How To Get Your Toddler Interested in Jigsaw Puzzles
One of the best things you can introduce to your toddler is jigsaw puzzles. It’s helpful when your child can entertain themselves without a screen being involved. Learning how to get your toddler interested in jigsaw puzzles lets them develop an interest at a young age to make it a lifelong hobby.
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Start With a Simple Puzzle
Something as simple as a 1-piece puzzle or peg puzzle should garner your toddler’s interest. You don’t want to overwhelm your child with a challenging puzzle right off the bat, especially if they’ve never seen one before.
Additionally, avoid puzzles with any complicated obstacles in the way. For example, pieces with no distinct shape can be confusing, so opt for puzzles that work for your kiddo with standard shapes that they can easily insert.
Follow Your Toddler’s Interest
Grabbing a puzzle of your child’s interest is a quick way to get their attention. They probably won’t react well to something artistic or serene like a majestic 300-piece sunset.
However, if they are in a dinosaur-loving phase, an educational dinosaur puzzle that helps them count can motivate them. The quicker they solve these beginner puzzles, the sooner you can offer them more advanced collections that challenge them.
Use Descriptive Language
As you collaborate on the puzzle with your youngster, use many words that describe what you’re doing.
Take the puzzle piece, show them, and ask them to explain what they see. Ask them questions that require them to think about the color, shape, and size. The more they understand, the quicker they will develop the skills to solve jigsaw puzzles.
Jigsaws for toddlers can really help develop social skills as well as psoitively impacting speech and confidence.
Give Your Child Positive Reinforcement
Showering your child with affection and praise as they solve the smallest of things gives them the motivation to keep going. Did they put together a puzzle they have been struggling with for the first time?
Pop the hypothetical cork and celebrate it like they just won a championship. Maybe you don’t need to go that overboard, but positive reinforcement inspires them to test themselves further.
Knowing how to get your toddler interested in jigsaw puzzles provides a solution to stimulate their brain and give them something educational to look forward to doing with you. Before you know it, they will be asking for 1000-piece puzzles for their birthday and finish them within a couple of days. But you’ll never forget the first puzzles you do together.