Bright colors. Interesting shapes. Tactile textures. These are some of the qualities that make Melissa & Doug’s Match & Build Soft Blocks an engaging developmental toy for babies and toddlers. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore how these blocks promote physical, cognitive, and social-emotional growth in little ones through guided play.
An Overview of Melissa & Doug Match & Build Soft Blocks
- 50 colorful, lightweight soft blocks in a variety of everyday shapes like circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, arches, and ellipses
- Blocks feature kid-friendly artwork like cars, animals, boats, castles, and more
- Set includes a convenient zippered tote bag for easy storage and portability
- Perfect size for little hands to manipulate and hold
- Manufactured from durable cloth material stuffed with padding
- Helps develop fine motor, sensory, cognitive, and social skills
The Melissa & Doug Match & Build blocks check off all the boxes for an engaging toddler toy that provides opportunities for open-ended play and development. The bright colors immediately capture babies’ attention, while the squishy lightweight material makes the blocks easy for tiny hands to grasp, hold, and manipulate.
With 50 pieces to work with, toddlers can stack, nest, line up, and knock down creations to their heart’s delight. The pictures and patterns on each block fuel communication and storytelling, while matching and sorting the different everyday shapes promotes sensory and cognitive skills. It’s no wonder these blocks earn rave reviews from parents and early childhood professionals!
Why Developmental Toys Matter in a Child’s Early Years
Playing with toys like blocks, balls, stacking cups, shape sorters, and simple puzzles is not just fun for babies and toddlers. Participating in these types of activities during the first three years of life promotes healthy development across multiple domains:
Physical skills: Building fine motor skills needed for later handwriting and manipulation tasks, developing core strength, balance, eye-hand coordination through reaching, grasping, and manipulating the toys.
Cognitive skills: Recognizing colors, matching shapes, categorizing by size/type, building memory and attention skills through repetition of sorting/stacking games. Understanding cause-and-effect relationships.
Language and social skills: Describing what they are doing, participating in back-and-forth communication about the toys and play activities, sharing toys with others.
In fact, play is a child’s work – their way of exploring, experimenting, and making sense of the world around them. By providing babies and toddlers with open-ended toys that allow for creativity and guided discovery, we fuel overall developmental growth.
This is why toy companies like Melissa & Doug create these types of toy sets to nurture children in purposeful play activities. Their products check off assessment criteria on widely-used early childhood environment rating scales like ITERS-3 and FCCERS-R for promoting healthy development across domains.
A Brief History of Melissa & Doug Toys
Melissa & Doug is a children’s toy company founded in 1988 by Melissa and Doug Bernstein. The couple desired to create timeless toys crafted from high-quality materials that would spark open-ended play and joyful learning.
Their first products were wooden puzzles, quickly expanding into other classic toys like blocks, pretend play sets, arts and crafts materials over the next decade. Melissa & Doug innovations continued with original toy designs like the noisy Sound Puzzles and Match and Build Blocks.
Over 30+ years, Melissa & Doug firmly cemented themselves as a leader in hands-on developmental toys for children. Though their catalog now includes over 2000 items across arts and crafts, pretend play, games, puzzles, blocks and construction, their mission remains the same – to create toys that nurture childhood wonder and joyful learning.
Developing Physical Skills with Match & Build Soft Blocks
Toddlers grow by leaps and bounds during their second and third years across physical domains like gross motor, fine motor, and sensory processing. Melissa & Doug’s soft blocks offer guided opportunities to advance skills in these areas that pave the way for future development.
Building Fine Motor Strength and Coordination
The lightweight blocks are perfectly sized for a toddler’s small hands to successfully grasp, lift, carry, and manipulate. Their hands strengthen by practicing these essential fine motor skills, also known as dexterity.
As toddlers stack the blocks into towers and structures, they must use controlled precise finger movements. Knocking down these creations with a swipe of the arm then challenges their hand-eye coordination.
Opening and closing the storage bag provides dexterity practice with grasp and pinch movements. Zipping and unzipping the bag builds bilateral coordination.
These types of play opportunities prepare little hands for later fine motor tasks like feeding themselves with utensils, buttoning clothing, and manipulating small objects.
