James loves a jigsaw puzzle so at present-giving times of the year we spend a lot of time searching for new ones. There are certain criteria that the puzzles have to meet though:
🧩 They have to have 12 pieces or less
🧩 The pieces have to be of a suitable size and thickness for James to be able to manipulate
🧩 The pieces have to be of a suitable quality to stand up to frequent use, and the occasional bash on the table or toss onto the floor.
These criteria do limit our options somewhat.
I have written before about the growing availability on the internet of resources designed for adults with dementia and about how some of these activities are great for adults with learning disabilities too. It was on one such search for dementia friendly activities that I found the Gibsons Piecing Together jigsaw puzzle collection.
I was attracted immediately by the fact that some of the puzzles had just 12 pieces and that they were described as extra large pieces. I homed in on the The Seaside puzzle which had lovely clear images of things James would be able to identify: donkeys, a bird, an ice cream, a ball and so on. My initial thought was that some of the images looked a bit old-fashioned – then I read the product details and discovered why. Designed as they are for older users the puzzle images depict things as they looked in the 1950s and 60s. However, this was no barrier to getting the puzzle for James, the images are all still very recognisable today.
I ordered the puzzle with one reservation. The puzzle images are depicted against a beach background of sand and stones and I wondered whether the puzzle would be visually cluttered and confusing.
I was really pleased with the puzzle when it arrived. It was very well presented in a sturdy box. The box included the puzzle pieces and an image of the puzzle the same size as the completed puzzle itself. The puzzle can be made up inside the box to give it a frame and/or on top of the image as a guide (though this might be visually confusing as it might be hard to distinguish where the puzzle pieces or the spaces are).
The puzzle pieces are made of sturdy recycled card and are approximately 6cm in width. The completed puzzle is 28.5 x 20.5cm and fits neatly inside the box. Each puzzle piece depicts an easily recognisable portion of an image which makes assembling the puzzle very achievable. I think this also helps to minimise the visual cluttering that might be caused by the beach background.
James really enjoys this puzzle. As it has 12 pieces he needs support to complete it. It’s a great puzzle for chatting and signing. We talk about what we can see; we ask James to point out things we name; we sign the things on the puzzle and James signs them too; he sings the tune to ‘Little Donkey’ :); we talk about places we have been where we’ve seen the things on the puzzle or eaten ice cream. There’s so much we can chat about and each person James does the puzzle with has something different to say.
James has had the puzzle quite a while now and it has stood up very well to frequent handling. In fact we’ve been so happy with it that I bought him the 12 piece Christmas puzzle from the same collection last Christmas 😃.
If this review has tempted you you can find more puzzles in the Piecing Together Collection on the Gibsons website. (I have no links to Gibsons and the opinions expressed here are entirely my own).
