LEGO: Popular Construction Toys for All Ages! - Essay Sample

Introduction

LEGOs are plastic construction toys that consist of colorful interlocking bricks, gears, and figurines, among many other parts. Pieces of LEGO toys are assembled and connected in different ways to construct objects, such as working robots, buildings, and vehicles. The constructed object can be taken apart, and the piece uses to create a different thing. LEGO toys are some of the most popular toys in the toy industry. The popularity of these toys enables the manufacturer to be ranked among the wealthiest companies in the world in 2015. Many children are thrilled with playing with LEGO bricks; in some cases, they may play for hours without getting bored (Adam and Colton). Unlike other toys, LEGOs toys were intended to achieve many goals in helping children to learn. However, LEGOs are associated with many unexpected impacts on children.

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According to the manufacturer of LEGO toys, the purpose of producing them is to motivate and help children to reason systematically, think creatively, and to enable them to explore their potential, thus shaping their future by experiencing endless possibilities. LEGO toys allow children to advance their creativity by constructing objects of their imaginations. For example, children use different colors, shapes, and sizes of bricks to create intricate designs such as spacecraft, vehicles, and police stations (Maaike). Imagination and creativity among children are fostered when they no limitations on what they can make. Since there is no right or wrong, they explore their imagination and creativity without fear of failing. The designers of LEGO wanted to create toys that would develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills among users. As a result, toys enable children to build their systematic creativity skills. Systematic creativity is the use of reasoning and logic together with imagination and playfulness to generate artifacts or ideas that valuable, new, and surprising (Adam and Colton).

Children learn about the world, others, and themselves through play. Play increased curiosity among children, a factor that is the cornerstone of their creative development. It motivates children to ask and seek answers to the problem as well as turn unfamiliar phenomenon into familiar. Playing with LEGOs encourages children to explore alternative ways of doing things by asking "what if?" and use their imagination on how familiar becomes impossible or incongruous (David). Systems created by LEGO bricks are critical for enhancing creativity. LEGO bricks allow children to use science and the arts. For example, LEGOs give children the chance to build transport networks for moving things from one point to another (scientific creativity).

Similarly, children can create fantasy landscapes, creatures, and spaceships, thus promoting artistic creativity. For children, a bucket of LEGO bricks gives them new opportunities. It does not matter whether he/she uses the blocks out of his/her imagination or from using an instruction booklet (David). For children, using bricks is an act of solving a puzzle by attempting to create order out of chaos. Generally, the goal of the designers of LEGOs was to help the user develop as an individual.

Apart from fostering creativity and imagination as intended by the designers of LEGO, the toys have help children to develop other skills. First, LEGO help to develop motor skills among children. Since the toys involve arranging and rearranging bricks, the process involves the manipulation of fingers. The movement of fingers helps to build muscles in their hands that will enable children to control their arms with ease. Consequently, they can person other tasks, such as learning to write. Secondly, LEGOs allow children to learn how to cooperate with others. For example, using bricks and mini-figures as a group, enable children to acquire the same skills they would have to learn from using dollhouse or in a dramatic play. The storytelling aspects of LEGOs is evident in the way children play with their creations. For instance, a horse is lost, and her friends help her find her stable. Besides, cause and effects is a critical science lesson that impresses children (Adam and Colton). For example, a child can build a tall tower, sometimes taller than him or her. The child will then hold his breath; his/her masterpiece falls over. The cause and effect created by LEGO bricks help instill the basic principles of science into children.

Persistence is another amazing skill that children learn when using LEGOs. LEGO structures face several challenges that a child must bear while playing with them. A child may spend days or many hours constructing a beautiful tower, but one wrong move may crumble it to the ground. Such events lead to heartbreaks and frustrations because the child would have to start constructing the structure all over again. Children, however, are not defeated by such failures (Maaike). There is even some instance when their friends accidentally wreck their masterpieces, and they start building again without complaining.

In recent years, there have been some critics on the impact of LEGOs on children. In the past, LEGO came as bricks that allow children to build out of their imaginations. Nowadays, however, the blocks are accompanied by instructions on how to make a particular object. In some cases, one bucket of bricks is meant to build only one type of creations, such as a spacecraft. Even though these new set of blocks help children to learn how to follow instructions, it does not seem to trigger their imaginations and creativity.

From the above discussion, it is evident that LEGO bricks are some of the most popular toys in the market. The goals of the designers of these toys were to enhance children's creativity, imagination, and potentials. The bricks have, however, achieved more than those goals by improving the motor skills, persistence, and cooperation among children.

Works Cited

Brandt, Adam M., and Mark B. Colton. "Toys in the classroom: LEGO Mindstorms as an educational haptics platform." 2008 symposium on haptic interfaces for virtualenvironment and teleoperator systems. IEEE, 2008. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4479982

Gauntlett, David. "The LEGO System as a tool for thinking, creativity, and changing the world." LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon (2014): 1-16. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d902/b08e498f821961131005a71d84a96a36872c.pdf

Lauwaert, Maaike. "Playing outside the box-on LEGO toys and the changing world of construction play." History and Technology 24.3 (2008): 221-237. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341510801900300