Piece by piece!
Puzzles take patience, build cognitive development and memory, and thinking flexibly. They can also help your child’s speech, language and communication development!
There’s lots of ways you can use this classic toy – in particular an inset puzzle – to build your child’ speech and language skills.
Top tips:
- Model vocabulary: the pieces of the puzzle will represent everyday objects or something linked to your child’s interests, so as they remove each piece, say the word to them so they make that connection between word and object
- Offer choices: remove the pieces and mix them up in a basket or bag, take out two at a time and let your child choose which one they would like to use next – for example ‘would you like the car or the bus?’
- Practice persistence: if there a piece which is a bit more tricky to insert into its space, allow your child the chance to persist with it and ask you for help if needed
- ‘The Clue’ game: ask your child questions to explore the meaning of the pieces – for example, it its a flower say ‘can you find a piece that smells nice?’ or if its a dog say ‘can you find the one that makes a woof sound?’
- ‘What’s missing’ game: remove a piece and ask your child to guess what is missing – you can also practice turn taking by taking it in turns to remove one and guess
