Another reason to start your kids building early

[Lonan]

I just found this, and I thought everyone with kids could use it as ammunition to justify buying more sets. I mean, I thought this was important research:

Click!

You can just go ahead and disregard the last line of the story.

[The dark tide]

HAH! The last line was hilarious. I will be sure to keep this in mind if I ever have children.

[Paradosis]

Good article, I'll have to copy and keep that one. Now I just have to get my 2 year old interested in construction! So far she seems mostly interested in having me put together a half dozen bricks in different configurations, so that she can take them apart again.

[KarenJ]

The last line was indeed pretty funny... not so funny, though, is that studies like this (funded by XYZ company promoting XYZ foods or drugs) are used to justify public health policy. The scientists declare that we must all eat XYZ food and take XYZ drugs, so everyone goes along with it.

I'm not sure I like this study, as it relies on parents "answering the questions":
"Finally, all the parents filled out questionnaires that assessed their child's vocabulary, grammar, and other language abilities"

Nutritional studies often use this technique, in the form of a Food Frequency Questionaire (FFQ). The fact is that people lie. They don't remember. They tell the researchers what they think the researchers want to hear. They overstate the achievements of their children. They forgot about all that pie they ate...

That being said, I really do think that playing with Lego blocks makes people smarter. Playing with Mega Bloks may be OK.... in moderation.

[JPinoy]

I intend to have LEGO as a family hobby when I have kids.

[Luís]

Lego bricks keep kids off tricks.
MegaBlocks makes dummer than rocks.