The building blocks of baby speech

Building blocks… building language!

Building blocks or bricks are well-known for honing a young child’s hand-eye co-ordination, but new research suggests that playing with blocks – whether it’s building them up or knocking them down – is also associated with significantly higher language scores.

Early childhood is seen as a critical time for the development of a child’s brain, as it triples in size from birth to age 2. Working out which activities promote development at this time and which don’t is a huge field of research. “Playing together remains the best way parents can help foster their young children’s development,” said Supernanny expert Dr. Dimitri A Christakis, of the Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of Washington, who led the research. “Our findings point to a pragmatic and fun way to improve language acquisition. Though many toy manufacturers claim their products improve children’s cognitive abilities, few such claims are substantiated by research.”

The new study, published in the current issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, looked at 175 toddlers aged between 18 months and 2½ years. Some children were sent free building blocks to play with and others were not. The ones who did receive the toys also received suggestions of how parents could use them, such as sorting by color. Activities were tracked in diaries and questionnaires which looked at language abilities such as vocabulary and grammar. On average, children who received blocks scored 15% higher in their language than those who didn’t.

One explanation for this is that playing with the blocks replaced other time that doesn’t encourage language development, such as watching TV. Playing with blocks may promote imaginary play and stimulate thinking and memory; it could also promote concentration.

The research was funded by Mega Blocks, although it didn’t have a hand in the data analysis.

 

Was this article helpful?