Not So Puzzling

Ryne has FINALLY been able to do an entire jigsaw puzzle on his own!  Whoo hoo!  I'm so proud of him!  He's been working on jigsaw puzzles recently and doing quite well; however, I figured out the way for him to start completing them on his own.

I had an inclination that Ryne is more of spatial thinker.  That's probably why he has done so well with peg board puzzles.  So jigsaw puzzles created another level of complication with puzzles.  He does have a board puzzle that requires more visual awareness to complete it and he has been able to complete it for quite some time, but it didn't come as easy to him as the other puzzles.

Ryne is very good at matching.  We use the cards from a Memory game to do matching.  That obviously requires the visual perception, so he obviously has that ability, but he tends to rely more on spatial awareness and perception when completing puzzles.  So, I decided to take a two jigsaw puzzles that have a board underneath them to contain the pieces and outline the shapes of the pieces.  It made a huge difference!  Ryne completed the 9-piece puzzle almost instantly!  It's like it finally clicked!

Ryne actually did better with the 25-piece jigsaw than the 9-piece, prior to outlining the pieces.  The pieces were more complex in shape on the 25-piece, so Ryne could distinguish where they went better.  Now that I have also outlined that puzzle.  He is now able to complete about 75-80% of it on his own and finish the rest of it with some coaching.  He understands if you tell him a pieces should go "up at the top/bottom/left/right."  We also didn't realize that he knew left, right, top and bottom, so that was a cool discovery as well!

Ryne will sometimes pick up the right piece, but try to put it in upside down.  That's where some coaching comes into play, and we discuss what's actually on the puzzle piece and where a similar thing is on the puzzle.  Sometimes he will also try to stick a piece into the wrong place and if you ask him where it goes, he will point to the correct location.  What a stinker!  Sometimes I think he just wants someone to tell him or do it for him!  He does have a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle that has no board under it that he can almost do on his own completely.  It's one of his favorites and one he has had the longest so I think he's possibly memorized where the pieces go by this point.

I'm so proud of Ryne!  He definitely doesn't work a puzzle like I do.  I'm such a visual person.  I can pick up almost any piece of a 500+ piece puzzle, look at the picture on the box and tell you where that piece goes.  I hardly look at shape.  Ryne is totally different!  Maybe he's more like Adam - he seems to be in almost every other way!  Anyway, I'm glad that I have finally found a method to teaching Ryne the visual aspect of puzzles without either one of us getting frustrated.  I'm also glad that I have cracked the Ryno code at least in one aspect of his thinking and education.  Although sometimes I wonder if Adam should take over all the teaching stuff, since he and Ryne seem to be on the same wavelength.

Anywho, puzzles should be fun and I'm glad they continue to be to Ryne!  I hope one day that Ryne will be able to jump in on the family puzzles that we do at Mom and Dad's house.  We all dive into a 500+ puzzle and have it done in no time!  Ryne sits and watches us and tries to put a few together, and I just know he wants to be able to do what we are doing...he always does.