Expert Opinions

Mammutico Building Blocks as a Therapeutic Aid

Mammutico™building blocks offer children all the benefits associated with playing with blocks. They spark creativity by unleashing natural creative potential and help foster a sense of personal agency and effectiveness. They allow for free play, which is one of the fundamental elements of a child’s healthy social, emotional, and intellectual development (…).

Thanks to their large size, Mammutico blocks engage the whole body, helping to develop precision, dexterity, balance, and strength. With these blocks, children create scenarios based on their own ideas. Play can go on endlessly, as the simplicity of the shapes allows the blocks to take on any function or meaning. It’s also easy to transform one shape into a completely different one, which in turn stimulates flexible thinking.

The light weight of the individual blocks, combined with their large size and the ease of connecting them, allows even children with motor disorders to build structures that seem to exceed their capabilities. For them, this is an excellent form of physical exercise driven by intrinsic motivation—that is, the desire to play. That is why I believe that Mammutico blocks will also work wonderfully as part of various forms of therapeutic activities.

Mammutico Building Blocks – A Must-Have for Educators

Mammutico Building Blocks are a creative essential for educators, activity leaders, therapists, and physical therapists. Their structure, shapes, varied sizes, flexibility, and lightness offer a wide range of possibilities for constructing, building, experimenting, and manipulating with both hands and the whole body—indoors, in the garden, and in the pool. The ease of use of the blocks fosters a playful atmosphere that can effectively support learning or therapeutic processes (…).

The wide range of functions offered by Mammutico blocks makes it possible to support a child’s development in physical aspects—such as during corrective gymnastics—psychophysical and educational aspects—such as during sensory integration therapy—as well as social aspects—during sessions of sociotherapy and cultural therapy. Mammutico™building block sets are an effective tool for stimulating the vestibular and tactile systems of children and adolescents. With these blocks, children can practice their grasping skills, develop their sense of balance, and improve hand-eye coordination—for example, by creating a special obstacle course for crawling, climbing, and jumping.

These blocks are also a great tool for sparking creativity among adult training participants and trainers alike. They work well in workshops on interpersonal communication, teamwork, team building, and team and resource management.

The loose pieces in the SIMPLE set offer plenty of room to let the imagination run wild and foster a sense of accomplishment

Preschool is a place where building blocks are part of everyday life. Children are always playing with building blocks—and have always done so. At the preschool where I work, we have the special pleasure of using Mammutico blocks (the large SIMPLE set), and we truly see the great value of playing with these types of blocks every day.

At our preschool, we’ve used these blocks both in the classroom and on the playground, and they’ve worked wonderfully in both settings. Despite having just three simple shapes, the kids really do all sorts of things with them. In addition to having fun, we’ve also observed plenty of educational benefits, lots of joy, and mutual interaction. The benefits of playing with large building blocks include, of course, fostering creativity and spatial imagination, but also teaching cooperation and communication.

The blocks were a Children’s Day gift, and our expectations were, first, that they would bring joy, and second, that they would bring younger children and preschoolers together through play. Everything worked out perfectly.

SIMPLE blocks appear to be unrelated to one another. We usually think of blocks as pieces that can be connected, but in this case, we’re dealing with loose, independent elements. This feature is incredibly valuable; it provides vast scope for developing imagination—both spatial and creative. Moreover, this kind of play gives a sense of accomplishment; there’s no room for failure here—you can always build something from these loose pieces. You can change things around, add pieces, or rearrange them—it’s always interesting. Precisely because these pieces aren’t connected to one another, building blocks simply never get boring.

We invite you to watch the expert’s full statement:

Mammutico blocks are an excellent tool for working with children on the autism spectrum

Mammutico blocks are an excellent tool for working with children on the autism spectrum. They work well across a wide range of activities, making them a versatile aid for both play and learning.

First, it’s worth noting that Mammutico blocks are simply appealing—to all children, not just those with autism. The large, unique pieces evoke positive emotions, which sets a good tone for any activity in which they’re used.

