Construction Toys as Educational Toys
- Spontaneous Construction with Creative Planning
- Directed Construction with Constrained Planning
- Basic Motor and Cognitive with Trial-and-Error Planning.
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Construction toys can be used as educational toys in the following basic modalities:
- Learning creativity (spontaneous construction)
- Planning
- Following instructions (kit building)
- Understanding spatial relationships
- Hand-eye coordination.
Different modalities will be more or less important depending on the age and experience of the constructor. Different construction toy systems are more or less appropriate for each modality as well for age and experience.
At one extreme we have adults using Erector Sets for actual robotic projects while at the other extreme we have infants playing with soft, blow-molded blocks.
But in both of the above cases, construction toys are serving an educational purpose. The infant is learning hand-eye coordination and understanding spatial relationships. While it is probable that the adult who is using an Erector Set for an actual robotic project has reached full competence in the listed modalities, she is still most likely using all of them.
But another way to characterize the educational modalities of construction toys, and the one we will be using here, would be:
- basic motor and cognitive with trial-and-error planning.
- directed construction with constrained planning
- spontaneous construction with creative planning
NEXT: basic motor and cognitive skills