first the child deals with the problem by trial and error. The example and guidance of an adult begins to solidify the thinking process. The child starts to apply spatial awareness and mental manipulation as well as physical. This comes however, after the child has learned to put the piece in correctly through trial and error and memory.
The role of the adult at this stage is very important.
- The conversation about the picture,
- talking and demonstrating the correct method to complete it, accelerates the child’s learning process.
- Puzzles can create a great opportunity for increase in vocabulary, and recognition of objects and situations outside the child’s immediate world.
These early childhood puzzles can be purchased in varying degrees of difficulty as the child’s spatial and reasoning skills become more developed. The child also learns through puzzles the recognition of color and shape with, of course, adult conversation increasing the potential of the child’s understanding and development. The green shape only fits in the green hole. This type of matching activity develops early reading skills.
At early stage it is good to introduce a new puzzle and do it with the child at first. I introduced puzzles to Medha as soon as she turned into 1 year old. It's not matter of her solving whole puzzle right away, but it matters to let her know what it is.
Make this a happy social time and lots of fun. Do the puzzles with the child long enough to maintain the child’s interest and attention, but be ready to move on to another activity. Eventually when the child’s dexterity and confidence has increased, he will want to do it by himself/herself. Now Medha is 2.5years old. She asks me to give puzzles atleast once in a day. And she spends roughly 1-2 hours of time with solving them again and again. I'm very glad to see Clapping herself when she finishes one puzzle.With praise and encouragement the child will practice until the skills become familiar. Then is the time to introduce puzzles with greater challenge.
Puzzles help develop the reasoning and deduction process of thinking. As well as skills such as spatial awareness, matching and sorting. Above all, jigsaw puzzles present a great opportunity for language development and a happy social interaction with your child
Types of Jigsaw Puzzles:
Peg Puzzles:
Very young children, 1 year old kids, are likely to start off with peg puzzles, usually made of wood with large pieces to which a peg is attached for easier manipulation. These are tray puzzles with sturdy wooden knobs for easy manipulation by very young puzzlers.
These are perfect for toddlers. I introduced these to Medha as soon as her first birthday. I have tried various categories like Transport, Pet Animals, Wild Animals, Ocean Life, Home Furniture, Alphabets and Numbers etc. I didn't expect that she had to learn all these parallely while she is solving these. But I am sure that at least few she can identify and remember.
SkilloFun has a lot of Peg Puzzle Toys with them pricing each starting from 125/-. Most of the puzzles are of cost Rs. 150/-.
Floor Puzzles:
Floor puzzles are of starting from 3 pieces to 50 pieces or less, with large pieces generally made of cardboard, are meant for children aged 3 and up with better dexterity - and who are not as likely to eat the puzzle pieces!
I introduced Floor puzzles to Medha when she is almost 2 (around 1 year 8 months old) I have bought lot of First Puzzles to Medha. Each box cost around starting from Rs 60/- to 150/-. And each box contains minimum 3 puzzles. As of today she has around 30 boxes. Sometimes she dumps all 30 puzzle boxes from my storage box and start solving them again and again for hours. I recently gave a complex puzzle of 35 pieces and she took 20 mins to solve it with very little help from me as it is two sided puzzle which is not bad according to me.
Sound Puzzles:
Sound puzzles are puzzles in which realistic sounds are played when the pieces are properly placed on the board, helping youngsters learn about the relationship between cause and effect, develop early vocabulary, and motor skills. I introduced only 1 tray of the Sound Puzzles to Medha as these are very costly. Single tray costs starting from 1250/-. And the one I introduced is from Rentoys where I had taken that for rent. I didn't buy as it's expensive. Melissa & Doug brand has few Sound puzzles in the market. Checkout FirstCry.com or Babyoye.com.
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