Sensory-Motor Practice with Varying Shapes and Textures
While feeling and manipulating the soft colorful blocks, toddlers engage their sense of touch, sight, and sound.
- Feeling the varying shapes – squares, rectangles, circles – promotes tactile discrimination ability.
- Seeing the bright colors and joyful artwork stimulates the visual system.
- Hearing the crinkling sound of the cloth-like material and thuds of blocks stacking/falling excites the auditory system.
Overall, these varying sensory inputs received while playing with the blocks enhance sensory integration and processing.
Additionally, visually tracking the blocks as they stack/fall and coordinating eyes with reaching/grasping hands promotes crucial sensory-motor foundations. These foundational connections between the senses and body movements are key for later spatial awareness.
In short, seemingly simple play with stacking blocks strengthens multiple physical domain areas that equip toddlers with skills needed for the preschool years ahead.
Playing with the Melissa & Doug soft blocks promotes fine motor, sensory processing, and overall physical competence in toddlers that paves the way for future development across domains.
Nurturing Cognitive Development
Alongside physical gains, babies reap immense cognitive benefits from playing with the Melissa & Doug Match & Build Soft Blocks. Activities like matching, sorting shapes, recognizing patterns, and creating structures foster cognitive competence in areas like memory, recognition, spatial relations, problem solving, and creativity.
Let’s explore some examples of how guided play with the blocks cultivate budding intellectual abilities during the toddler years.
Making Logical Connections through Matching Games
The 50 colorful blocks feature kid-friendly artwork like familiar vehicles, animals, structures, and patterns. Toddlers can participate in different matching activities to promote logical and analytical thinking:
- Match blocks with the same artwork, like pairing together all blocks showing cats. Successfully finding these matches strengthens visual discrimination, memory, and pattern recognition abilities.
- Match blocks by color – gather all the yellow blocks together, then blue blocks, red blocks, etc. This color sorting activity trains categorization, sorting, and visual scanning skills.
- Match blocks by everyday shape, putting triangles with triangles and squares with squares. Recognizing basic shapes boosts geometric knowledge which supports early math concepts.
As toddlers visually inspect groups of blocks to find matches, their observational skills sharpen. Successfully finding matches boosts confidence and analytic thinking habits.
Building Early Numeracy through Stacking Games
When toddlers build towers or structures with the blocks, numeracy concepts integrate into play. Counting each block as they stack them teaches essential counting sequence and cardinality (quantity).
The numbers and dots on some block faces illustrate numerals symbolizing different quantities. Matching the numeral 4 to a set of 4 dots introduces number and quantity connections – key math readiness skills.
As structures grow vertically, toddlers grasp concepts like stability (wide base), as well as vocabulary like shortest, tallest, longest. Knocking down structures also builds understanding of spatial relationships and gravity.
In short, playing structured stacking games organically builds numeracy readiness for more formal math learning later on.
From color and shape sorting to stacking games, the Melissa & Doug blocks present cognitively stimulating play opportunities that lay foundations for math, memory, spatial reasoning and analytical thinking.
Social and Emotional Skills Fostered through Block Play
Playing with blocks cultivates more than just physical and cognitive competencies. These activities also nurture social and emotional developmental areas like communication skills, emotional regulation, creativity, and cooperation with others.
Building Communication Abilities
As toddlers engage in independent and shared block play, they build essential communication abilities both verbally and non-verbally:
- Verbal – little ones practice using language to identify block colors, point out different animals/vehicles, count stack heights, and talk about their structures. As parents/caregivers play alongside them, toddlers engage in crucial back-and-forth exchanges essential for vocabulary growth.
- Non-verbal communication – toddlers use sounds, facial expressions, gestures and joint attention behaviors to share interest and turn-take during play. Say a toddler excitedly points to their tower, vocalizes and gazes at parent to share their joy. These non-verbals allow children to express themselves before language emerges.
In short, playing various games with the blocks presents many opportunities for toddlers to advance communication competence through verbal and non-verbal means.
Imagination and Creativity Drive Open-Ended Play
Unlike rigid single-outcome toys, blocks fuel imaginative open-ended play critical for creativity development.
