Want to know the best ways to teach your child critical thinking skills? This guide from this independent nursery in Birmingham provides the best advice for parents.
Integrate with play time
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When playing with your children, even actions that seem simple to adults will impact your child. For example, if they drop something or break a toy, allow them to think about how that happened and if it can be rectified. More often than not they go back to that toy, pick it up and interact with it again and again until they eventually figure it out for themselves.
This gives them the opportunity to think about the next steps they want to take and what they think will happen.
Provide open-ended options
Avoid yes or no questions, give them the space to slowly figure things out for themselves. Instead of answering each question for your child straight away as they ask them, why not ask them what they’re thinking? They may already have the answer or a part of the answer in their mind already but they’re just afraid to share. Encouraging open-ended conversations will boost both your child’s critical thinking and confidence skills.
Give your child time
A lot of the process is waiting and seeing what your child wants to do next. For example, if they’re struggling with some homework, ask them to think about each element of the task separately and tackle it step by step.
Often a good measure is by timing how long each task is completed, or waiting 2 minutes to let your child figure out the solution by themselves. After that time, ask if you would like to help them or provide a clue to what’s required of them. This process will engage their core thinking skills that they can use in day-to-day activities and in their school work.
Note: This is a collaborative post
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