Why are activity books important for a child’s development?

Why are Activity books important? What benefits do they provide? Most of us buy activity books as a means to keep children busy with something productive. But the benefits for your child can go much beyond that. If you are mindful about choosing the right book, it can have immense developmental benefits for your child. We are enumerating here the top advantages that we like about Activity Books.

Move from storing information to understanding it as a concept that can be used. When we solve a problem in an activity book by writing. there is a transition, from, ‘I know this, to ‘how do I use this information that I know to solve this.’ Writing exercises our minds further.

1. Writing or working by hand requires one to organize information in our mind. And stretch their thinking on how to use what they know. They help create independent learners. Solving a problem all on your own is a big deal at a young age. And as children work through puzzles and problems, they gain the confidence to solve problems on their own. Every time they can do an activity independently they feel a high, a confidence boost. They now know that they can do learning activities on their own, without the help of parents or teachers. Therefore, the thing that we must keep in mind while selecting activity books is that they should be age-appropriate. Do not foist tough books on your child to make them smarter. This will lead to frustration and have a counter effect.
2. The benefit of writing is manifold. Yes, one can solve a lot of things in our mind or read about a problem to understand how to solve it. Putting a pencil to paper leads to another level of development. Writing needs us to be coherent. We have to choose exactly what we want to put on paper. It means we must have clarity of thought before we can write. And this works both ways. This means, that once you write or do something on paper, your understanding goes up. And is better retained by your mind. and therefore, Activity Books provide that opportunity to practice their critical thinking processes in a way tat.
3. Writing develops fine motor skills. Holding pencil or crayons correctly, and using them to write correctly on paper uses several muscles and helps strengthen their finger muscles as well as hand-eye coordination. 
4. Help in improving concentration. Even simple activities that require the child to focus on the task for a few minutes, help in improving concentration.
5. Improved reading and comprehension skills. Reading a problem and then decoding it to what it means and how it can be solved requires the use of language skills. Thus activity books assist in improving language and comprehension skills as well as their ability to comprehend and follow instructions. 
6. Activity Books help children solve abstract problems, through visuals. There are many problems, especially in the area of Math, Logic, and Reasoning which are abstract. Especially for young children. Asking these questions in words is impossible. But when such problems are presented through visuals and drawings, the children can visualise solutions. Problems of patterns and sequencing are all good examples of problems in Logic that are solved easily visually. This helps children develop Logic and Reasoning abilities. 

Remember the following while buying activity books for your child.

1. Buy age-appropriate books. Do not seek books based on your ambition. We regularly find parents buying learning material beyond their child’s age. This can do more harm than good. If the child gets frustrated, he/she may lose interest and worse lose confidence. 
2. Don’t go by the number of pages. Go by the quality of content in the book. If a book is pages and pages of endless mazes or dot-to-dot activities, then beyond a point you are not adding to the child’s development. Look for books that have thought through the content and are exposing your child to different types of concepts and problems. 
3. For younger ages, books with colorful visuals work better.