Toddlers are free to build whatever structures they envision using the colorful blocks – tall towers, winding roads, silly stacks. Choosing blocks by color/pattern to create joyful structures promotes decision making abilities. Knocking down these creations again and again satisfies their need for autonomy.
As toddlers gain confidence in building, their creative storytelling blossoms. A tower becomes a rocket ship soaring through space. A funny stack of animals drives along a road. When an adult plays alongside them asking questions about their structures, it spurs child-driven narratives that stretch imagination.
In short, creative block play supports autonomy, decision making, imagination, and storytelling abilities that nurture toddlers’ burgeoning minds.
The Melissa & Doug blocks inspire all sorts of creative, child-directed play narratives that provide toddlers with autonomy and the freedom to bring their ideas to life.
Opportunities for Positive Social Interactions
Playing with others requires negotiating social situations appropriately – communicating desires clearly, sharing toys, cooperating to build structures together. These interpersonal skills develop through repeated guided practice.
The Melissa & Doug block set offers many chances for positive social interactions among toddlers:
- Sharing – adults can model dividing blocks equally to teach the concept of sharing. Praise toddlers when they spontaneously offer peers blocks.
- Turn-taking when adding blocks to towers/structures builds patience. Use a timer for those needing help waiting their turn.
- Cooperation manifests when toddlers collectively build something – guided play facilitates working together towards a common goal.
- Empathy blooms when someone’s tower falls. Validate sad feelings then encourage rebuilding it together happier than before!
Block play lays the groundwork for fundamental social competencies like communicating/listening, sharing resources, taking turns, cooperating, and understanding others’ emotions. These interpersonal abilities prepare toddlers for smooth interactions with peers during the preschool years.
In summary, playing with blocks advances two key development domains – cognitive skills through matching/sorting games and numeracy foundations plus social-emotional growth through communication practice, creative expression and positive interactions. All support school readiness down the road!
Are Melissa & Doug Blocks Age-Appropriate for Babies and Toddlers?
Melissa & Doug recommends their Match & Build Soft Blocks for ages 12 months to 4 years. However, with some precautions, babies as young as 6 months can safely interact with the blocks under close supervision.
Safety First
The lightweight, soft blocks pose little injury risks compared to rigid wood blocks. Babies won’t bonk their heads terribly if a stack tumbles onto them! However, as with any toy, there are sensible safety precautions caregivers should take:
Supervise play at all times – the blocks’ removable cloth covers pose a potential choking hazard for very young, mouthing babies.
Check condition of blocks and fabric covers before each use for signs of damage/wear. Discard any with loose stuffing or torn covers.
Sanitize regularly – wipe down blocks with soapy water to eliminate germs, washing toy bag as needed per manufacturer instructions.
Following basic safety guidelines allows babies and toddlers to fully enjoy guided play with Match & Build blocks to learn through developmentally-appropriate discovery!
Maximizing the Play Value of Match & Build Soft Blocks
With so many play options, what’s the best way to use Melissa & Doug’s blocks for well-rounded toddler development? Follow these tips to get the most value from guided block activities during day-to-day routines:
Play Ideas to Try
- Build towers as high as possible then count blocks as they tumble down again. This simple stacking/crashing game builds gross motor skills and counting ability.
- Sort blocks by color, shape, design allowing toddlers to recognize patterns and attributes. Ask them to explain their sorting rules!
- Line up blocks end-to-end as pathways then have toddlers “drive” toy cars along the roads. Guiding vehicles along varying paths promotes visual tracking skills.
- Act out stories using blocks as props. Ask toddlers to retell you the tale sequencing key events which builds narrative recall abilities.
Incorporate into Daily Routines
Beyond pure play times, use blocks during daily care moments to transform mundane tasks into playful learning.
- Bath time – Have toddlers fill/pour water using the blocks as “cups” and “buckets” to pour water. This encourages measuring concepts.
- Outdoor play – Bring blocks outside for stacking/balancing games on the grass. Creating structures with natural elements like sticks/rocks builds creative thinking.
- Quiet time – As toddlers wind down before nap, enjoy a calm matching or sorting activity with the colorful blocks to help relax their bodies and minds.
