Let your child play with building blocks
...because it helps develop children’s personality, finds study
Turns out, building blocks can be really helpful in building your child’s personality. According to a study conducted by the Purdue University, semi-structured block play among preschool-age children has the potential to improve two skills — mathematics and executive functioning — critical to kindergarten readiness.
“As an early childhood expert, I feel like I’m constantly being asked by parents and teachers, ‘What can I do with my child to support their school readiness skills?’” said researcher Sara Schmitt.
“What I find myself saying a lot, among other things, is block play. But there’s actually not a lot of empirical evidence to support this statement, particularly with regard to mathematics and executive functioning development. That’s why I wanted to do this study: I wanted to understand if these suggestions I was making to parents and teachers were actually valid.” The study found that a semi-structured block play intervention improved math skills, such as numeracy, shape recognition and mathematical language, and two indicators of executive functioning, including cognitive flexibility and global executive functioning. Executive functioning is the ability to pay attention, remember and use environmental input, and inhibit natural responses in favor of more adaptive ones.
Children of parents with low educational attainment benefited the most from intervention participation, according to the findings, suggesting block play could be most impactful for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.