Provide programs for block play. Partner with Head Start; provide preschool and family block party programs. Integrate block play into storyhours. Target older kids with Legos for similar benefits.
Block play helps children develop many skills:
- Motor & eye-hand coordination
- Spatial skills
- Creative & divergent thinking
- Social Skills
- Language skills
- Studies show that children who engage in block play:
- Have improved lanuguage, voacabulary, grammar, & verbal comprehension
- Improved spatial skills.
- Improved math skills--and advanced math skills in later life!
- Are better able to solve problems.
Parenting Science: Toy Blocks and Construction Toys, www.parentingscience.com/toy-blocks.html.
For more information and ideas:
White paper on block play, its importance and relevance to early literacy: http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/FINAL%20Board%20Approved%20White%20Paper%20on%20Play.pdf
Blocks as Tools for
Learning: http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/Hewitt0101.pdf
Early Math Skills:
Building Blocks of the Future: http://www.blockfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RB.WhitePaper.EarlyMathSkills.2008s.pdf
Toy Blocks and
Construction Toys: A Guide for the Science Minded Parent: http://www.parentingscience.com/toy-blocks.html
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