One Block at a Time: The Versatility and Timeless Appeal of Wooden Blocks
by Danny Joe LaBrecque | View Bio
Danny “Danny Joe” LaBrecque (LA-BRECK) is the creator and host of the streaming preschool series, Danny Joe’s Tree House, certified with a SENSICAL SELECT™ badge on Sensical.tv, backed by Common Sense Media, which has rated the show with four stars. The series is featured on Epic for Kids and YouTube Kids for its ability to create healthy social-emotional habits at an early age, fostering age-appropriate conversations about complex topics for families. LaBrecque is also an in-classroom early educator with 25 years of experience bringing in-person and interactive live-stream versions of the series into classrooms around the world. Learn more at dannyjoestreehouse.com
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Our approach at Danny Joe’s Tree House is rooted in using the language of play to safely and objectively examine and process complex emotions related to timely topics. We don’t tell children or their grown-ups what to think or how to feel. Instead, we model a variety of ways for our viewers to think for themselves and reflect with deep compassion for others.
Check out these links to learn more these core concepts through practice and play, one developmental “block” at a time.
In an age of digital devices and highly structured educational methods, the seemingly simple wooden block set, with its versatility and timeless appeal, remains a valuable educational tool for young children. It fosters creativity, critical thinking, and social-emotional development in ways that few other toys can.
One of the most well-known benefits of play with wooden blocks is how it fosters cognitive development in young children. With various shapes, sizes, and colors, blocks offer endless possibilities for exploration and problem-solving. As children manipulate the blocks, they are naturally engaging in critical thinking processes, such as spatial reasoning, classification, and pattern recognition.
When children build towers, tracks, ramps, and bridges, they are honing their ability to understand balance, symmetry, and cause-and-effect relationships. For example, a child might discover that stacking blocks too high causes the structure to fall, leading them to adjust their strategy. This trial-and-error process encourages problem-solving and perseverance. Furthermore, constructing complex structures with blocks also develops their understanding of shapes and sizes, laying a foundation for later learning in mathematics and geometry.
Wooden blocks are also an excellent tool for independent play. The open-ended nature of block play encourages a sense of autonomy, as children have the freedom to explore, experiment, and create in their own time and space. This fosters a sense of pride in their creations and helps them feel more capable of handling challenges in other areas of life.
Blocks also provide rich opportunities for social interaction. When children play together with wooden blocks, they learn important social skills like sharing, negotiation, and cooperation. Building structures as a group requires children to collaborate, plan, and communicate effectively. These social experiences foster teamwork, patience, and empathy as children take turns, discuss their ideas, and help each other solve problems.
Block play can help children navigate feelings of frustration and accomplishment. As children build, they sometimes encounter the disappointment of structures collapsed by other children. Whether blocks are knocked down on purpose or by accident, the event presents an opportunity to learn lessons in self-regulation, empathy, negotiation, resilience, and perseverance. These emotional experiences allow children to develop coping mechanisms for setbacks and build self-confidence when they successfully express their frustration, compromise with peers, and complete objectives.
In a recent episode of Danny Joe’s Tree House, “Let’s Make a Plan,” we demonstrate how play with wooden blocks can manifest a deeper understanding of one’s self and others. In the episode, I model how my PlanToys wooden block set can be used not only to teach early concepts like math and physics, but also as a means to retell and process complex emotions related to unexpected events.
Wooden blocks are a perfect tool for nurturing creativity and imagination. Unlike many modern toys that come with predefined instructions, limited ways to interact, or at worst, automatically do the work and play independent of the child; wooden blocks offer endless open-ended possibilities for play. A child might start by building a simple tower, but as their imagination takes over, the blocks can transform into literally anything. Quietly observing this play can provide incredible insight into the inner life of that child.
I have often said that a young child at play is like a lucid dreamer, pulling from their first- and second-hand experiences. If the grown-up pays attention to this language of play, they have the opportunity to gain a deeper sense of what the child is processing, and in turn, support and guide the child accordingly. For example, a short cylinder wooden block, in a child’s imagination, might become the representation of that friend who knocked down their tower. As the child recreates the event, they are able to recall and evaluate, consider perspectives of others, self-regulate, and act out a variety of scenarios for what else they might say or do to resolve or devolve the situation. Truly, it is completely up to them. They can practice for next time.
For young children, playing with blocks is more than just “play,” it’s about practicing and refining critical thinking and compassion skills through self-guided, open-ended play, both independently and with others. Wooden block sets will remain a timeless, relevant, and invaluable tool to facilitate this essential early learning experience. No screens required!