STEM & Building Toys

Few categories in the toy aisle carry more aspirational weight than “STEM.” The label promises future engineers, confident problem-solvers, small humans who will one day build the bridges and write the code. It’s also one of the most aggressively marketed categories in the industry — a $4 billion market where the word “educational” gets applied with the rigor of a bumper sticker.

Here’s what the research actually tells us: there is strong evidence that construction play — building with blocks, magnetic tiles, interlocking bricks — supports the development of spatial reasoning in early and middle childhood. ¹ The relationship between hands-on building and spatial skills has been replicated across multiple independent labs and age groups. There is also promising research linking construction play to early mathematical thinking, particularly around geometry, symmetry, and proportional reasoning. ²

What the research does not tell us is that any specific branded product will “teach your child to code” or “develop engineering thinking.” These are marketing claims, and we evaluate them accordingly. A beautifully designed building set can offer genuine developmental benefits — but those benefits come from the act of building, not from the logo on the box.

What We Evaluate

When we review STEM and building toys, we pay particular attention to:

• Open-endedness. Does the product support free-form creation, or is it a one-solution puzzle marketed as building? The research on spatial development specifically implicates unstructured construction play. ³
• Developmental range. Is the product appropriately challenging for its stated age range? We test for frustration at the low end and boredom at the high end.
• Durability and precision. Building toys live or die by their tolerances. Pieces that don’t fit cleanly undermine the entire play experience.
• The “educational” claim. What specifically does the manufacturer claim this product teaches? What evidence supports that claim? We rate the science separately from the product.

Footnotes

1. Verdine, B. N., et al. (2014). “Deconstructing building blocks: Preschoolers’ spatial assembly performance relates to early mathematical skills.” Child Development, 85(3), 1062–1076. ↩

2. Jirout, J. J., & Newcombe, N. S. (2015). “Building blocks for developing spatial skills: Evidence from a large, representative U.S. sample.” Psychological Science, 26(3), 302–310. ↩

3. Ferrara, K., et al. (2011). “Block talk: Spatial language during block play.” Mind, Brain, and Education, 5(3), 143–151. ↩