Block play has been around for a very long time and wooden blocks are a staple of preschool equipment. These days, children at home enjoy wooden blocks, but also Lincoln Logs, Lego, and other building toys. Have you ever wondered why block play seems so interesting? What do kids get out of it?

A study published this month in the journal Child Development found that block play develops children’s spatial reasoning ability, even in children as young as three. As you might remember, spatial reasoning is a key element in intelligence tests. Those puzzles about rotating figures, deciding what pieces would fit into an irregular shape, and even finding the example that is the same as another from a set of very similar possibilities – these are all tests of spatial reasoning and they are all indicators of higher-level thinking skill.

In addition to just increasing brain power, playing with blocks of all sorts increases children’s math ability. They master concepts of shape and size, determine relationships between blocks (“which is under another?”) and solve spatial problems as part of building structures.

In one experiment, three-year-old children were asked to use Duplo sized Legos to recreate a model shape. Six of these tasks ranged in difficulty from “easy” to “tricky.” Just about all the children were able to duplicate a model that required only two pieces. But only children whose parents reported more block play at home and more conversation at home about block play were able to recreate the most difficult models.

The take-aways from this study are obvious:

1. Provide your child with blocks, Lego, puzzles, and other hands-on toys requiring development of spatial relations. Notice that, while video games are often touted as means of developing spatial relations skill, hands-on play with “real” blocks should come first.
2. Remember that blocks are not “boy toys.” Girls, who may have been discouraged in years past from playing with blocks, should build with blocks too. Last I checked, girls are as smart as boys and need the same opportunities to learn too.
3. Talk about spatial relations with your child. Use words like “between,” “under,” “beside,” and so forth when you play together with blocks and in other situations throughout the day.
4. Start now. The three-year-olds in the study were demonstrating what they had learned in their first few years of life. Find block toys that are safe for small children and get down on the floor and play.

Parents often think of math as a “school skill.” This study demonstrates once again that what is learned in school builds on what children have learned already at home. Parents are a child’s first teachers and, happily, part of that teaching includes playing with blocks.

© 2013, Patricia Nan Anderson. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Ask for Dr. Anderson’s new book, Developmentally Appropriate Parenting, at your favorite bookstore.

The next time you take your child to a hands-on children’s museum – you know, one with exhibits kids are supposed to play with – notice what the grownups who follow the children around are doing. There’s a right way – and a wrong way – to enjoy a children’s museum with your kid.

Here’s what the wrong way looks like:

• A parent demonstrates the correct method of manipulating a piece of equipment. He shows the child “how to do it” as if there were only one way.
• A parent launches in long, boring explanations of the scientific principles behind the exhibit. If the child is fidgeting, not listening, and obviously wants to escape and play, then this parent is just showing off.
• A parent makes playing with the exhibits some sort of test, so that the child is peppered with questions and corrected if her answers aren’t right.
• A parent hurries a child along, as if trying to see the entire museum and get his money’s worth. The parent may do this even though the child is apparently fascinated by one thing and wants to play with it longer.
• A parent is bored and wants to go home. Nothing in this museum is interesting to her. She really would like her child to leave but he’s totally focused on playing.
• A parent is so glued to her cell phone that she completely forgets about her child. A staff member finds him sitting in the water table, totally soaked.

You don’t make any of these mistakes, do you?

Of course not! You know that the whole idea of hands-on children’s museums is to let kids mess around with stuff they can’t fiddle with at home. The whole idea of these places is to stimulate children’s thinking and help them solve problems suggested by the equipment. The role of the smart parent is to watch over her child, guide him in finding things to explore, and then pretty much just enjoy what he figures out.

Your child may spend an hour in just one area of the museum, playing with just one thing. That’s okay. This is what children do. They work and work and work on something until they master it. Only then can they move on to something else.

Your child may flit from one area to another. This is okay too. Your child is looking for something that clicks for him, something that captures his attention and intrigues him. You may need to do a little demonstrating, playing with something yourself to help your child see the possibilities. And then you need to follow him around until he settles in.

Children’s museum admission fees can be expensive. It’s natural to want to “get your money’s worth” and see it all. But that just doesn’t fit with the preschool thought process. If you have a children’s museum in your area, buy a year-long membership so you can drop in frequently, stay only as long as your child is having fun, and come back again soon. Frequent, short visits are less frustrating for parents and more educational for kids.

If you are visiting with a couple children of different ages, it helps to go with a second adult, so the kids can split up and play with what interests them, instead of trying to keep everyone engaged in the same exhibit. This is especially important if the children are of different ages and abilities.

The fun for parents is to watch the wheels turn in a child’s brain as he realizes how something works. Just watching is the right way for grownups to behave when they “do” a children’s museum.

© 2013, Patricia Nan Anderson. All rights reserved.