As a mother and an occupational therapist who worked with hundreds of children over the years, I can testify that block play skills have many crucial benefits in early childhood development. The significance of playing with classic blocks is overlooked. Nowadays, children have access to high tech toys that quickly attract their interest and provide instant gratification. However, the countless number of early childhood education specialists believe in the value of building with blocks. 

History of Blocks

There are mentions of the block play being used as educational tools in the late 1500s. In the early 1800s, block construction was first and officially used as part of early education by Fredrich Frobel, the German pedagogue. Frobel designed materials that encouraged educational play for young children. He believed that constructing and rearranging created new possibilities for play and inspired children to make direct connections to the world around them. Many of Frobel’s ideas are used up to this day in preschool classrooms and therapy sessions. 

Classic Wooden Blocks

Back in the day, the blocks and various building materials consisted of wooded objects. In our present-day, the preschool building materials are made of many media, such as plastic, rubber, and foam. There is something to be said about the classic wood playing pieces. They are more durable, have substantial weight, stack higher, and last longer. Anytime I work with children on simple block construction, I do prefer working with wooden materials, as they are a natural manipulative, and it brings back more of the meaningful old school block play. 

Undoubtedly, the new and improved block materials are valuable, and our preschoolers need to have access to blocks such as Legos, Duplos, and Magnetic Tiles. Some other types of blocks that are less popular yet are fundamental are a variety of connecting and resistive blocks. Toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners enjoy great educational benefits from playing with blocks. Every child should have access to a wide array of unit blocks that gear towards their interests.

At times, child’s interests should be cultivated and encouraged if the child does not demonstrate particular interest. Having many options to choose from allows children to come up with inventions of their own, or imitating designs and copying designs they have seen in the world.

Here are the reasons why block play is essential for children:

Block Play Develops Fine Motor Skills

Playing with a variety of blocks helps develop grasping and visual-motor skills in children. In other words, abilities for the use of small muscles of the hand and fingers, and the coordinated use of hands and eyes for task completion. Fine-motor skills are essential for drawing and writing. Imitating and copying block designs will support copying and writing letters as the child gets older. Resistive blocks, like unifix cubes and bristle blocks, especially help strengthen little fingers.

As hands and fingers strengthen, it will make it possible for children to grasp writing tools efficiently, like crayons, markers, and pencils. With the use of hands and fingers when playing with blocks, children will develop a robust fine-motor foundation.

Block Play Increases Attention Span

When block play is part of the child’s day, it will boost the child’s attention span. By focusing on a creative task over time, such as engaging in building structures out of blocks, children will increase their mental capacity to sustain concentration. Focusing on activity is a critical skill to learn new information. The more closely the child attends to the task, the better it will be retained. Involving young children in block play is a practical approach to enhance attention span and focus for more learning to come.

Block Play Enhances Problem Solving

Young children enjoy problem-solving when building with blocks. Children discover that many parts become whole; they learn how to assemble blocks; they recognize challenges and rearrange their design; they organize a plan for new construction possibilities. They implement changes and assess the outcome. Unquestionably, exposing young children to a variety of block play will expand their problem-solving skills.

Block Play Fosters Mathematical Abilities

Block play establishes early math concepts that are used in everyday life. Children learn to identify shapes, parts, and wholes. They are introduced to number sense, more and less, learn to count, and work on one-to-one correspondence. Children enjoy determining the length and size of their creations; they complete measurements, how symmetrical and balanced their structures are and decide how many of a particular block they need. Children create patterns, sequences, they sort, group, and classify blocks in their logical ways. Altogether these mathematical concepts are essential to developing in early childhood, and block play is an excellent way to promote math skill education.  

Block Play Expands Creativity

Blocks are small, individual pieces that children can put together, take apart, and reconfigure in endless ways. Such a free-form style of playing nurtures the ability to harness the power of imagination in creating and designing structures. Creativity expands when children have opportunities to play, and when they are encouraged to build independently to express their imaginative abilities. Furthermore, creativity can be nourished when wide ranges of blocks are brought into the mix to stimulate new and innovative work.

Block Play Increases Self-Esteem

A child’s self-esteem can skyrocket when they see they were able to create something out of seemingly nothing. Block play helps children realize that they have unique ideas that can be expressed in the real world. The feeling of achieving something while building with blocks will increase a child’s confidence and self-esteem going forward in life. It is crucial to praise your child’s efforts. Without a doubt, honest and specific praise is vital to building positive self-esteem.  

Block Play Boosts Social and Emotional Skills

Playing with blocks helps with social and emotional development as well. Block play will get children to work together and negotiate what and how to construct a particular design. Children will learn how to take turns, share blocks, and cooperate with other children. This experience could lead to developing new friends and establishing positive and rewarding relationships. Besides working together with others, children express their feelings, they become aware of other people’s opinions, and they learn to manage their emotions.  

Block Play Enriches Communication Skills

Block play opens up a world of new communication experiences for children. While constructing designs, there are endless opportunities for further conversations. This experience can lead to discussions about the project. It will also help to develop new vocabulary and promote communicative expression. Also, children will learn to identify specific attributes of blocks; their length, weight, height, color, texture, and other descriptive features. When a child interacts with other children or adults while playing with blocks, they can co-create an entire story together.

Block Play Grows Gross Motor Skills

Playing with blocks can help with a child’s gross motor development. When children play with large blocks on the floor, be they wood blocks, bricks, or something similar, they are working their gross motor skills. Playing with large blocks in this way promotes squatting up and down, the rotating trunk from side to side, coordinating both sides of the body, and moving arms across the midline of the body to complete many versatile movement patterns. Thus, using large muscles for playful block activity will improve the control and quality of movement.

Block Play Supports Spatial Awareness

Playing with blocks has been found to nurture the development of spatial awareness within children. This type of play involves constructing structures, where spatial relationships have to be understood. Children also learn to determine when something is incomplete. They can figure out different directions, how far objects are from one another, different shapes, changes in the distance of things, and more. In short, anything they perceive visually gets organized within their minds in a way that makes sense of what they are seeing.

Block Building Developmental Milestones

General Age Level for Block Building Skills:

• 1 to 2 years old toddlers enjoy to explore with a variety of block textures and sizes, and they like to experiment with holding, carrying, dropping, loading, and unloading blocks in and out of containers. They can build 3-4 block towers.
• 2 to 3 years old toddlers enjoy lining up blocks horizontally and stacking blocks into vertical towers. They can stack an eight-block tower. 
• 3 to 4 years old preschoolers elaborate on building their stacks and rows, they build walls, bridges, trains. They can stack a ten-block tower and reproduce block designs.
• 4 to 5 years old preschoolers build intricate block structures that include balance, symmetry details, and patterns. They can create structures such as steps and pyramids.
• 5 to 6 year-olds enjoy creating involved designs. They create multifaceted structures with an assortment of materials while using their imagination, as well as following a specific construction plan. Children sort, match and assemble with great detail to create their masterwork. 

Conclusion

In summary, block play is one of the most valuable learning experiences children can savor during early childhood. Everything from improving fine-motor skills, increasing creativity and self-esteem, to expanding math and communication skills, block play provides significant benefits that support numerous aspects of a child’s development. Please take a moment and check what sets of blocks you have available and how you can use them with your child to nurture their growth. Before you know it, you will see the fantastic benefits described here. Don’t overlook this critical skill as part of early childhood development!

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References

Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), The British Association for Early Childhood Education, 2012.

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