Left-hemisphere puzzle – what is it and what skills does it develop?

What are the left and right brain hemispheres responsible for?

The brain is the command center of the entire organism. It controls the most important functions of our body, such as breathing and blood circulation. It is responsible for receiving and processing stimuli, as well as for thought processes. Our brain is made up of two hemispheres: the left and the right. Although they are built in a similar way, from so-called grey and white matter, they are responsible for different functions and skills.

The left brain hemisphere is associated with speech, writing, and reading comprehension. It is also linked to logical thinking, the ability to analyze, sequence, order, and plan. The left part of the brain helps us perceive differences as well as understand and create rules, for example, linguistic or grammatical ones. This is the hemisphere responsible for counting, mathematical calculations, and learning STEM subjects. The left side of the brain also controls the right side of the body.

The right brain hemisphere is associated with creativity, abstract thinking, imagination, and spatial awareness. It helps with visualization, noticing similarities, and using or understanding metaphors. It is responsible for creative and artistic activities as well as learning humanities, and is associated with musicality. The right hemisphere "processes the image" delivered to the brain via all senses, and also controls the left side of the body.

Why is it worth exercising both hemispheres?

The right and left brain hemispheres, despite being responsible for different skills and activities, work closely together. Effective learning and completing assigned tasks largely depend on this cooperation. To ensure it runs efficiently, one should remember to perform exercises that activate both brain hemispheres and support the creation of new neural connections between them. Good communication within the brain translates into tangible results: better concentration and memory, greater ability for creative thinking and artistic processes, improved "information management" capabilities for data reaching the brain, and lower stress levels.

There are many ways to synchronize brain hemispheres. One exercise worth performing is executing different movements with your hands. You can do this by drawing signs in the air or using a sheet of paper and pens, crayons, or markers. Try to draw, for example, a circle with one hand and a triangle or square with the other. This task will certainly be difficult at first, and the figures drawn will tend to resemble each other. Systematic training will allow for the gradual mastery of this art.

Another way to improve hemispheric cooperation is playing a musical instrument that requires different work from each hand. Drums, guitar, or piano are great choices. It is also worth trying to perform daily tasks with the opposite hand than usual, e.g., using cutlery or writing.

Among movement-based exercises, walking backward is an interesting proposal, suitable even for small children. During this activity, it is good for an adult caregiver to accompany the child, providing assistance, and also to set the little one an additional task – maintaining a constant distance. A more difficult activity supporting the connection of the brain hemispheres is juggling. It also requires additional training accessories, such as soft balls.

What is a left-brain puzzle?

In the first years of a child's life, the right hemisphere usually develops more due to the visual or auditory stimuli surrounding the child. To support the harmonious development of a young preschooler, the left brain hemisphere must also be stimulated.

An ideal tool for this is the left-brain puzzle, which consists of reproducing a specific arrangement of elements. A left-brain puzzle can take various shapes and forms and can be made of various materials. However, the principle of operation always remains the same. The puzzle consists of a set of various colorful elements (these can be, for example, tokens in different colors, colorful geometric figures, or thematic pictures) and boards (usually made of paper) on which sequences of elements occurring in the puzzle are presented with varying degrees of difficulty. The child's task is to arrange an identical pattern to the one shown on the selected board.

For training with the puzzle to be effective, a few rules should be followed:

• the adventure with left-brain puzzles should be a comfortable form of play for the child;
• adjust the difficulty level of the game to the child's age and capabilities; a pattern that is too difficult to reproduce may discourage a little one, while one that is too easy may bore them;
• the difficulty level increases gradually; only once the child has mastered reproducing less complicated layouts should additional elements be added;
• the order of reproducing the layout is very important: always from left to right, and for multi-level puzzles, rows are arranged from top to bottom – just as we read and write;
• it is extremely important to arrange the elements in sequence, not randomly.

What are the benefits of buying a left-brain puzzle?

Left-brain puzzles are an invaluable aid in supporting speech development, thanks to the appropriate stimulation of brain areas responsible for this skill. Children with speech difficulties very often work with the help of left-brain toys. These puzzles are eagerly used and recommended by specialists such as speech therapists or neuro-logopedists. It is worth remembering that these aids support children's linguistic abilities, helping not only in improving their native language but also in learning foreign languages.

An additional advantage is concentration training. Little ones very often have a problem focusing on one activity for several minutes. Arranging various elements according to a strictly defined pattern and in a specific order is a very good exercise.

A left-brain puzzle also allows for the improvement of visual perception. To perform the task correctly, the child must learn to notice similarities and differences, as a result of which they are able to determine which objects are the same and should be included in the reproduced layout. Therefore, visual analysis and synthesis are performed, meaning the child draws conclusions from the image received through the sense of sight.

Left-brain toys also help in understanding rules and cause-and-effect sequences. Thereby, they support the ability for logical thinking, information processing, and problem-solving.

Check out our left-brain toys!

In the Smart Memories online store, you can find left-brain toys that will help take care of the harmonious development of the youngest and support older children in honing specific skills.

One of our top toys is the "Hanging out laundry" wooden left-brain puzzle. This set consists of 8 colorful items of clothing, clips, a two-level hanger, and cards with patterns to reproduce, with varying levels of difficulty. Why is it worth choosing a product from Smart Memories? Our puzzle attracts the child's attention with beautiful, original graphics and a spatial design. It has been designed in such a way as to support not only the functioning of the left brain hemisphere but also to exercise fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness. Careful workmanship and the use of components meeting rigorous European standards make the toy safe, durable, and aesthetic.

Other toys that can be used to create left-brain puzzles are… memory games for children! In our offer, you can find educational memory cards with original graphics depicting forest animals, birds of Europe, and fruits and vegetables. Memory games are versatile toys. Children can deepen their thematic knowledge and develop their interest in nature (educational cards with descriptions of the animals shown are attached to the memory games), as well as train skills such as: concentration, memory, hand-eye coordination, and visual perception. Included play scenarios allow the toy to be used in many different ways and give caregivers tips on how to create a left-brain puzzle on their own.

The Montessori color and shape sorter will work perfectly in activating the child's left brain hemisphere. Our sorter consists of a wooden base and 36 colorful, double-sided printed circles. With its help, it is possible not only to learn shapes and colors but also to create left-brain puzzles and sequences, as described in the included play scenarios.