I am so enthusiastic about LEGO and other similar block-building toys for young children. The enjoyment and longevity they provide are truly remarkable. Kids get immense pleasure from these toys and can continue to engage with them for years to come.
As you delve into this article, you’ll discover the striking parallels between the advantages of Lego and the advantages of coding. Lego serves as a significant milestone in fostering computational and logical thinking. The skills that kids acquire from LEGO during their formative years can be applied to various facets of their lives, enabling them to employ computational thinking across different domains. LEGO provides a multitude of advantages for children, encompassing various aspects of their development.
Let’s Explore Some Of The Key Benefits Of LEGO
1. Creativity and Imagination
Lego provides an open-ended play experience that encourages children to use their imagination and creativity. By building and constructing different structures, vehicles, and scenes, kids can explore their own ideas and create their own stories. Similarly, children can use code to express themselves by creating fun animations and games.
2. Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking
LEGO building involves problem-solving skills as children figure out how to fit different pieces together and overcome challenges. They learn to think critically, analyse situations, and find solutions through trial and error. This process helps develop their logical reasoning and spatial awareness. Problem-solving and critical thinking are at the core of Computer Science and Coding.
3. Patience and Persistence
Constructing intricate LEGO models requires patience and persistence. Kids learn to follow instructions, organise their tasks, and persist through challenges. They understand that achieving a desired result often requires time and effort, teaching them valuable life skills. Similarly, when children create something with Code, they need to learn to persist when things don’t work the way they expect.
4. Collaboration and Communication
LEGO can be enjoyed individually, but it also encourages collaborative play. When children build together, they learn to communicate their ideas, share responsibilities, negotiate, and cooperate. It fosters teamwork and helps them develop social skills. Coding is often seen as an individual task, however kids who collaborate on project design ideas and develop projects together learn to foster new friendships and develop the teamwork skills.
5. Spatial Awareness and Mathematics
LEGO building involves understanding spatial relationships, proportions, symmetry, and geometry. Kids learn concepts like symmetry, balance, and scale while constructing models. They develop an intuitive understanding of basic mathematical principles through hands-on exploration. In a similar way, Coding offers kids a means to practice and improve their mathematical skills in an educational and fun way.
6. Storytelling and Language Development
LEGO sets often inspire children to create stories and narratives around their creations. This imaginative play promotes language development as kids communicate their ideas, describe their designs, and engage in storytelling. In the same way, Coding also provides children with lots of opportunity to delve into their imagination and bring it to life with a coded animation or story.
7. Confidence and Self-Esteem
Successfully completing LEGO projects gives children a sense of accomplishment, boosting their confidence and self-esteem. They gain confidence in their abilities to follow instructions, solve problems, and create something meaningful, which can extend to other areas of their lives. Yet another parallel between LEGO and Coding, where a child’s pride in their work enhances their confidence and self-esteem.
8. Focus and Concentration
Engaging with LEGO can enhance a child’s focus and concentration. Following instructions, organising pieces, and building structures require sustained attention and concentration, helping kids develop better focus in other activities as well. So too does Coding, as children are encouraged to focus on the task at hand and concentrate so that they can produce a coded masterpiece of their own.
Conclusion
Overall, LEGO offers a holistic learning experience that encompasses cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, making it a valuable toy for children. LEGO is also a major stepping stone on the path to cognitive development and computational thinking and a great building block (parden the pun!) for children who want to learn Coding in the future.
I would recommend Lego Clubs or Camps to younger kids, to teach them build the foundation for these skills and prepare them for Coding in the future.
