LOGO PLAY
What is Lego play?
Lego play is a hands-on learning activity that involves learners actively in their own learning journey.
Why is Lego important for children?
Lego play is fun for children. It gives them the ability to work in groups. This helps them to develop their social skills as they grow. It engages them to solve problems creatively and to excel at thinking critically. By working this way, they develop their understanding and ability to retain the knowledge of key curriculum concepts and therefore do well in school.
Why Lego is good for the brain?
Lego play exercises the brain as the learners build simple to complex structures with colorful bricks. This constructive play helps the learners to refresh their cognitive thinking as well as their creativity. It gives them the ability to visualize and create three-dimensional objects.
The ability to imagine and manipulate spatial information in their heads hence developing their brainpower.
Is Lego good for development?
Lego play is beneficial for development including social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. As the children play with Lego, they foster a wide range of abilities including; motor skills, spatial skills, language skills and problem-solving skills.
As they play, they develop the ability to visualize, imagine and create wonderful creations and relate them with real-life objects. They develop the eye-hand co-ordination, giving them exciting opportunities to explore and discover their world.
How do Legos help toddlers?
Lego bricks encourage teamwork. Children work in groups and interact with one another as they make creations. This play helps them develop various skills and abilities.
- Communication
This skill is equally vital for everyone: toddlers, children, and adults. If toddlers need or want something, they need to communicate. Lego gives them the opportunity to express themselves in different ways, hence developing their language. - Learning to share
From a young age, it is relevant for children to understand the importance of other people. Lego helps them to develop these social skills by giving them the ability to take turns in their collaborative groups. - Interpreting instructions
For the toddlers to grow to be good listeners. Lego helps them to listen and learn to follow instructions given by the facilitator. As they interact with their friends in collaborative groups, they may get the help of another child to do the activities hence learning takes place. - Emotional Growth
When the toddlers play with Lego, at the time they may feel that whatever they are making is not making sense, then this introduces frustrations to them. When they are encouraged to keep going, they learn to acknowledge their feelings and overcome them. - Fine Motor skills
This is simply through practice. When toddlers are playing with Lego, they are constantly moving their hands, fingers adjusting the blocks and following instructions. Through this engagement, the child’s fine motor skills are improved, and Lego helps them to practice in a fun way.
What are the long-term results and benefits?
Playing with Lego has incredible benefits to the Learners.
1.Social Skills and Teamwork
As they work together in their collaborative teams, children learn to take turns, listen to each other and follow group rules. This encourages sharing, reinforcing positive behavior and social contact.
2.Language and communication skills
Children learn to communicate with one another, express their own ideas, views, wants, needs, listening, and responding to others. Once they make their own creations either individually or in a group, children discuss and talk about the exciting stories from their imaginations.
3.Problem Solving, Spatial Awareness, and Mathematics
As they insert the Lego bricks to make creations, children understand the quantity and learn patterns. This helps them to develop their mathematical skills and spatial awareness. As they team up to fix a Lego puzzle, they develop skills to be able to solve problems and come up with new ideas.
4.Physical Development
Different amounts of pressure applied to assemble and dissemble Lego bricks is an amazing exercise for small fingers. This support is enough for children to be able to hold a pencil and control the grip in writing.
5.Managing feelings
Lego play helps children learn perseverance as they build and rebuild their structures. It helps them to try out new ideas without fear of failure. Once they try it out differently and make it a success, then they learn to overcome the frustrations and take care of their own feelings and others as well.
6.Focus and Concentration
As they wait for their turns in their teams, listening and following instructions, arranging the blocks to make a creation, all this takes focus and it helps those children who need a little extra concentration.
7.Patience
This building process with Lego helps children to understand, for them to make good structures they need to take time to plan and work hard for successful completion.
8. Builds Self-Confidence
Lego allows children to explore and express ideas differently in their own minds. This helps them to achieve a sense of accomplishment, pride and build on their self-confidence and belief, driving them to try out more complex tasks.
9. Experimentation and Creativity.
Lego experiments give an opportunity for children to be active, develop 21st Century essential skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. In this way their instinct to learn is stimulated, and they are motivated to apply their learning in new contexts, which means that they embark on a self-directed learning process.
10.Lego Lowers anxiety and stress
Children are unique and have different abilities, therefore some get stress and anxiety from academics especially when it comes to reading and writing. Lego play gives therapeutic benefits to these children. As they play, it brings calming and relaxing effects, helping them to forget their anxiety or worries and giving them an opportunity to explore and discover their talents.