Play is one of the most important aspects of a child’s life because through games of patty-cake, playing house or building LEGO® bricks, children learn to think creatively and develop social skills.
LEGO® bricks are the perfect foundation for children to express their thoughts. They can build, unbuild, and rebuild to create worlds beyond their wildest imagination.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, and they are given free rein to rebuild based on a whole new set of ideas. The possibilities are endless!
Parents are attracted to the idea that brick building offers an open-ended, valuable play and learning experience in every setting. This offers children the freedom to explore, discover and construct their budding minds.
Benefits of Tapping into A Child’s Imagination
Charlotte Reznik, PhD, a child educational psychologist, associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA and author of The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success stated a few benefits from tapping into your child’s imagination1.
These include:
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Strengthens bond between parent and child
Children learn best from their parents. By playing with them, you can encourage spontaneous creative conversations in your daily life which will eventually lead to imaginative thinking.
They encounter new experiences through brick building and from there it leads to countless opportunities for discussion. Take this opportunity to play easy word association with your child and collaborate with them in storytelling.
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Improves fine motor skills
Did you know that children need the same muscles and skills when learning to write? Children that play with LEGO® bricks can connect them with a precision that eventually helps to strengthen their fine motor skills while improving their hand-eye coordination.
Younger children can build muscles and control by picking up the pieces and putting them together.
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Provides relief from boredom
With LEGO® bricks, children are free to explore their ideas as they embark on a voyage of self-discovery in their imaginative world. Besides that, the bricks are designed in a manner that introduces characters, adventures and storytelling.
With a bit of encouragement, your child can invest their time in building a LEGO® world that enhances their cognitive abilities and skills from a young age.
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Coaches mathematics
As the bricks come in many shapes, sizes and colours, this offers ample opportunity for children to practise their mathematical skills. Through brick playing, children will learn about measurements, numbers, symmetry, balance, estimation, and be exposed to quantities.
This encourages them to come up with new ideas through exploration, to problem-solve.
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Teaches children to be persistent
Children are notoriously stubborn - they do what they want when they want to do it. Building LEGO® bricks however requires planning skills. While the building process may seem frustrating at first, it also makes children curious as they want to see the end product.
Repeated playing with LEGO® bricks can help children develop perseverance and overcome their frustration, knowing that their soon-to-be masterpieces will be built, the way that they want them to be built.
How Can Parents Help Boost Creativity With LEGO® Bricks For Fun Learning?
For children, the sky's the limit! As parents, you can encourage your child to inject more creativity into brick building by:
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Providing all the tools needed in the process
Using LEGO® bricks as the foundation, tap into your child’s imagination by providing them with different types of bricks that can form extensions from the same brick building.
Your child’s masterpiece could be a mega tower, and all you need to do is provide some tiny details to enhance the environment, say, some trees or cars to build up their imagination.
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Communicating the right way
If you want to boost your child’s communication skills, you need to ask them what they want to build from the beginning. Help them brainstorm some ideas without giving them a definite conclusion.
This way, they are able to set their minds on the loose and eventually encourage and train their thought processes.
Tamar Chansky, PhD, author and child psychologist stated that parents can foster creativity by not using praises about products2. With that in mind, instead of saying “Great job buddy!”, you need to ask questions about the process. Use terms like “your ideas are creative” or “what made you choose this colour?”.
Your participation and encouragement will boost their confidence and creative set skills without interfering too much, letting your child’s imagination run on its own!
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Setting a playdate
Some children are shy and are still trying to develop their social skills. Being in constant lockdown, some children (especially with two parents in a one-child household) find it hard to interact with other children. When forced to mingle, they will find the situation extremely stressful.
Since LEGO® bricks are well-known toys among children, it acts as a common tool that all children will be able to recognise during playdates.
As such, this common thread will not only help your child come out of their shell, it can also help to foster new friendships while the children trade play ideas.
To celebrate children as the masters of creative problem solving and show what can be achieved when they creatively overcome challenges by building and rebuilding with LEGO® bricks, the LEGO® Group has launched its global Rebuild the World campaign in Malaysia for the first time.
The campaign aims to echo this by partnering local early learning and parenting coaches alongside parents to share their experiences as well as tips for parents through weekly Instagram Live sessions in October 2021 with details as below:
Malaysia
- 16 October 2021, 4pm - Parents can look forward to hearing more about how they can encourage creativity in children through play from actress-parent Diana Danielle and paediatrician Dr Ng Yi-Ki’s (@dryikis_crib) on Diana’s Instagram page (@dianadanielleb).
- 23 October 2021, 4pm – To learn how children can foster self-expression through play, parents can also tune in to parent influencer Mia Chai and entrepreneur, Lisa Ong’s (@lovelisa_13) sharing session on Mia’s Instagram page (@miamnmmm).
Singapore
- 2 October 2021, 11am - Additionally, they can also tune in to the Instagram page of Singapore-based entrepreneur-parent Cheryl Wee (@weecheryl) to understand more about how they can discover a child’s passion through play.
- 9 October 2021, 3pm - Singapore-based actress-parent Joanne Peh (@joannepeh) will also be sharing on her Instagram page on raising creative problem-solvers through play.
Reference:
- (August 3, 2009) Reznick, C. The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success. Retrieved from www.amazon.com/Power-Your-Childs-Imagination-Transform/dp/0399535071
- (September 2, 2008). Chansky, T. Freeing Your Child from Negative Thinking: Powerful, Practical Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Resilience, Flexibility, and Happiness. Retrieved from www.amazon.com/dp/0738211850?tag=psychologytod-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1
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