Executive function
A toddler watches how a caregiver matches identical pictures.
Be Prepared: This activity uses a five-piece wooden knob puzzle with a picture under each piece. The activity description assumes the Melissa and Doug® First Shapes Jumbo Knob puzzle is used. Use a five-piece puzzle of your choice, with knobs and pictures under each piece. If a three-piece puzzle is more appropriate for the toddler involved in this activity, adapt the plan described below and see activities with a three-piece puzzle in Block 15 (Self-Regulation).
[Invite a toddler to join you at a table to watch you match some pictures in a puzzle. Put the fully assembled puzzle in front of the toddler. Sit next to the toddler.]
Look at this puzzle! The puzzle shows a house. Some of the puzzle pieces are different parts of the house.
[Point to each piece in the puzzle board as you say the name of what is shown. Use a pace that is appropriate to the toddler’s engagement of the activity.]
There is a sun, a tree, a roof, a door, and a window.
I am going to look carefully at each puzzle piece I take out of the puzzle.
[Remove and describe pieces, moving from top to bottom or left to right. The plan described below begins at the top.]
This puzzle piece shows the sun. The piece is round.
[Trace the shape with your finger. Invite the toddler to trace the shape. While the toddler is holding the puzzle piece, point to the picture of the sun on the puzzle board.]
Look, here is another picture of a sun! The puzzle piece and the picture on our puzzle board are the same.
[Encourage the toddler to compare the puzzle piece in his/her hand to the picture on the puzzle board. Emphasize the pictures are the same. Then invite the toddler to put the puzzle piece next to the puzzle.]
Let’s move our finger around the picture on the board.
[Trace the outlines of the picture on the puzzle board with your finger. Invite the toddler to trace the picture.
Continue the above procedure for each remaining piece.]
I looked carefully at all of the pieces in our puzzle. I took all of the pieces out of the puzzle. Now I am going to put the pieces back in the puzzle board.
I am going to start with the piece that shows a tree.
[Hold the puzzle piece in your hand or invite the toddler to hold the piece. Point to pictures on the puzzle board that you name.]
I want to find the picture of a tree on our puzzle board. Here is a picture of a window. A tree and a window are different things. I want to find the picture on the puzzle board that is the same as the puzzle piece in my (your) hand.
Look, here is the picture of the tree. This picture is the same as our puzzle piece that shows a tree. I am going to put the puzzle piece on top of the picture that is the same.
[Put the puzzle piece over its identical picture on the board. Continue this procedure for remaining pieces. Consistently emphasize that the pictures are the same. Examples: “Door and door go together.” “Sun and sun go together.”]
You watched me work with a puzzle. I looked carefully at each of the puzzle pieces and the pictures on the puzzle board. I put together puzzle pieces and pictures that showed the same thing.
Executive function
A toddler identifies matching pictures with caregiver guidance.
Be Prepared: Secure the puzzle used in Option 1 (a five-piece puzzle of your choice with knobs and pictures under each piece). The activity description assumes the Melissa and Doug® First Shapes puzzle is used. If a three-piece puzzle is more appropriate for the toddler involved in this activity, adapt the plan described below and see activities with a three-piece puzzle in Block 15 (Self-Regulation).
Invite a toddler to join you at a table to work on a puzzle. Put the puzzle fully in front of the toddler. Sit next to the toddler. Talk about what the puzzle shows. Use the following steps, beginning at the top or on the left side of the puzzle and moving down or to the right:
Conclude the session by recognizing the toddler’s effort to put together pictures that are the same.
Executive function
A toddler practices identifying matching pictures with minimal caregiver guidance.
Be Prepared: Secure the puzzle used in Options 1 and 2 (a five-piece puzzle with knobs and pictures under each piece). If a three-piece puzzle is more appropriate for the toddler involved in this activity, adapt the plan described below and see activities with a three-piece puzzle in Block 15 (Self-Regulation).
Invite a toddler to join you at a table to work on a puzzle. Explain that you will watch and help if the toddler asks you to help. Limit your contribution to occasionally describing the toddler’s actions. Example: “You turned the piece that shows the door so it will fit in the puzzle board.” Conclude the activity when the toddler has completed the puzzle or loses interest. Recognize the toddler’s efforts. Example: “You looked at all of the puzzle pieces, Jonathan. You found where some of the pieces go on the puzzle board.”
The activity options offer more challenge than the puzzle work in Block 15 (Self-Regulation) by using a five-piece puzzle and tracing the outlines of pieces and pictures with a finger.
Monitor the toddler’s engagement of each activity option and promptly make adaptations if it appears the task is too challenging or not sufficiently challenging. The three options are sequenced so it is easy to incorporate the strategies of a different option. Examples: Shift to Option 2 if Option 1 seems too basic for a toddler. Shift to Option 2 if Option 3 leads to some frustration or signs of giving up. Also pay attention to whether a toddler may benefit from your verbal guidance for the fine motor actions involved in manipulating puzzle pieces.
The activity options emphasize the process of focusing on basic characteristics of puzzle elements and remembering where puzzle pieces are located in the puzzle. Speed is not important. If a toddler wishes to rush, offer gentle requests to slow down and look carefully. Use the word “match” only if you are confident a toddler understands that match means two (or more) things are the same.
In the opening segment of Option 1, when puzzle pieces are identified while still in the puzzle board, watch the toddler’s facial expressions carefully to determine what pace to use in naming and describing each piece. A toddler may have limited familiarity with a pictured item and no awareness of what the item is called. Always repeat the name of what is shown.
The activity options suggest tracing the outlines of a piece and picture, as noted above, and the puzzle used in the activity description has pieces in different identified shapes. It is helpful for toddlers to be aware of shape differences, but not necessary or appropriate to teach shape names. Shape names are typically introduced when children are 3–5 years of age. Also, avoid saying or emphasizing there are five puzzle pieces. This information is not important to the activity and may distract or confuse. It is not necessary or appropriate to teach counting to toddlers.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials Needed: several 3- and 5-piece puzzles with knobs and pictures under each piece
Place the puzzles on a low table and invite two toddlers to work together on a puzzle of their choice, taking pieces out of the puzzle board and then putting them back in. Include the puzzle used in Options 1–3. Encourage toddlers to take their time and to look at each piece and corresponding picture. Emphasize that the activity involves finding puzzle pictures that are the same.
Materials Needed: see activity description
In addition to offering Options 1–3 to toddlers, provide slightly more challenging puzzles to preschool-age and older children. Keep in mind that the absence of knobs on puzzle pieces significantly increases the fine motor challenge of removing and manipulating pieces. Some preschool-age children may enjoy Option 3 or benefit from Option 2.
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