Baby Block Sets Help Development

Cognitive Development begins in early infancy and continues throughout adulthood. Cognitive development includes problem-solving, decision making, memory, language, thinking and reasoning. Baby block sets help young children develop and strengthen these skills.

How can you increase your child's cognitive development?

Block sets come in a variety of shapes and colors and each has different uses. But even the basic square wooden alphabet blocks are helpful for learning. Children begin to learn cause and effect relationships, fundamental math and science skills, early language development, and even social and emotional skills. Who would have thought an inexpensive toy would provide so much?

Children love knocking over towers. They enjoy it almost as much as actually building it! Each time your child pushes over her creation she is learning about cause-and-effect and the basics of gravity. The best part is that she is having fun while she is learning.

Language development can begin with alphabet blocks. Just seeing the letters repeatedly will help with letter recognition. Word games can be played well before a child is ready to hold a pencil. Your child will learn letter sounds as you annunciate each letter on the block.

Construction blocks of different sizes can be used to introduce fractions. For instance one block may be half the size of a large block; or three blocks may be needed to equal one large block.

Motor skills are divided into two categories, gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are the skills needed to move the large muscles in the body. These are the skills that children need for walking, crawling, running, jumping, and reaching. Fine motor skills are the skills needed to move the small muscles in the body. Fine motor skills are used for holding a pencil or crayon, zippering a jacket, grasping small objects, and turning the pages in a book.Playing with baby block sets improve both fine and gross motor skills.

Large square alphabet blocks are used by older infants and toddlers to stack one on top of the other. This gross motor skill also works to increase hand and eye coordination. Once coordination improves, children will be able to manipulate smaller blocks and place blocks with more dexterity. An afternoon of play will provide the beginning skills needed to self feed, snap buttons, pull up a zipper, tie shoes, and write.

What begins as a small pile of different shapes and sizes of wooden pieces can quickly morph into an entire city of buildings. As children work together to create building and objects, they must learn sharing and problem solving. Children experiment with creating things using the tools they have.

Introducing people and cars to a city can enhance the social experience. Imaginative play boosts creativity and reinforces appropriate relationships. Children can make up stories about their people and buildings. Block play can also be used to act out every day events and emotions. Children learn how to interact with people and places around them by using little people to play with each other. This helps them understand things they see and hear in the adult world.