When working with a child with autism, we rely on concrete objects so that the child can manipulate them. Thanks to their size, Mammutico blocks allow for the building of enormous structures. The large size of the pieces makes it much easier to create structures, so even children who have problems with motor coordination can easily build the simplest tower. The fact that the structure they create can be larger than the child themselves is an added bonus that encourages action and provides great satisfaction.

Large bricks, windows, and pillars make it possible to build excellent obstacle courses tailored to the children’s abilities. Children participate in creating the obstacles and then navigate them. This helps them develop physical fitness, bilateral coordination, as well as spatial awareness and planning skills. Additionally, the blocks help regulate muscle tone, and handling multiple pieces also stimulates proprioception.

Children on the autism spectrum often experience a condition called tactile hypersensitivity, in which even the gentlest tactile stimuli cause excessive emotional reactions or distract them. The material used to make the blocks is very pleasant to the touch. This makes it possible—and even desirable—for children with tactile defensiveness to play with them. It’s worth noting here that all the pieces are also very safe; they have no sharp edges or grooves that could cut the skin. This is an extremely important consideration when working with children who have various challenges, both physical and emotional.

Autism spectrum disorders are often perceived through the lens of a complete lack of interest in other people and withdrawal from social interactions. Nevertheless, through the repeated practice of simple social behaviors, we can provide children with models and safe strategies for appropriate behavior—examples to follow—which then serve as a foundation for modification and application in various situations. It is therefore beneficial for the child to internalize as many elements of appropriate behavior as possible and to “practice” them in various social and group settings. Playing with large building blocks is a great tool for this type of work. It allows children to build relationships within the group, strengthens group cohesion, and fosters the ability to play together. Depending on the scenario established by the facilitator, activities with large building blocks can serve as daily social skills training.

Mammutico Perfect as a Tool for Creative Construction and the Development of Creativity

Mammutico blocks are a unique way for children aged 6–13 to spend their free time actively and creatively. They have a simple design, are flexible, and feel pleasant to the touch. The foam material from which they are made stimulates children’s sensorimotor skills by regulating muscle tone and improving the precision of their movements.

Free play with these large blocks fosters the development of creative thinking and imagination. The blocks worked very well for both individual and group play. During individual play, the children carefully added new pieces to their creations. By following the instructions, they also developed analytical skills and logical thinking through analogy.

Building with Mammutico blocks worked wonderfully in a group setting. The very act of creating a structure from non-standard blocks was an ideal opportunity to freely form new relationships among the participants and to learn cooperation—discussing a plan of action and overcoming difficulties. This interesting creative activity attracted many children to join in the fun. Thanks to this, we had the opportunity to work together and discuss the challenges that arose in our interactions during the activity. This, in turn, allowed the children to acquire new emotional and social skills and build a positive self-image as capable and effective individuals.

Playing with Mammutico is extremely valuable for children with emotional difficulties. For withdrawn and shy children, the large blocks help them feel more confident by boosting their sense of competence. In turn, children with oppositional behavior can safely release their energy using the foam blocks, which are soft and quiet.

The large blocks are versatile, allowing for the creation of a wide variety of structures. On the one hand, these include, for example, places where children can take shelter, relax, and find calm; on the other hand, they can be everyday objects or costume elements (shields, swords, armor). The Perfect sets encourage kids to build both their own original ideas and to learn how to build based on the included instructions. The children built with great focus and spontaneity, creating truly interesting projects: towers, bases, little houses, etc. The children found the size of the pieces particularly appealing, as it allowed them to create structures (such as vehicles) larger than themselves, which served as a catalyst for further pretend play, such as playing house or riding a scooter.

Find out how the Perfect set performed at the Caritas Archdiocese of Warsaw’s Sociotherapeutic Day Care Center on Okopowa Street:

Perfect Large Building Blocks – enhance sensory integration, help children calm down, and relieve tension

Mammutico blocks are an interesting option for both younger children and more experienced, demanding teenagers. Perfect sets consist of identical pieces that can be combined in a variety of ways. The set includes a book with instructions for building specific figures. This helps children develop construction skills and spatial thinking, stimulating the left hemisphere of the brain. They can also come up with their own creations, thereby expanding their creativity and imagination, which in turn strengthens the right hemisphere.

