Incredibly Bad Jigsaw Skills

[IntheNameof]

(Kind of) light hearted - but has anyone's DC incredibly bad Jigsaw puzzle skills? And what where their strengths as they grew up?

DC 3.5 just doesn't get jigsaws, it's almost comical watching
We tried a 4 piece one earlier, and DC tried to put the cow's hoof into the back of the head. DC was quite pleased when managed to get them to wrongly fit. When we finally completed it I removed two pieces, and asked DC to put them back. No chance.

We've tried starting with the objects/faces/etc or the edges. No avail.
DC only looks at the tabs and holes (?) not the picture itself and then somehow tries to force the pieces together.

We rarely do jigsaws, DC not all that interested, and I just despair watching.

Background: DH and I have reasonably good maths/visual/engineering skills and just don't know why we seem unable to teach DC. We're monitoring for Asperger's due to a higher genetic probability, but other than that DC is just a normal preschooler.

Has anyone else experienced this or similar lack of skills? And what where your DC's strengths as they grew up?

My dd is 8 and still utterly shit at jigsaws. Even 5yo ds stares at her in amazement watching her put two edge pieces face to face or a tail on a head.

I should add, we're not pushy parents. we don't do any school-like learning with DC. E.g. I don't think DC, could recognise any letters or numbers - I don't think it's important at that age. I'm interested if Jigsaw skills catch up later in some children and what their absence might mean. And I quite enjoy jigsaws!

Mine! Now 14.

My DC is severely dyslexic, so they are very kinaesthetic, learn by doing, very 3D. Etc etc. Fabulous at anything practical. Very good at Maths nets, vectors. (We wont discuss number bonds, timetables or fractions).

So one would have thought that jigsaw puzzles would be ideal. No. I think we finally got to a puzzle with 100 pieces on a subject matter that DC was very interested in, once.

Talking to DC about this - I think it is that they cannot translate the flat picture into 2D elsewhere. They clearly work in 3D.

We now laugh about it - they use Minecraft and Scrap mechanic on line , whilst I lay out a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table!

Im 36 and completely shit at jigsaws my 5yr old is the same. My 3yr old however has just completed a 500 piece one by herself

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz I won't get my hopes up then and dream of rainy Sundays spent doing a 500 piece jigsaw

@spongedog that sounds like your describing my DH. Dyslexic, aptitude for anything practical, and incredible 3D thinking. Maybe I should try and get him to do a jigsaw next time? Just to confirm the hypothesis obviously

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth wow that's incredible!

My now 8 year old could read, add and subtract at 3.5. Could he do jigsaws? Nope. Was he even remotely interested? Nope. He’s 8, very musical and very mathematical but likes abstract maths as opposed to the applied sort and is still totally uninterested in jigsaws or Lego. At that age he had incredible concentration EXCEPT when it came for jigsaws where he got bored and chucked things around.
His 3.5 year old sibling can’t do what he did at the same age but can easily solve 20-30 piece puzzles. He has the attention span of a three year old but finds puzzles totally absorbing.

spongedog my severely dyslexic 17yo dd got through a 1000 piece jigsaw a few weeks ago in no time, I have no idea what her eyes and brain saw that mine didn't, she hasn't done a jigsaw in more than 10 years, it was fascinating to watch!

My nearly 16 year old son can't do jigsaws at all. Still. He too is dyslexic a n d also dyspraxic. He just does not see the patterns. Even tho he knows the concept he just can't do it. Very frustrating😀

Quite a few comments about dyslexia. I had a quick search on google and DC only has a couple of the early indicators. Doesn't understand rhymes (yet) and sometimes struggles to tell a story, but I think that's more due to a slight stutter. Other than that language is pretty good. Where there any telltale signs early on for others?

www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/children/is-my-child-dyslexic/signs-of-dyslexia-early-years

www.thefamilypsychologist.co.uk/content/spotting-signs-dyslexia-children-what-do-next

My son commando crawled as a baby, he just was not coordinated enough to crawl on hands and knees. He got words jumbled up, fell over all the time once he started walking, didn't know whether he was left or right handed and had the most weird pencil grip.

At school he was 8 before he became a confident reader, at nearly 16 he still doesn't know left from right, cannot read a clock with hands, cannot spell for toffee, cannot write any thing lengthy but despite all that is doing really well in school. He has accommodations made for him in that he uses a laptop and gets extra time in exams. He is sat so that he can face the board in classes and for exams they put a digital clock up for him so he knows how long he has got left.

He has also been diagnosed with dyspraxia, which affects his fine motor skills, buttons and laces are his enemy! But there are things out there to help, so elastic laces and buttons left done up as much as possible. He can't sit still so he has a fiddle toy which for some reason keeps his bum still I the chair when his hands are occupied!

His organisational skills are pants, but we have found that having a routine helps, having lists of things helps and letting other people know he had the dys's helps too, so when he goes on scout camp, someone keeps an eye out and helps him get organised!

Dyslexia & dyspraxia are so closely intertwined, it's hard to tell where one starts and one ends. You just have to find different ways of doing things that works for your kid.

My son has his difficulties, but they do not stop him from doing anything, sometimes he just had to get creative! It certainly makes life interesting😀