Guest Post by Ben Russel
Most of us have dealt with solving puzzles at a very tender age and never really think about how puzzles enhance our very capability to reason or understand situations. Puzzles, at the most basic level, are disjointed, colorful pieces of cardboard, which come together to form a bright and interesting “drawing” that boosts the confidence of the person who compounds those images.
A person who designs a puzzle or is a puzzle enthusiast, is called a “cruciverbalist”. These people are generally counted amongst the most intelligent population of the world. In accordance with the question we are raising in this article, we would look at what solving puzzles can teach a person.
According to educational experts at SolidEssay.com, which is a college paper writing service, most schools today, introduce their children to puzzles at a very early age. This may be believed to be a source of extra curricular activity for toddlers but if looked at more closely, we realize how the puzzles bring about a learning curve into the lives of these young children.
Most parents give their children colorful boxes of puzzles and expectantly look on as their young ones struggle to bring together those broken chunks. With age, the difficulty level of solving these puzzles increase radically and thus, we find how with time, children take up strategic methods to create an image out of the broken pieces offered to them.
Let’s look more closely at what solving puzzles can teach students.
1. Enhances analytical skills
As briefly mentioned above, puzzles help young students think and reason about how to bring together disjointed images. It inculcates the ability of knowledge management into young children. In young toddlers, puzzles increase the ability to distinguish between various colors and vibrant images. Among older students, mathematical puzzles are extremely popular since these enhance their ability to solve problems in mental maths.
2. Confidence booster
Students are usually motivated at a very young age by parents and teachers to take up extra curricular activities which may boost their level of confidence, which would in turn reflect in these academics as well. Playing chess, solving puzzles or sudoku and taking interest in sports like cricket, are all considered to be confidence boosters.
4. Betterment of hand-eye coordination in toddlers
Most parents show puzzles to their young toddlers and motivate them to solve them to increase their level of hand eye co-ordination. Mostly, these toddlers wouldn’t know how to read or write. Hence, their only exposure to the world of reasoning and academics is through coloring and solving puzzles.
5. Enhances cognitive skills
This point is similar to the first point; puzzles push young students to question and wonder “what might be?”. This want to question whatever is given to them in shape of broken cardboard pieces pushes the children to increase their ability to reason and understand other spheres of life better.
6. Idea of team work
Most of the time, adult puzzle lovers work in teams. This team makes it efficient and less time consuming in finding out what the mystery image might be. The idea of “team work” is thus introduced to students through solving of puzzles.
7. Helps in thinking out of the box
Coaxes students to think beyond all realms of possibility. Puzzles, which have the most ambiguous and confusing images, help students think outside the box or outside the realm of what is given and create something completely unthinkable.
8. Problem solving
Beyond all other factors, puzzles help young students in problem solving.
Therefore, we see what solving puzzles can teach students in both the academic as well as the extra curricular levels. Puzzles are not just shards of cardboard images that paint a beautiful picture once put together, but they are building blocks which help young students climb higher ladders of confidence and the ability to reason.
Guest Author
Ben Russel is a freelance writer and researcher. In his free time he provides college research paper help to international students. Please follow here.
This is a terrific post, plus I now have a new vocabulary word 😉 I believe what’s happening now with games has a similar impact to the role of puzzles in learning and problem solving.
Wonderful post, Ben and I agree that puzzles are a magnificent way to work on our innovative thinking!
Never knew the term- “cruciverbalist” but now I do!
I have a puzzle exercise that I use when I present workshops on team building. It always amazes me what roles each person takes in completing the puzzle.
Thanks!
Love reading this because it’s been AGES since I’ve pulled out puzzles for my children – they usually get overlooked in favor of Minecraft. This weekend, I watched as they worked to complete two puzzles and loved watching their thinking, making connections, and determination.