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The Developmental Advantages of Children's Block Play
When children play with building blocks, they are doing a lot more than simply having fun. Both research and experience suggest that block play confers important advantages for youngsters' cognitive, social,
and personal development. In addition to the obvious fine motor skills involved in assembling block structures, children practice problem-solving skills and master concepts of cause and effect, numerosity, and spatial relationships integral to math and science learning. Building from a set of instructions fosters reading skills and verbal logic, while following a visual diagram exercises spatial reasoning and logic; both involve sequence and direction-following; important skills often found lacking in schoolkids today.
Personal habits fostered by block play include self-directed attention, stick-to-it-iveness, and increasing confidence in oneself as a problem-solver using skills throughout school and life. Skilled, active problem-solvers also tend to score better on tests than kids with a more passive approach to new challenges.
If the play is social, it encourages cooperation, communication and negotiation. If it is creative, as block play often is, it opens the door to discovery, innovation, and that wonderful realm of internal imagination that is all too often overwhelmed by today's media-saturated environments.
About Dr. Jane Healy
Dr. Jane Healy is a child development expert, a well-known author of Your Child's Growing Mind and two-time U.S. Educator of the Year who currently serves as an internationally recognized lecturer, and consultant for the Vail Mountain School.
Dr. Healy graduated from Smith College and received her Master's degree from John Carroll University. She holds a doctorate in educational psychology from Case Western Reserve University, and has engaged in postdoctoral studies at Columbia Teachers' College and Boston Children's Hospital. She's been a classroom teacher, learning specialist, administrator, and Asst. Professor at Cleveland State University.
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