HHS HealthBeat (July 2, 2012)

Solving puzzles early on

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.

Kids who play with puzzles with their parents have a better ability to understand problems involving physical shapes and spaces. Researchers observed kids, ages 2 to 4, who played with puzzles, both simple shape problems and more complex jigsaw puzzles.

Dr. Susan Levine is a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Chicago.

“Through gesture, they can indicate that they need a straight edge piece and use those words and those kinds of interactions will lead to increasing children’s spatial thinking.”

Other research has found that the ability to solve puzzles at a young age relates to later success in math.

The study in the journal Developmental Science was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

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HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Nicholas Garlow.

Last revised: July 2, 2012