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What Building Play Develops in Early Childhood
When a toddler knocks over a tower and immediately starts rebuilding, they are engaged in a form of learning that decades of research consistently rat...
2 min read
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Stacking Blocks: From First Attempts to Building
A simple stack of wooden blocks is one of the most studied and reliably useful early toys. The stacking task requires the child to coordinate vision,...
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The Sandbox as a Play Space
A sandbox is one of the best investments in a child's play environment. Sand's unique physical properties — it fills containers, holds shapes when wet...
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How Building Toys Develop Spatial Reasoning
Spatial reasoning—the ability to understand how objects fit together in space—is a crucial cognitive skill that predicts later math and science succes...
6 min read
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Building Toys: How to Choose by Age
Construction play is one of the most developmentally rich activities across the entire early childhood period — but what that play looks like, and wha...
2 min read
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Block Play: From Stacking to Complex Structures
Block play is a journey of development that spans the entire early childhood years. From a baby's first grasp of a block to a preschooler's elaborate...
7 min read
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Block Play and Construction: Why Building Things Matters for Development
Blocks are possibly the most researched toy in educational history. From Friedrich Froebel, who placed wooden blocks (the "Froebel Gifts") at the cent...
4 min read