Incorporating Match & Build Soft Blocks into daily routines ensures toddlers reap both structured play benefits and joy during downtimes.
Use the soft blocks during bath time or outdoor play to transform daily routines into more engaging, playful learning.
Parent and Expert Reviews Praise Melissa & Doug Blocks
Wondering how the Match and Build Blocks stack up against competitors? Numerous toy experts and parents give glowing reviews about Melissa & Doug’s set for quality, durability, play value and ability to engage toddlers.
High Marks Across Toy Rating Sites
Independent toy testing sites consistently rate Melissa & Doug blocks as a top pick for toddlers based on key criteria:
- Materials – soft, lightweight cloth is easy to manipulate for little hands and safe for falling stacks. Vibrant colors/joyful graphics appeal to young kids (Babylist).
- Adaptability – simple, versatile blocks suit children across wide age range from babies through preschool. Open-ended play options (Toy Insider).
- Development – activities like stacking/building, sorting shapes & colors promote fine motor skills, sensory play, spatial skills and early math concepts (Fatherly).
- Play value – supports solitary play, parallel & cooperative play critical for cognitive and social development (The Toy Zone).
Across toy rating platforms, child development experts consistently rate Melissa & Doug blocks as a top pick for nurturing all domains of toddler growth through purposeful play.
Rave Reviews from Discerning Parents
Beyond experts, real parents validate Match & Build Soft Blocks engage toddlers long-term across developmental areas in their rave reviews:
“My daughter (age 2) loves playing with these blocks either by herself or with me. We’ve used them to talk about colors, numbers, patterns. She likes to stack them up and knock them down over and over again. They’re nice and soft but also sturdy.” – Mary K.
“These blocks allow for creativity and imagination in my toddler…she makes houses, garages, roads, towers and loves the different shapes and pictures. Affordable and very cute!” – Sarah B.
“My daycare kids have played with these blocks for over a year and they still look new…no rips, tears or loose pieces. The carrying bag makes clean up so easy. Love them!” – Andrea R.
Thousands of parents agree – Melissa & Doug’s Match and Build Soft Blocks check all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key benefits of these blocks?
The Melissa & Doug Match & Build Soft Blocks promote fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, counting and numeracy skills, shape and color recognition, creativity and imagination, and communication skills. The lightweight blocks are easy for little hands to grasp and stack while the colorful pictures spark language development through storytelling.
Best of all, these open-ended blocks allow for all sorts of creative play that nurtures decision-making and developmental growth across domains.
What makes these blocks safer for babies and toddlers?
Melissa & Doug designed these blocks with toddler safety in mind. The lightweight soft fabric makes them easy to grasp and less painful when falling stacks inevitably tumble. The blocks contain no hazardous chemicals in dyes or fabric, earning them safety certifications.
With proper supervision, the Match & Build blocks pose little choking hazards even if babies attempt to mouth them thanks to their oversized design. Just check covers remain securely stitched before each use.
How durable are these blocks?
Very durable! Melissa & Doug chose a tightly woven, heavy-duty fabric that resists stains, fraying or tearing during active toddler play sessions. Despite babies chewing, throwing, and stepping on them, the blocks emerge smiling every time. The convenient zippered carrying case makes cleanup/storage a breeze too.
After over a year of daycare use (with proper care), the blocks look brand new according to parent and teacher reviews. Now that’s durable!
Can I add on to this block set over time?
Absolutely! Melissa & Doug makes several complementary sets to this starter collection. Mix and match with additional geometric pattern blocks, alphabet blocks or sensory alphabet blocks for more learning opportunities. For more symbolic play, try their food blocks or jungle animal blocks.
With so many options, growing your block collection is part of the open-ended fun!
What is the recommended age range for these blocks?
The Match & Build blocks suit toddlers 12 months to 4 years. However under supervision, children as young as 6 months can safely enjoy these blocks thanks to their lightweight design and smooth fabric. The variety of shapes, colors and patterns engage babies through preschoolers in discovery play.
In short, these versatile open-ended blocks grow along with children through years of constructive play across toddlerhood leading into the preschool years.