Puzzles - A Fun Way to Develop Cognitive Skills

It is believed that the first jigsaw puzzle was produced by John Spilsbury, a London engraver and mapmaker, in the year 1760. Spilsbury mounted one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cut around the borders of the countries using a sharp blade. The end product of Spilbury’s genius was an educational pastime. This was greatly accepted as an aid by the British educationists to teach children Geography. The idea caught on and until about 1820, jigsaw puzzles became world famous as a primary educational tool. Puzzles are of different types, like, word, logic, combination, tiling, construction, transport, picture, sliding, tour and mechanical puzzles. A puzzle is nothing but a problem or mystery that has been used to test the cleverness of the problem solver. While solving a puzzle, the cognitive skill of a person is used. This in turn results in sharpening the cognitive expertise of that person. Puzzles are often manufactured as a form of entertainment, but they can also stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems. Puzzles or riddles can also be used to develop children’s creative skills.

Helping a child to advance academically is a great thing, if it is done appropriately. Puzzles are classic toys that are often taken to be more superior in comparison to most recently-developed child educational toys. Its superiority lies in the fact that this toy offers a range of educational values for a minimum cost. Puzzles improve hand-eye coordination as children have to put the pieces correctly according to the order. It sharpens logical thinking and also develops perseverance attitude. Moreover, it also enhances spatial relation skills. The most basic of puzzles are those that comprise of shape sorting, whereby a child is required to manipulate various shaped blocks and place them in the properly shaped slot. These are suitable for children as well as for young people. Wooden peg puzzles and interlocking puzzles can be beneficial for young children, where as older children can benefit from jigsaw and other types of puzzles.

There are valuable learning experiences that can be gained from puzzle activities. But it’s also very important to choose a puzzle according to the age of the child. All of the jigsaw puzzles sold on the shop have some kind of print notifying the buyer of the age range the particular puzzle will be appropriate for. This being the case, parents can get a puzzle that will challenge the child’s creativity and logical thinking. A great way to work on challenging puzzles is to actually purchase those that prove to be very challenging for the child. This makes the child more interested and definitely improves the child’s puzzle assembling skills rapidly. There are lots of free online puzzle websites out there where children can test out puzzles in varying difficulty levels and ratings. Working on these helps the child determine the kind of puzzles the child should work on. Parents should draw the child’s interests to enlarge and expand their thinking. By cultivating interests and introducing puzzles, parents can ensure a successful academic and social life to their children.