Why puzzles are good for your child’s development?
Looking for somewhere to use your creative kids vouchers? You have come to the right place! Puzzles for kids have been around for centuries. It is a great way to spend some quality time with others and yourself. They make you think, analyse, interpret, and entertain all at the same time. But they do more than just keep your kids busy. Let us share with you how they can help in the development of your child and why puzzles are more than just an activity to pass time. The other great news is that Kidz Jigz is a creative kids provider, you can create your own custom puzzle design, use your creative kids vouchers as a form of payment and enjoy creating the physical puzzle!
Personalised puzzles can keep children away from screens
Nowadays one of the biggest challenges of every parent around the world is to balance the amount of screen time. These screens could be a TV, mobile phone, ipad, laptop, etc. Many children want to spend time on computer games, watching videos and movies. It is the parents role to try and keep this screen time in balance.
In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic outdoor entertainment activities are either non-existent or reduced greatly, the question is what should the kids do with their time now? Even the schools are either closed or homeschooling is now at play. To reduce screen time and still provide a play option Kids puzzles can provide a healthy alternative.
Increases their focus and concentration
Kids naturally have a short attention span. They get bored of things, toys, activities, pretty soon. In this digital age, the attention span of kids has reduced even further. They can be high on energy but low on focus, and require constant reinforcement and backing to keep going. Custom puzzles keep the young minds engrossed and in the process helping them strengthen their focus and the ability to concentrate. At Kidz Jigz we have a wonderful collection of puzzles for kids that will keep them busy for hours and hours.
Helps in building their cognitive abilities
Cognitive development is a wide subject and covers a lot of ground. It includes how a child perceives and understands the things around them, ability to process information, gain insight, memorise and reason. Cognitive abilities are a key to the child’s development and can indicate how smart the child is.
You ask, how can a puzzle improve a child’s cognitive abilities then? It is ideally and perfectly-suited to perform these tasks. The child will not know, but by playing with the puzzle they will be intelligently processing the information before them, trying to gain an understanding and thinking on how to solve the puzzle.
Problem-solving skills
A jigsaw puzzle will enhance the problem-solving skills of the child that he can use later on in their adult life. Kids puzzles let the child run their imagination wild. It invites them to think critically, make a visual picture of the likely solution in their mind, judge the outcome, and also test their memory. These are valuable traits that your child can embody in their personality and build upon them. At Kidz Jigz we know the importance of puzzles and understand how they can help shape their personality. Log on to our website and sign up for our creative kids vouchers program. By signing up you will be eligible to buy all those puzzles for kids that we have in stock. We hope you will not miss the opportunity. We have some of the best custom puzzles in Australia.
Developing motor skills
It is now established scientifically that puzzles help in improving the motor skills of the child. Construction skills are a part of the motor skills and puzzles are a great way to bolster the child’s construction skills. The child will learn to construct the whole puzzle using their fingers to pick up the small pieces. By joining them together they will know how to build intricate things and create a big ‘whole’ using ‘parts’ or ‘fractions’ of it. The child will get in the habit of seeing the bigger picture and not worry about the smaller details. Who knew puzzles could teach such important life-building lessons? Get a kids personalized gift in the form of a puzzle from Kidz Jigz today!
Encourage Teamwork
Contrary to popular belief, a puzzle is not necessarily for one player only. It can be a group activity as well. For that, the puzzle will have to be a large one though. By getting together and helping each other in solving the puzzle the kids learn the importance of teamwork. They will know how to work together to achieve a common goal. How to delegate responsibilities and divide work amongst themselves. Kidz Jigz can provide you with a large 1000 piece personalised puzzle that your kids can play with their siblings, friends and cousins. This is loads of fun, everyone can enjoy!
Improve Physical skills
We had talked about motor skills earlier and there we highlighted how a puzzle helps in developing the child’s construction skills. Taking the subject further, we like to emphasise how puzzles can improve your child’s physical skills as well. By physical skills, we mean the ability to move hands, hold objects, etc. As the child attempts to solve the puzzle their hands and arms movement will come into play. If there is any problem, it will come across as well.
