Why LEGO? Developmental Benefits of the World’s Most Famous Little Brick

We routinely disregard the suggested ages on ours children’s toys, and no example of this has been more egregious than the way we buy our kids LEGO. When our oldest was a baby, we had Megabloks and Duplos, but by his fourth birthday, we caved and went for the real deal. A year later, he put together a 345-piece set unassisted.

While you may already appreciate the enjoyment of playing with LEGO, you may not have considered the many developmental benefits they have for your children. To name a few:

Fine motor development

All those tiny pieces aren’t just a choking hazard for baby. By manipulating small toys such as LEGO bricks, your child is building important pathways in the brain and training the many intricate muscles in the fingers and hands. Such practice is crucial for other important tasks, including eating with utensils; manipulating zippers, buttons, and snaps; tying shoelaces; cutting with scissors; and using a pencil to write or draw.

Very young children should be given MegaBloks, Duplos, or similar until they have learned not to put objects in their mouths. Once they can be trusted with smaller toys, the LEGO Jr. line provides simpler building options while still giving little engineers practice with those tiny pieces. Our younger son started on LEGO Jr. sets at age two.

Attention to detail and spatial reasoning

Following the necessary steps to assemble a LEGO set requires precise attention to pieces’ shapes, colors, and positions relative to each other, as well as organization, planning, and patience. LEGO instructions are designed for pre-readers and are 100% pictorial. By the age of two or three, a child can look at each step and locate the necessary pieces. When working with young children on a project like this, explain your thought process to help them organize their own. Point out cues for selecting and aligning pieces, such as shapes, colors, and number of studs visible, but let them do as much as they are able with as little assistance as they need. If your children struggle with complex or intricate tasks, selecting LEGO sets that appeal to their interests (such as Star Wars or LEGO Friends) will increase their engagement and motivation, allowing them to persist at a difficult task longer with less frustration.

Creativity and Problem-Solving

While LEGO sells many pre-designed sets, LEGO Classic bricks and LEGO’s in-store Pick-a-Brick are great ways to give your children a blank slate for building and fine-tuning their own creations. Our five-year-old recently began attending a LEGO Club, where members are given a STEM challenge and a big ol’ pile of bricks, and it’s been a wonderful chance to encourage him to experiment and explore. You can look for a similar group in your area or set up your own

Imaginative play

When my boys play LEGO, they don’t just engineer buildings and vehicles; they stage epic battles, weave complex story lines, and conjure up some pretty high drama. For Christmas this year, Santa just brought them a heap of mini-figures because all they wanted were more characters to flesh out their stories. Some of their most profound conversations take place during these play times as they are exploring ideas about good guys and bad guys, morality, justice, and conflict. What do we do when the Joker steals the Batplane? What if Darth Vader says he’s sorry and wants a second chance? What if this Storm Trooper is really Finn?

Responsibility, Property Rights, and Organization

If you’ve followed our blog, you know that our children’s property rights are a big deal around here. With the introduction of LEGO into our house, our boys have been learning that all of those little pieces are a lot of responsibility. Keeping track of parts, keeping sets together, and designating which figures and accessories belong to which brother has been a big challenge, but it has given them the opportunity to take more responsibility to organize and care for their toys. While they typically play together, they have done a fantastic job asking permission and making trades when they want to use their brother’s items.

Read more about LEGO organization and storage.

Confidence and Independence

Ah, the sweetness of that delighted exclamation: “Mom!  Look what I made!” When I consider where my five-year-old was a year ago with his ability to follow directions, assemble pieces, manage small parts, share with his brother, create his own designs, and so on, I am absolutely floored by how much he has grown. Would much of that growth have happened anyway? Maybe. Was it helped along by his love of LEGO? Definitely.

As if the benefits of simply playing with LEGO weren’t enough, you can also officially use them to illustrate virtually any math concept, including extremely advanced mathematical theory. You can also find tons of cool LEGO Challenge activities online and have your kids either work as a team or compete to complete them.

So get some bricks and get building!