Benefits of Block Toys

Visit the Taylor home on a typical weekday afternoon, and you are likely to be greeted with quite a mess. Piles of brightly colored, wooden blocks are scattered all over the main level of the house. You may find half-destroyed "cities" accompanied by matchbox cars and action figures that look like an abandoned archaeological dig. Oh, and watch where you step - the smaller plastic brick blocks are a killer on your bare feet.

Angie Taylor grins sheepishly. "Before we go to the park, the rule is that the blocks all get picked up and put back in their bins. Of course, once we get back, they get dumped right back out again. At least the room is clean for a half-hour a day." Though she hates the constant mess, Angie recognizes the benefits of block play for her children, and has decided to, for the most part, just look the other way. "I figure, once they're in college my house will be clean. And in the meantime, they're not watching much TV!"

Angie's children, ages two, four and seven love playing with their blocks, and they own several sets of varying types. And, as they play, they are developing skills and learning concepts.

Cause and Effect

Everyone loves to build a good block tower, then knock it down. Angie's two-year-old, Seth, is working on his fine motor skills and concentration. "He will build towers for an hour or more, " says Angie. "And he seems so focused the whole time. It's one of the only things he does with this much concentration." Learning to balance the blocks on top of each other is teaching Seth concepts of gravity and balance and increasing his hand-eye coordination. Of course, when he knocks over his big brother or sister's towers he learns a whole different kind of cause and effect!

Concentration

Seth isn't the only one learning concentration skills. The older children spend lots of time making their creations just right, as well. Becca, the seven-year-old, lines her Lego houses up and spends lots of time with the finer details, such as window and door placement.

Fantasy Play

All three children engage in long, complicated imaginary play with their blocks. They build cities and towns, then drive matchbox cars through or invite action figures to move in. Becca says, "We like to make wild west towns with cowboys. And sometimes we do a map of our neighborhood. My favorite is the swimming pool." Becca has integrated a piece of blue construction paper into the neighborhood, where Fisher Price People are enjoying a splash. She says that sometimes Seth comes along and destroys her villages, but she's decided to just pretend that he's King Kong. After the Seth devastation, she rebuilds the houses and schools.

Bradley, age four, sometimes joins Becca in her grand city development schemes, but he often prefers to help Seth find innovative ways to build and destroy. Both boys are big fans of cause and effect. Brad has found that using his helicopters, planes and large cars makes some really cool crashes. He spends increasingly longer amounts of time getting his towers and structures just right...then practicing destruction in varying amounts of force, to see how far he can get the blocks to fly. Though it might just look like aggression and devastation, Bradley is learning spatial concepts, geometry and physics.

All three kids agree that playing with blocks is pretty cool.

The Taylor family owns many different types of blocks:

1. Brightly painted wooden blocks
2. Log-style blocks
3. Both small and large plastic brick blocks
4. Nesting blocks - hard plastic and a softer, fabric set
5. Large cardboard blocks