Puzzle Talk
Puzzles sometimes get short-changed in play. After an adult finishes a puzzle once it's rare that it gets worked again. But for children, exploring with puzzles is a great way to expand fine motor skills, promote first words, develop language, and encourage social skills. Let’s look at how that happens for young children.
The best first puzzles are those with simple pictures and simple placement rather than interlocking pieces. Look for puzzle themes with early learning categories like farms, transportation, foods, jungle animals, ocean creatures, etc. Puzzles with pictures to match the pieces help kids find the right spot and those with big knobs to help little hands hold and manipulate the pieces.
Simple jigsaw puzzles with only a few pieces are great for finding the missing piece. Talk about which piece is missing - is it the wheel from the truck? The wing from the airplane? The tail from the pig? Discussing parts and the whole is a great language learning strategy.
Sorting pieces from more than one puzzle from a pile on the floor helps to target categorization skills - Does this piece go with the ocean animals or jungle animals? You're right the strawberry goes with the grocery store, not with the fire station!
Start talking about the pieces - of course, label the picture (ex., dog, pig, whale, firetruck, etc.) but also talk about colors, shapes, sizes, where it lives, and what it does. Target location word vocabulary with “the pig goes next to the horse” or the “butterfly is on the flower” or the “bunny is behind the fence” or even “this is a corner piece” or “this piece goes in the middle”.
Talk about putting the pieces into their spots expands language from simple labels to more complex concepts - that fits, that doesn’t fit, too big, let’s turn it to see if it will fit. Slow down. Model putting the pieces in but let your child explore and do it on their own too. Help with hand-over-hand modeling if your child seems frustrated but really give them some time to try on their own.
Be encouraging. Try to get down on their level to share your expressions and so they can see your mouth when you talk. Puzzles are also a great first game with young children. Take turns working the pieces and reinforce language like: It’s your turn. Now it's my turn. Who goes next? I found it! Good try! Emphasize working together to finish the puzzle. Your child is learning and you are having fun together!
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