There are a number of ways you can help increase your child’s critical thinking skills. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can do that.
Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can help increase your child’s critical thinking skills.
Remember the times when we used to ask a lot of questions as kids? Everything would create curiosity in our minds. The urge to imagine, analyze and evaluate the information with our observation and experiences is called critical thinking. All children need to experience critical thinking and develop it as a skill.
Critical thinking comes handy in the modern world because of the complexity of situations and the competitive and digitally driven market that awaits a child when they grow up.
To think logically will give the child the necessary edge that he needs to make the correct decision, and help him analyze what is right and wrong based on the ability to evaluate information.
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There are a few ways a parent can make sure that the kid has opportunities to enhance the art of critical thinking.
Here are 5 easy ways to boost your child’s critical thinking skills:
1. Inculcate reading habits
Reading is one of teh best ways to develop critical thinking skills.
Reading is the best possible way to connect with oneself and with the world out there. The more a kid reads, the more he is aware of words, situations, emotions, stories, and characters.
The more he reads, the more his brain captures information that needs to be carried forward as learning.
Let the kid analyze the story and depict the situation of the story and understand the difference between good and bad.
These are very fundamental learning and evaluation techniques that will guide the child in the future.
2. Encourage questions
If your child loves asking questions, you should encourage it. Learning from other's experiences is a very genuine form of learning and as a child to understand and trust information that comes from the elders becomes the founding stone of their thought process.
Every question is an opportunity to learn, use it.
Just answering the question is not enough, cross-question the child on what his/her views are about the topic and move from just "what" and "when" to "why" and "how".
3. Solving problems
Depend on your child's ability to solve his problems; motivate the child to solve problems and listen to the solution. This is a big step in establishing critical thinking in a child. Make them realize that they can answer a question.
This will give you an insight into the child's mind; the way he thinks, processes information, reacts and solves a problem.
Acknowledge a child's doubt and questions and try and make him answer his questions to understand where he is coming from.
You are always there to correct the facts, but the initiation is necessary. The child also gets the boost that their opinions and solutions matter when you listen to them; this helps them build up decision making qualities.
4. Give responsibility
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A child needs to learn to work out of their comfort zones at an early age. Give them problems and responsibilities that make them think about how they will solve the problem or look for a solution.
Get them a pet to take care of, ask them to fold their clothes, pack their school bags, or look after their younger sibling.
These are some examples of giving your child something to think about and act.
Help them when needed but let them feel they can do the task at hand and let them figure out how. There is nothing that matters to a child more than his parents trusting him with responsibility. This is a good quality to imprint on a child.
5. Playing is the best learning
Playtime for a child is important. Whether it is playing a game with friends, or, puzzles, riddles, and board games, it helps a child to navigate their experimentation and learning. This is the best way to increase and work on their IQ.
While playing a child develops and discovers certain critical thinking skill sets that might be impossible to learn in theory.
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A child learns important life lessons like team-work, sportsmanship, leadership, and creativity through his playtime and we should encourage having a healthy playtime for all kids.
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With small changes and efforts that we bring in our child's routine, we can make them solve their problems and give them the confidence they need to do so.
Focusing on critical thinking from a young age will help the child grow into an independent, bright and broad-minded individual.
- Article by Dr. Sam Paul Isaac, Director, Asia Pacific World School, Bangalore
Read: 9 tips to increase concentration power and turn your kid into a genius
Read: 10 ways to help students think for themselves
Read: How preparing your children today for 21st-century skills will help them for future jobs that don’t exist yet
Read: Must have skills for children: Importance of Interpersonal Skills
Read: Why schools kids should be taught programming skills
Published By:
Roshni
Published On:
Mar 22, 2020
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