5 Key Skills kids develop through play

Playing with LEGO® bricks isn’t all fun and games, you know…

We cram a ton of skills development goodness into every brick we make, to boost the essential skills of our young builders. 

You may be surprised by the number of benefits of play there are. We aren’t surprised, but that’s because we’ve spent 90 years working with educators and scientists to hone our ‘Learning Through Play’ philosophy. 

Play is even recognized as a fundamental human right by the UN, who’ve recently answered our call for an International Day of Play, held every year on June 11, celebrating the importance of play on every child’s development.  

So, to gear up for LEGO World Play Day – also on June 11 – let’s share 5 key benefits that play is known to help develop in kids! 

Creativity Skills

Creativity is a keystone of the ‘21st Century Skills’ that are prized in the ‘grown-up world’ we all pretend we’re part of... or is that just us? 

Either way, business leaders rank creativity as their most-wanted skill, as it signals adaptability, big-picture thinking and problem-solving skills. 

Ultimately, LEGO building is all about creativity. There’s no better sight than giving a bunch of bricks to a kid and watching them just… create.   

But whenever they build, kids use their creativity to do more than just make something cool (though that is a great side effect…). They’re actually figuring out the world around them, through storytelling.  

Every playtime, kids find hundreds of creative solutions. Like… How to turn a pile of bricks into a car? How does that car suddenly sprout rocket engines? Can it fit a cake, a cow AND a crocodile?  

Problem Solving

Of course, all these creative ‘solutions’ are answers to problems.

Play is full of problems for kids to solve. And when they run out of problems, they make some more. That’s the driver of so many of the stories kids tell. 

And what is LEGO building if not a big jigsaw of problems to solve?  

From picturing how their finished build will look when all they have in front of them is a pile of bricks, to the hand-eye coordination required to piece the bricks together, to connecting one part of a build to another, to making their weird and wonderful builds stable enough for a robust play time! 

Who knew problems could be so much fun?  

Collaboration Skills

Another foundational 21st Century Skill, collaboration might be the most important skill there is.

Humans are social animals. We need each other. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to be around each other…

But play helps kids practice, practice, practice. 

From age 5 onwards, kids start learning about reciprocal relationships and thinking about what they can do for their friends. 

Play is a joyful, relaxed setting that still has clear internal rules, making it the perfect environment for kids to hone these invaluable social skills. It also encourages empathy as kids think of their friends as teammates. 

For example, LEGO play is the perfect way to learn about taking turns. If there’s a spaceship two or more kids really want to play with, they’ll find a way to share. MAYBE even without a tantrum. Or not. 

As kids grow older and move into imaginative role-playing, they jump into complex collaborations of their own design. Perhaps now the spaceship needs to be controlled by a captain, which creates new roles for other kids to embody…

All this collaboration helps kids take in and understand different perspectives, which boosts basically every other skill there is. The more really is the merrier. 

Building Resilience

LEGO building isn’t always easy and predictable. And that’s kind of the point. Otherwise, we’d sell our sets pre-made... 

But of course, we want our sets to break, so kids can build them back into something better – and develop resilience along the way. 

Imagine a kid building the tallest tower they can out of LEGO bricks. It’s going to fall a lot.  

That might be hard for them to handle at first. But play helps kids learn how to face their frustrations when things don’t go to plan. 

Every time they sweep up those bricks from the floor and try again, they’re telling themselves that they can go one better and can trust their problem-solving skills. 

They’re learning that just because something doesn’t work at first, it’s not worth abandoning.  

And that makes every success taste even sweeter. 

Confidence

Which brings us neatly onto our final life skills for kids... confidence!  

You can have all the creativity in the world at your fingertips... but what’s the point if you don’t have the confidence to use it? 

We spoke earlier about the hundreds of creative solutions kids have to find every playtime. Each solution develops their creativity skills and – just as importantly – boosts confidence in their own abilities.  

Which means they can back themselves to create bigger, bolder things. To try bigger, bolder ideas. 

It’s not hard to see how important that mindset helps beyond the world of play.

What are EQ and IQ skills?

These 5 key skills sit on both sides of the types of the essential skills we help kids develop through play. 

Creativity skills and Problem-Solving skills sit under intelligence-based ‘IQ’ skills – alongside things like logical thinking, cognitive skills and hand-eye coordination.  

Collaboration, Resilience and Confidence, meanwhile, link to emotional ‘EQ’ skills – helping kids understand their feelings and relationships. 

Are we saying that play helps kids become completely well-rounded individuals capable of becoming President of the World? Of course not. 

Oh no, wait, sorry, yeah, that’s pretty much what we’re saying.  

Play on!