The 10 Emotions Puzzles Made Me Happy!

Christmas is coming so I have been searching the internet for a new puzzle for James. Helen has been looking for some emotions activities for him for a while so I searched for an emotions puzzle and was excited to find this one by Akros. James already has some excellent quality matching cards by them so I ordered the puzzles and I was not disappointed!

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What’s In The Box?

The puzzles are presented in an attractive sturdy box with a plastic handle. There are 10 puzzles which I thought represented good value for money, especially given the quality. The puzzles pieces are large, so easy to handle, and made of thick cardboard. There are four 3-piece puzzles, three 4-piece puzzles and three 6-piece puzzles. Each completed puzzle is 15.6 cm square. The reverse of each puzzle is a different colour which makes it really easy to find the correct pieces for each. Each puzzle also has an accompanying model card which has the same image as the puzzle on one side and an icon depicting the emotion on the other. The model cards are 5.8 cm square and made of the same sturdy cardboard.  

Suitable for Adults Too

The guidance on the puzzles suggests that they are suitable for children aged 2 – 6 years, however, the puzzle imagery also makes them suitable for use by adults with learning disabilities. They show boys and girls and older men and women, as well people of different ethnicities, so an adult user will see other adults reflected in the imagery. 

The 10 Emotions 

The puzzles depict a wide range of emotions: happiness, self-confidence, admiration, curiosity, surprise, anger, disgust, sadness, fear and guilt. Some of these are quite complex so if you were to be using them as a teaching aide you would want to introduce the ones your young person is familiar with first and then add in other puzzles one at a time, with appropriate support and discussion.

It would be useful if the box included a list of which puzzle depicts which emotion but, unfortunately, it doesn’t. However, a list can be found in the downloadable activity guide available on the Akros website and a leaflet in the box tells you how to find it. The activity guide itself is a bit misnamed as it really only tells you how to do the puzzles, no other suggestions are included. 

Icons v. Widgit Symbols 

I think that the icons on the model cards are a brilliant idea, but personally I found them hard to decifer. Whilst it is an important skill to be able to understand a range of visual presentations (to know that different symbols can represent the same thing) James is an early symbol reader so we will stick Widgit symbols over the icons for him. It will better support his understanding if we use the Widgit symbols he is familiar with rather than the unfamiliar icons on the cards. In that way we can also make links between the puzzles and an emotions book he has which Helen has also stuck the Widgit symbols in. 

Supporting Understanding and Communication 

I’m looking forward to doing these puzzles with James. I know that we’ll be chatting and signing as we do them, so the puzzles will not only help to develop James’ understanding of emotions but promote lots of communication too. 

😃 We’ll talk about, and sign, what we can see in the images e.g. ‘She’s smiling’, ‘He’s sticking his tongue out – can you stick yours out?’ ‘He’s an old man,’ ‘She’s a little girl.’ 

😃 We’ll sign the emotions – the ones we know!

😃 I’ll relate the emotions to our own experiences, ‘You feel happy when you see Grandma and Grandad.’ ‘Disgusting, I don’t like pears, Yuck!’ 

😃 If there is a mirror handy we might try pulling the faces too!