Kids love animal-themed LEGO sets. They meet the highest industry standards and inspire imaginative play for hours on end.
Building with LEGO bricks requires a lot of fine coordinated movements. This builds and improves hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity and spatial mindfulness – the ability to recognize the relationship between different sized objects.
1. Develops Creativity
In the same way that physical exercise is important to develop a healthy body, creative play is vital for a healthy brain. It is well documented that creativity skills develop early in life and that the best way to nurture this skill is through play. One of the most creative ways to do this is through building with Lego bricks.
Children can use their imagination to create any type of animal they want – from dinosaurs and dragons, to cars and houses. They can also combine different pieces to build unique structures.
This creativity is important because it helps to stimulate the brain and develop new ideas and perspectives. It also helps to improve problem solving abilities, which are important for all aspects of life. It’s no wonder that so many successful people are highly creative – they know how to think outside the box and find unique solutions to difficult problems.
Another benefit of building with Lego is that it can help to develop fine motor skills. This is because working with Lego requires small, precise movements to build a model. It can also help to develop spatial mindfulness, which is the ability to understand and interpret three-dimensional objects.
Finally, building with Lego can be a great way to develop teamwork skills. This is because it encourages children to work together to solve a problem. It can also help to improve social awareness, as it teaches children how to take turns and communicate their ideas effectively with others. It is also a great way to develop a sense of achievement, which can help to build children’s confidence and self-belief. This can lead to them being more willing to try new things in the future.
2. Develops Motor Skills
Children’s fine motor skills are developed when they build with Lego as they are using small pieces that require precise placement and control of pressure. This is a very important development skill, especially for young children as it will help them when they are learning to write, developing dexterity and strength in their fingers.
Depending on the nature of the task, building with Lego can also develop children’s cognitive skills. For example, when following instructions or planning what piece comes next, it can involve spatial visualization which requires the ability to mentally rotate images. This is a very important cognitive skill that has been linked to mathematics achievement, as it has been shown to improve children’s maths scores.
It’s also a great way for children to learn about shapes as they read the instructions and experiment with different ways of putting together bricks. It can also teach them about the order of operations, as well as the concept of time and number.
Moreover, Lego is also a great way to develop cognitive skills like perseverance and problem solving. For example, if they are struggling with building their creation and can’t seem to get it right, it will encourage them to keep trying until they do. Similarly, if they have limited supplies of Lego and need to ration them out to make their creation, it will teach them the value of hard work and how determination can pay off.
Finally, building with Lego can also foster a sense of pride and accomplishment when they finish their creation, which is another important emotional development. This can improve children’s self-esteem and encourage them to try new challenges when they are ready.
3. Develops Fine Motor Skills
Assembling Lego pieces requires fine motor skills, which help develop dexterity and strength in children’s fingers. It also supports the development of their pincer grasp, which is required when writing. Fine motor skills are critical for preschool and kindergarten children because they help them learn to control their hands, fingers and thumb. They’re the foundation for many academic skills, such as writing, hand-eye coordination and arithmetic.
Building with Lego can also improve kids’ motor skills as they follow the instructions or make adjustments to their creations. They’ll have to move their fingers around to put each piece into place and squeeze the bricks together. This all strengthens their finger muscles and helps them learn how to use their thumb to open and close small containers, such as bottles and jars. This is also a great way to prepare children for using a pencil.
Another benefit of building with Lego is that it can teach children patience and persistence. This is especially important when they’re working on a larger project that may take more time to complete. It also teaches them that it’s okay to need help from others sometimes.
Lastly, building with Lego can also help children’s spatial skills. This is because the process of building involves comparing and matching different sizes of objects and following instructions that are presented at varying scales. Consequently, this skill is associated with better performance in mathematics, particularly in geometry and arithmetic. In fact, mediation analyses have shown that spatial skills mediate the association between Lego construction ability and mathematics achievement. This is true for both concrete and digital Lego construction tasks. However, it’s worth noting that not all mediation models were significant, suggesting that other factors are influencing this relation.
4. Develops Communication Skills
As kids work together to build their Beast LEGO, they develop the ability to communicate clearly and ask for help when necessary. They also learn to listen to their peers and respect their ideas. These are skills that will serve them well in a classroom setting, where teamwork and communication is important for success.
In addition, building with LEGO is a great way to develop spatial visualization skills. This is because when kids are working on a project, they have to constantly adjust their perspective to fit the size of the bricks. This helps to improve their hand-eye coordination and can even lead to better performance on spatial reasoning tests!
While it can be frustrating when a creation comes crashing down because of one small mistake, children will learn to persevere when playing with LEGO. They’ll realize that a model might not always turn out exactly how they planned, but it’s okay because the pieces can be re-built! This is a valuable life lesson to learn, especially in this age of instant gratification.
Building a Beast LEGO is a fun and rewarding activity that can help to develop a wide range of skills in children. It can inspire their creativity, encourage them to be more physically active, and teach them the value of hard work. In a world where we’re always looking for fast results, this type of play can help to teach children that the best things in life are often the most difficult to achieve. So, go ahead and break out the LEGO bricks – your children are sure to thank you!
5. Develops Social Skills
Playing with Legos can help your child develop a sense of social competence, including learning to negotiate and cooperate with others. The process of building with LEGO can also teach your child how to solve problems by thinking outside the box, a skill they will need later in life.
The smallest parts of the Lego bricks can be snapped together and pulled apart, which helps develop fine motor skills in children. Manipulating these small pieces also strengthens the little muscles in children’s fingers, and improves their hand-eye coordination. This is important for other activities, such as writing, drawing and using utensils.
In addition, the process of building with Legos teaches toddlers how to follow instructions. This can help them in their classrooms, where they will likely learn to follow written directions for projects and assignments. Moreover, building with LEGOs can help children develop their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills by introducing them to the concepts of torque and friction through hands-on play.
Additionally, playing with LEGOs can help your children develop persistence – the ability to stick with a task and see it through to completion. This is a trait that will benefit them throughout their lives, especially in their academics and careers.
In a recent study, Legoff and colleagues found that children’s Lego construction skills mediated the association between their mathematics achievement and their ability to work with spatial skills, such as disembedding, VSWM, spatial scaling, and mental rotation. The study compared participants who were given either a digital Lego task or a concrete Lego task to build animal models from instructions. This is the first time that researchers have explored mediators in this context and may help deepen our understanding of the overlap between spatial skills and mathematics achievement.