While playing, children improve their motor coordination and physical fitness by using their strength to fit the pieces together. Playing with the blocks gives them a chance to temporarily relieve tension by squeezing the soft, pleasant-to-the-touch pieces. Children appreciate the flexibility of the material, which they find interesting and enjoyable.

Given the large number of pieces and the size of the blocks, it’s possible to quickly build a platform out of them where one can simply lie down and rest. All of this can help strengthen sensory integration, which so many young people struggle with today.

The blocks are pleasant to the touch, which catches many people’s attention. They also feature colors that are easy on the eyes, combined in an interesting, contrasting way (warm yellow and gray). It’s worth remembering that yellow promotes concentration, while gray calms and soothes.

Another advantage of the blocks is that they’re “quiet” during play. While more and more children complain of being overstimulated by noise (especially in school after-school programs), playing with these large, lightweight blocks seems downright calming. These blocks make virtually no noise, even when a tall structure topples onto the floor.

Undoubtedly, the durability of the material is also a major advantage. Our children used the Perfect blocks extensively and for a long time, yet there was no visible damage to them.

It’s also an interesting option for adults to enjoy in their free time. Assembling the figures described in the included instructions is complex enough to provide an engaging and unique challenge for people of all ages.

This product is an alternative and engaging option for group activities. With these blocks, participants can practice collaboration to ultimately achieve a shared, pre-determined goal. This, in turn, makes these blocks ideal for use in social skills training and sociotherapy sessions.

Large Building Blocks as a Tool for Sensory Integration Therapists

Playing with Mammutico large building blocks not only develops children’s construction skills but, crucially, supports sensory integration processes. These blocks are therefore ideal not only for playgrounds and playrooms but can also become an indispensable tool in therapy offices. Sensory integration is the ability to perceive, understand, and organize information provided by the senses. Disorders in this area make daily life difficult. Sensory therapy is usually a fun and engaging activity for children, during which sensory stimuli are integrated. By walking on the blocks, under them, rolling around, or squeezing through them, children practice body awareness and spatial awareness. In addition, the soft foam the blocks are made of has a positive effect on the sense of touch, and the somewhat unconventional shapes ensure that play isn’t too easy, but isn’t overly difficult either. Meanwhile, the muted colors of the Mammutico blocks do not distract the child, which helps them focus on a specific task.

Playing freely with the large blocks naturally stimulates motor planning, balance, and coordination. While playing freely, a child unconsciously plans their actions at every stage—from deciding how much effort to use to lift a block to arranging it in such a way that a structure is formed.

Playing with any blocks helps children practice concentration, as the time they spend focused on the task increases during the building and planning process. Mammutico blocks, however, have an advantage over other blocks in that they also help children develop the ability to collaborate with other playmates.

Thanks to their large size and unique shapes, Mammutico blocks encourage even those children who usually avoid physical activity to move. The large foam pieces are so engaging that little ones are more eager than usual to join in the fun. Thus, a creative playground like this is a great tool for ensuring an appropriate amount of physical activity while also helping children—who are usually withdrawn and have trouble connecting with their peers—practice their social skills.

In my opinion, the Mammutico foam toys are an excellent way to spend time, and their benefits ensure that every moment spent playing with them brings nothing but invaluable benefits to a child’s development.

Mammutico Building Blocks – The Main Attraction at Family Gatherings

I’ve always enjoyed playing with building blocks, and I believe that, whether on a small or large scale, it’s hard to find a toy that’s more educational and creative. During the numerous events and festivals organized by the MOŻESZ Association, I’ve seen just how much fun playing with Mammutico building blocks is. The well-designed pieces that inspire imagination and creativity, the professional supervision of instructors, and the safe play environment mean we never have to worry about turnout for this attraction. And the children’s immense interest in Mammutico blocks speaks volumes—it’s a silent endorsement worth heeding when looking for good, safe, and creative play for the little ones.

See how our sets work out at picnics!