Recently we moved to a 108 pieces puzzle. Looking back, it has been a challenging journey. There were lots of tears, failures, surprises, excitement, and learning.
Puzzles demand a lot of attention, focus, and thinking skills. So before introducing jigsaw puzzles, offer chunky puzzles as they are easy to grasp. Then, move on to knob puzzles. Puzzles with knobs and shape sorters will help with finger muscle strengthening. Once my child has developed grasping, pinching, and other fine-motor skills, we started with jigsaw puzzles.
2 piece puzzles
We started doing puzzles only when V was developmentally ready and could sit for a long time and focus. I introduced a 2-piece puzzle to V while practicing fine motor, bilateral coordination activities, and sensory play. The 2-piece puzzle was quite challenging initially due to low muscle tone, fine motor challenges, or poor spatial perception.
Puzzles may seem easy, but our children require various abilities to solve them. These include having a good grip, strong finger muscles, bilateral coordination & good hand eye coordination.
It became easier after practicing regularly with play to improve fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination skills, and visual perception.
4-6 piece puzzle
Our favourite 4-6 piece affordable puzzle is Frank Vehicle puzzle. My child loves cars, and the transport puzzle kept her engaged for a long time. This simple yet effective puzzle helped V to gain confidence in doing puzzles. It also helped to develop her motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
9-24 piece puzzle
Moving to a puzzle with 9 to 24 pieces was a major step. At first, we began with a 9-piece puzzle, followed by 12, 18, and finally 24 pieces. Here are some Here are some tips to help them with puzzle skills.
- Invest in the favorite character of your child so that they can have fun while learning and solving puzzles.
- Keep the picture of the puzzle in front of the child and remind them to look at it while working on the puzzle.
- Try to demonstrate it (take a few pieces and show your child how to connect them).
- Show excitement and encouragement even when they join one piece of the puzzle. It is a big deal for your child.
60-piece puzzle
Once your child understands how to put puzzle pieces together, you can find puzzles on their favorite subjects or characters. For example, there are puzzles with the world map, India, continents, seasons, Frozen, Peppa Pig, and more. We started with the Frozen puzzle and then moved on to the world map once V became very interested in solving puzzles.
108-piece puzzle
Two months ago, I noticed that my child was getting really good at completing her 60 piece puzzle quickly. I realized that she was ready for something more challenging. So, I decided to introduce her to a bigger Peppa Pig puzzle with 108 pieces. She started by matching pieces that she recognized like faces, legs, and tables. Now, she tries to solve it on her own every day.
These days, I see her spending a lot of time completely focused on finishing that puzzle. We have gotten to a point where she needs very little help from me to finish her puzzles.
Please Note:
- A jigsaw puzzle can be frustrating for our kids, so be patient and encourage them.
- Start doing jigsaw puzzles only if your child is developmentally ready.
- Try to model or do the puzzle with the child to make it interesting.
- Give verbal cues such as, “Yay!! Mama can see the piece you are looking for! It’s near your elbow. It is yellow in color, hmmm can you spot yellow. Try to offer help by pointing or giving the child the piece if they can’t find the piece, “Here is the piece you are looking for.”
- Let them learn the skills of stacking, pinching, grasping, squeezing, and hand-eye coordination with wooden peg puzzles, wooden blocks and other developmental toys before introducing jigsaw puzzles.
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