Effect of Playing Building Blocks in Early Childhood Development

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Effect of Playing Building Blocks in Early Childhood Development
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EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT1
Effect of Playing Building Blocks in Early Childhood Development
Introduction
Early childhood period falls in the age group of two to seven years. The learning of
children in this age group takes place in four primary areas of development namely the social,
emotional, physical and cognitive stages (Ahmad et.al., 2016, p. 1). At this stage, an
encouraging and nurturing environment is required to guide them in exploration. For
example, in cognitive area development at this age, they tend to frame and apply their own
decisions through creativity. In this pre-school stage, they tend to think in an ego-centric way
and start expressing their own needs. They develop a healthy sense of curiosity and eagerness
to join in groups and build connections (Slentz, 2017, pp.142-143). Thus, the paper aims in
discussing the activity of building blocks by children in early childhood and how does it
affect their development in the cognitive area. It also discusses the activity through
Erickson’s psychosocial stage and Piaget’s cognitive development stage. The paper also
focuses on the negative environmental factor and the preventive as well as the intervention
measure to mitigate the adverse effects.
Discussion
Building blocks in Early Childhood
Playing with building blocks help the children in early childhood to develop spatial
skills. They tend to build the ability to manipulate information about objects and find the
missing spaces. The child learns to measure the geometrical shapes of blocks (Verdine et al.,
2014, pp. 7-13). The mechanism of finding the symmetric pieces and measuring to match the
respective parts enhance their mathematics skills. The children get to explore new ideas and
improve eye with hand coordination. The logic, as well as creative stimulation, get built
through this activity. The children can learn problem-solving through communication with

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT2
friends too (Poon, 2018, p. 72). A child on building a structure through blocks build the
motor skills. In a block play context, their perspectives and problem-solving skills instead of
guided instructions support children’s efforts. The pre-schoolers at this stage explore various
patterns and shapes and compare sizes, due to which building blocks help in gigantic
proportions of early cognitive development.
Similar to building blocks there are other elements and examples that can be provided
that support cognitive development. In early childhood development, the primary curriculum
reference can be drawn between the child’s development of literacy and numeracy skills as
well (Chatzipanteli, Grammatikopoulos & Gregoriadis, 2014, p. 1225). As such, activities
and games that involve toys, pictures and different colours help in the development of
identification of shapes and structures. Similarly, wooden geometrical shapes also support the
development of cognitive skills by promoting the early acquisition of numeracy skills
(Anders et al., 2012, pp. 233-234). It is important to remember that the early development is
not an independent factor but is rather supported by a variety of elements like peer learning
and collaborative activities.
Erickson’s Theory
Early childhood falls in the second stage (Autonomy v/s Shame) of Erickson’s
psychosocial development theory (Degges-White, 2017, p. 35). The children mostly at this
age exercise their will. During constructive play like building blocks, the children become
their leaders. They possess the freedom to plan a goal and choose the blocks required as per
the goal to achieve it. This sense of total control in their actions make the children build their
self-esteem. Thus, in this process, the children who are encouraged by their parents to
exercise their independence in any task, feel secure and free to explore. However, if children
get exposed to a highly controlled environment with restrictions, their level of dependence on
parents increase with a reduction in self-esteem (Degges-White, 2017, p. 35). Restricting