Improve spatial perception skills
Spatial awareness is key to the child’s development. It refers to the capability to know how different objects relate to each other in a given environment and how the relationship between them changes when these objects change places. This is an important lesson and you might wonder how puzzles can help your child increase their spatial perception skills? Well, a puzzle consists of many different pieces of different shapes and sizes. Your child will assemble these pieces to create the picture. Some pieces will fit and some won’t. They will learn this by attempting to join them together. They will know instinctively which piece will fit where and put it in its right place. Don’t forget that you can buy such creative kids puzzles from Kidz Jigz by utilising your creative kids vouchers.
Improve shape recognition
Puzzles are very successful in helping kids learn about shapes and sizes. This is especially true for kids that have yet to start their schooling. There are personalised puzzles with knobs for small kids that teach them about different shapes or outlines of important everyday objects. Why is shape recognition so important? Well, it is a basic skill that every kid needs to learn even before they learn about digits and letters. Even in schools, teachers describe numbers and letters with the help of shapes (like two circles make an 8, etc.). Puzzles do the same and teach children how to recognise shapes in a fun way.
Increasing knowledge
Personalised puzzles can have any image on the puzzle. These images can be educational like geography, human anatomy, animals, birds, plants and fairy tale characters. Such puzzles introduce these things and characters to the kids who then ask questions about them. In this way, they increase their knowledge about that particular subject and become wiser. You can ask your child to finish the puzzle and then you will share interesting information about that assembled image. The child will stay motivated to finish the puzzle and then you can share the information with them. It is an interesting way to teach and have fun at the same time. You can buy such custom puzzles in Australia from Kidz Jigz by using your creative kids voucher.
Enhancing language and vocabulary
A puzzle can also encourage speaking and increase a child’s vocabulary. When the child finishes the puzzle, ask them to describe the assembled image. They will use their imagination and their repository of words to explain it to you. On your part, you can add to that description and tell them that these words better describe what they are trying to tell you. By helping them solve the puzzle you may use words like “left”, “right”, “top”, “besides”, “under”, “flip”, “roate”, “up” and “down”. They will then get an understanding of the meaning and how and when to use the word in the correct context.
Hand-eye coordination
Puzzles can be a very effective way to train children how to align their eye and hand movement. The puzzles are cut out in different shapes. The child has to match the shape where it fits perfectly. This requires a concerted effort involving both vision and hand movement. You can help your child by telling them where to put the puzzle piece and assemble it. Use your Creative Kids Vouchers to purchase a kids puzzle and benefit from all these development areas.
Memorisation skills
Memory is the ability to recall a certain thing from your mind. Kids puzzles are an important tool to increase their memorisation skills. They often solve a puzzle, again and again, this helps them retain the bits and parts of the puzzle and recall them when they are playing with it. Another way is when they are solving a puzzle, they will remember that a certain piece will fit here and they will look for that piece and complete the puzzle. You can also monitor your kid’s memory by recording the time your kid takes to solve the puzzle. You can also ask them to recall the details of the puzzle once they are finished to know how much they remember of it.
Builds their self-esteem
A finished puzzle will be the pride of your kid for quite some time. They will feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence in themselves. It will be a great morale-booster for them. They will feel elated and confident to take on other bigger and more complex challenges. Having done something on their own nurtures their self-esteem and does wonder for their personality development.
Strategising the task
A puzzle helps the child in developing a strategy. They will develop a roadmap in their mind on how to go about solving this puzzle. This could be anything like starting from the center, or doing the edges first. They may not realise this but in the child’s mind they are strategizing. They are breaking down a big task into small actionable goals and working towards fulfilling them. This is what strategy-making is all about and it helps them in their adult life when they encounter bigger issues in their professional and personal lives.
Encourages patience
Now puzzles are very effective in teaching the child the benefits of patience. Puzzle-solving requires a lot of patience and a cool-minded approach. The child will learn to have both to finish it. They will also see the rewards of patience in the shape of the finished puzzle. So, it is an exercise in the process and the result of that process.
Conclusion
In summary kidz puzzles are good for your child’s development as they increases their focus and concentration, help in building their cognitive abilities, improve problem-solving skills, help develop motor skills, encourage teamwork, spatial perception skills, shape recognition, enhancing language and vocabulary, hand-eye coordination, memorisation skills, help builds their self-esteem, strategising the task and patience. Remember that from Kidz Jigz you can shop a wide variety of puzzles suitable for various age-groups. You can use your creative kids vouchers to make your purchase. We have the largest variety of custom puzzles in Australia.
Enjoy puzzling!