07/03/2026
🧩 We had so much fun taking part in ‘National Puzzle Week.’ 🧩
The children completed lots of puzzles and even made their own puzzles! 🌟
1. Fine motor development
Jigsaw puzzles help to develop and refine a child’s fine motor skills. In order to play with a jigsaw puzzle, children need to pick up, pinch and hold pieces, move them around and manipulate them into the correct slots.
2. Hand and eye coordination
Playing with jigsaws requires trial and error. If a piece doesn’t fit, a child must put it down and try another one. This is all fantastic practice for developing a child’s hand and eye coordination.
3. Problem solving and logical reasoning
Completing a jigsaw puzzle successfully can’t be cheated so your child needs to use critical thinking, reasoning skills and problem solving – all skills which are valuable in later life.
4. Spatial awareness
Clinical trials* have proved that by working out how smaller pieces fit into the bigger picture children develop their skills of movement, depth and distance perception – known to neurologists as visuospatial functioning!
5. Cognitive skills
Jigsaw puzzles come in a wide array of topics. Which is a great way of arousing children’s interest in a subject but also committing information to memory – known as subliminal learning or learning through play.
6. Improved memory and attention span
Jigsaw puzzles are especially good at reinforcing existing connections between our brain cells and therefore improving short-term memory.
7. Self esteem
“I did it!” Completing a jigsaw puzzle gives children a great sense of satisfaction and pride in themselves. It’s a great boost to self-confidence and self-esteem, which will give them confidence to take on other bigger challenges whilst keeping a positive growth mind-set.
8. Teamwork
By working together as a family or collaborating with a friend over a jigsaw puzzle, a child is practising valuable life skills, such as communication, sharing, turn taking, allocating tasks in order to succeed, and lending support to their team member.
9. Meditative benefits
As children concentrate on a jigsaw puzzle their minds are completely focussed. Whilst tasked with searching for colours and shapes, they’re allowing their brains to let go of any stresses and anxieties, creating calm and well-being.
10. Last, but not least – It’s FUN! 🧩
