Benefits of Construction & Building in Early Childhood
Any quality early childhood program offers building and construction play as an offering daily. Blocks were introduced by Caroline Pratt, an American educator in the early 1900s.
This play can easily be extended at home using common household items in addition to block sets. Blocks, in early childhood, are items that do not interlock. That being stated, Legos and Waffle Blocks are considered manipulatives.
Building encourages
- Open-ended thinking and problem solving.
- Stimulates imagination
- Encourages cooperative play and team work enhancing social skills.
- Increases dexterity and eye-hand coordination
- Improves spatial awareness
- Enhances mathematical competencies
- Improves language & literacy skills
Construction play can be promoted at home easily. Here’s how!
- Create homemade blocks with boxes and contact paper for stacking.
- Add small manipulatives to enhance imaginative play (i.e. people, animals, vehicles, etc)
- Use clean sponges to create blocks (quiet creativity)
- Provide writing materials to allow for signage creation
- Add small rug samples, shells, & pebbles to encourage creativity
- Seriate blocks by size
- Sort blocks by shape for easy clean up and learning
- Maximize access, encourage creativity and watch your child develop!
