Patterns are harder than they look

Of all the puzzle types here, the one most likely to stop an afternoon dead is the simplest-looking: a row of pictures that repeat, and an empty box at the end.

We watched a four-year-old work through a stack of these cards. She cleared the Ages 7+ cards on several other types faster than her own age band. Then she hit the pattern rows and could not do them — not the four-picture ones, not the Ages 3-4 ones, and not after having it explained. It was frustrating enough that we stopped.

That is worth saying plainly, because a parent whose child does the same thing will reasonably conclude something is wrong. Nothing is.

It is the third rung, not the first

Extending a printed pattern sits at the top of a ladder with at least two rungs below it:

1. Copying a pattern. You lay out red, blue, red, blue. The child builds the same thing next to it. Nothing has to be held in mind — the answer is sitting right there to be matched against.
2. Extending a pattern made of objects. Same row, but built from blocks or socks or buttons, and the child adds the next one. They can pick things up, put them down, change their mind, and physically test whether it looks right.
3. Extending a printed pattern. The row is fixed. Nothing can be moved. The rule has to be worked out by looking, held in mind, and then applied to a box that is empty.

A card can only ever offer you the third rung. If the first two have not happened yet, the card is not a puzzle — it is a test of something that has not been built.

What to do instead

Two things helped, and both are now printed on every one of these cards.

Say it out loud, or clap it. A pattern you can hear is easier than a pattern you can only see. Point along the row and say it: "banana, apple, banana, apple, banana..." and then stop, on the beat, where the empty box is. Children who cannot see the rule will often finish the sentence for you, because the rhythm does the work that looking could not.

Then put the cards away and use socks. Build the row on the floor out of things that can be picked up. Get the child to add the next one. When that is easy and boring, come back to the paper.

The card cannot reach down the ladder for you. It is only ever the top rung.

If you want somewhere easier to start

Matching pairs is the floor of this whole catalogue. Every other type assumes a child who can already hold a rule in mind and apply it. Matching needs only one judgement — same — and nothing else.

If the other cards feel like hard work, that is the one to keep doing.