Trouble doing jigsaw puzzles??

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Trouble doing jigsaw puzzles??
9
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 10:11am

My DS recently had a full re-evaluation by the county and a private psychological evaluation. Everyone agrees, he's a visual learning. I've noticed he has a lot of problems doing jigsaw puzzles. Working a jigsaw puzzle is supposed to use visual-spatial intelligence, which tests quite high for DS.

He's good at mazes. However, when he works a jigsaw puzzle, he will take one piece and try to fit every piece to that one piece. He'll go through every piece until he finds a match. I've tried explaining the strategy of working on the side pieces and the corners first. He responds to my attempts to help him by throwing a fit.

I found a website that has free online jigsaw puzzles. You can select the number of pieces and I keep it to 6 pieces. Any more than that, he starts to meltdown. I'm having him work puzzles everyday and hoping the light switch will flick on. (he's 8)

Just wondered if anyone else noticed a similar problem with their child. I tried internet searches and couldn't find any info on jigsaw puzzles. Only info about what kinds of kids are good at them.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 10:39am

Sounds more like an issue related to the autism piece and vision processing stuff. He has a routine and must stick with it and he is showing some cognitive inflexibility or lack of cognitive fluency (I think that is one of those terms, I can look it up). In other words, he gets stuck in one way of thinking. It is kind of like if you go somewhere to go in and the door is locked. Well going in that way failed so you step back, problem solve and try something different like a key, knocking or going to another door. Our kiddos might just keep trying the door knob.

The best thing to do is work at this from a cognitive strategy. The easiest to start with is perhaps a social story about doing puzzles.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 10:54am

I was thinking it might be inflexible thinking. I want to try a game with him where the object is not to solve a puzzle, but just to line up a side piece to the correct side (top, bottom, left or right). I'll have to create my own mock puzzle where there isn't a picture. Just outline of the shape and only one piece to work with. Otherwise, he won't even hear what I'm trying to get him to do. He'll launch into his puzzle solving strategy of not seeing the forest for the trees.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 12:23pm

What an appropriate analogy! It's off topic, but your analogy reminded me. The other day 8yo ds went next door to play with a classmate. They're "friends" but really never play together outside of school. After about 40 min, ds returned home. I asked if he'd had a good time, and he told me, "no, not really, I just kept knocking, but no one answered the door." He only quit knocking because the neighbors came home and said they couldn't play then. It never occured to me that I had to explain to ds that if no one answers the door after the first or second knock, that that means they either aren't home or can't come to the door. He'd been knocking and knocking for over 1/2 hour!

Avatar for stephsmom98
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Registered: 03-28-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 2:35pm

It is interesting to see how all our minds work. I am not that good at puzzles and it takes me longer to put one together. I am visual and go by that and I always do the cornors first. I couldn't even explain how to do it.

My Asperger's DD on the other hand happens to be pretty good at puzzles. That's her speciality. She can just look at the pieces and know where they go. I don't know how she does it. However, she doesn't go by the logical approach and do the cornors first. She just does whatever looks best to her so my husband, who does puzzles with her, gets frustrated with it because he does a more logical/visual approach and she doesn't so they are at odds when doing puzzles. I think the thing that frustrates him is that she reaches over to his pieces and then knocks a bunch on the floor etc. I think he gets frustrated too easily. When she sees a piece she thinks might fit, she goes for it.

Good luck with it; sorry I don't have any advice.

Debbie

Debbie, Mom to my "only" Stephanie
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Registered: 06-30-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 2:57pm
I'm extremely good at jigsaw puzzles and do timed versions of them. Maybe I'm expecting him to be too much like me :) He seems to be much more visual than I am.
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Registered: 03-28-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 3:38pm
I get confused, what do you need to be able to do puzzles well? DD is very visual and does her puzzles well, but maybe she has something else besides. I go by visual and common sense. I guess having logic skills help right?
Debbie, Mom to my "only" Stephanie
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 3:58pm

I don't know. That's why I asked the question. Jigsaw puzzles are listed as a visual-spatial thing. DS tests high on visual-spatial tests, but struggles with the jigsaw puzzle concept.

That's why I asked what the deal is. I'm guessing his problem is more a persistence of thought issue. Checking each piece to see if it fits with the one piece he's working on.

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Registered: 03-20-2003
Thu, 12-14-2006 - 11:46pm

I'm no help.


I love puzzles and while I don't do timed versions (what a great idea), I do enjoy them.

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Registered: 03-28-2003
Fri, 12-15-2006 - 5:54pm

Oh, okay. Sorry. I should have read your question better. But it is all so interesting how our minds work. I hope you can get answers.

Debbie

Debbie, Mom to my "only" Stephanie