TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

1. Children who play with old fashioned toys like jigsaws to building blocks will become better equipped to deal with problems from maths to map-reading, according to new research. (Future Tense- To express thoughts)

2. Traditional play box treats, which also includes board games, improves cognitive skills, the areas of the brain associated with what psychologists call spatial awareness. (Present Tense- General Truth)

3. These are the everyday skills that involve solving logic - from navigating one's way around a busy street to how to load a dishwasher or even putting flat pack furniture together. (Present Tense- General Truth)

4. In academic terms, it helps them in the so-called stem subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics from an early age, said the university study. (Present Tense- Revealing study results)

5. The findings, reported in the specialist journal Psychological Science, will be welcomed by those wanting to see children spend less time playing games on a screen.  (Future Tense- To express thoughts)

6. Instead the experiments by psychologists from Rhodes College in Memphis, USA, suggest getting children as young as four to make things from Lego or do a jigsaw instead. (Present Tense- To express thoughts)

To read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11376734/Traditional-toys-like-jigsaws-and-Lego-boost-childrens-problem-solving-skills.html

CHALLENGING WORDS

Spatial Awareness: organised knowledge of objects in relation to oneself in given space.

     I think that the author preferred a complicated sentence structure because he used a lot of relative clauses(sometimes more than once), both defining and non defining and I believe that it made it hard to understand the meaning of the sentences at first sight. I.e: Traditional play box treats, which also includes board games, improves cognitive skills, the areas of the brain (that are) associated with what psychologists call spatial awareness. 

     He uses an informative tone as he is talking about a scientific study. I like the subject because it is about human brain and skills. I think author handled the subject in an easy way because he only talks about the outcomes of the research without adding his thoughts. I believe that the results of this study are true because nowadays kids mostly play computer games and they lack certain skills.