FUTURE-PROOF YOUR CHILD
15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR CHILD’S CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Children (and adults!) are bombarded with information from hundreds of sources every day. Whether it’s social media, the television, teachers, friends, or adverts, children need to know how to evaluate the information they’re hearing and how to draw their own conclusions. This is where teaching your child critical thinking skills becomes important.
When children are unable to think critically they can struggle both inside and outside of school. Within school, they might struggle with exams, essays, and difficult questions. Outside of school, it can be hard to feel confident and sure of ourselves when we have no idea what our values are and how we can apply them to the big wide world of information.
As adults, it’s important that we know how to separate fact from opinion, when we can trust what we’re being told, and how to come to our own conclusions. Taking the time to teach our children critical thinking skills guarantees them a head start in life that they be benefit from throughout their lives!
In a world of misinformation and conflicting opinions, not only are critical thinking skills important, but it is also one of the 10 future-proof super skills that we teach in our program, due to its value in the future of work. Business leaders of tomorrow will be looking for individuals with well developed critical thinking skills in a world dominated by technology and automation.
In this article, we’re going to look at 15 different ways that you can teach your child the critical thinking skills that will give them that all important advantage in their future.
“Never stop asking why?“
WHY CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ARE IMPORTANT
Critical thinking skills help us to approach big decisions with careful thought as opposed to making a quick decision based on our emotions.
It’s particularly important for children as it helps them to observe the world around them and ask the right questions. Critical thinking skills can help your child to develop their own set of values whilst respecting the different values and beliefs that others may have.
So how do you help nurture critical thinking skills in your child? Below are 15 simple ways to get you started.
1. SCHEDULE FAMILY DEBATES
Host a weekly or monthly family debate about a current topic or something that your child is interested in. Everyone gets to pick which side they are on and has 20 minutes to find as much research and evidence to support their opinion.
Your child will learn the importance of supporting their views with facts, as well as learning that other people might have opinions that are different to their own – and that that’s ok!
2. ENCOURAGE THEM TO LEARN FROM EVERYTHING
Use reading, activities, days out, and long journeys as an opportunity for your children to learn from everything and build those critical thinking skills. One of the best ways to learn is to give your child lots of hands-on time in new environments.
Take a long family walk or book a trip somewhere new to provide your children with new opportunities to learn from their surroundings.
“Critical thinking and curiosity are the key to creativity.“
3. DISCUSS THE BENEFITS OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Critical thinking skills are particularly valuable to us when we understand the benefits. Critical thinking encourages curiosity, enhances creativity, and fosters independence.
By practising their critical thinking skills, your children will be able to more easily assess new information, create more meaningful connections with people, and have the tools they need to thrive as an individual.
4. PROVIDE LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY
All kinds of games will help your children to build skills in critical thinking. Whether it’s play-pretend, Lego, building forts, or making up dances, give them the space to do as much playing as possible.
Try to play with your child as well as allow them the space for self-led play. Letting your children get bored and, as a result, create new games to play is a wonderful way to build critical thinking skills.
5. GIVE YOUR CHILD TIME TO THINK
When asking your child a question, allow them time to think about their response. If they’re younger, it can help to move down to their eye level and/or hold their hand to encourage them.
With older children, respect that they’re experimenting with making their own decisions and having their own opinions. Try to be open-minded about whatever response they give you.
6. TRY NOT TO INTERVENE
When we see our children facing a problem, it can be really difficult to stop ourselves from intervening. After all, we want to help them! But coming up with their own solutions to problems is an important part of developing critical thinking skills and something that they’ll learn best through trial and error.
Of course, if they’re in danger or getting particularly frustrated, you might like to intervene. But afterwards, take the time to discuss the different ways that they could have approached the problem.
7. ENCOURAGE THINKING IN NEW WAYS
The simple act of thinking differently to your established patterns of thought is a great way to hone critical thinking skills. Ask your children if they can think of new ways to do something. You could ask them to think of new ways to keep the shoes tidy, complete their homework in less time, or take equal responsibility for the pet dog.
This is especially effective if, as a family, you’ve approached a situation in one way for a long time. By thinking about the situation in new ways and coming up with new solutions, children will learn that there are many different ways to solve the same problem. They’ll also learn the importance of being open to change.
8. HELP THEM DEVELOP HYPOTHESES
When reading a new story or playing together, take a moment to ask your child how they think the situation is going to end. They’ll need to assess everything that’s happened up to this moment as well as draw on knowledge that they have from life experience.
By practising this regularly, children will build their critical thinking skills and learn how to hypothesise future events. An incredibly useful skill as they move into the world of work!
Curiosity is everything.
9. ASK OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
When your child asks you a question, see if you can encourage them to consider the answer for themselves. Watching movies or reading books normally provides plenty of opportunities to build critical thinking skills. You might like to ask ‘what do you think is happening here?’ or ‘why do you think they said those things?’.
Be respectful of their answer and encourage them to explain why they think that.
10. GIVE THEM CHOICES
Not only do children thrive off of being given a choice, but it also helps them to practise critical thinking skills! Give your children the choice between two different day trips or meals, and give them time to decide which one they would prefer.
There are opportunities every single day to practice this idea, from the big decisions to the small.
You might like to encourage them to weigh up the pros and cons, as well as consider what their siblings would prefer.
11. PRACTICE YOUR OWN CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AND BE A ROLE MODEL
Be a critical thinking role model by not taking everything that you see as fact. If there’s a news broadcast or headline that you don’t trust, show your children that you’re taking responsibility by doing research and following the evidence based information so that you can come to your own conclusions.
Children learn so much from us modelling certain behaviours and practices. This will help them to understand that they don’t have to believe everything they’re told. There is power in knowledge and an even greater power in developing the critical thinking skills that turn a person into a life-long truth seeker.
12. TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT INTEREST THEM
Children are much more likely to engage in deep conversation when it’s about a topic that they’re interested in. Set aside some time to ask them questions about the topic, give them your opinion and ask for theirs too.
This will encourage them to think more deeply about the things they love as well as help them to prioritise the things that they’re interested in. Critical thinking skills will be built through a curiosity and passion for learning all about a subject.
13. PROBLEM-SOLVE
Give your children a seemingly impossible task and then ask them to come up with 5 ways to do it. For example, it could be opening a door without using their hands or standing with only one toe on the floor.
Over time, your children will begin to realise that there are lots of different solutions, even when it might seem impossible. This concept is great for building resilience and grit, two other skills that we teach in our program.
14. ENCOURAGE QUESTIONS
One of the most important jobs that we have as parents is to give our children the space to ask questions.
When our children ask us questions, they’re improving their understanding of the world around them and building critical thinking skills which will serve them well as they grow.
As well as giving them the space to ask questions, try to encourage their curiosity by asking lots of questions yourself.
For simple daily question prompts that are designed to build these important critical thinking skills, check out the Kid Coach app which contains 100’s of really great questions that you can weave into your child’s day.
15. ENCOURAGE OPEN-MINDEDNESS
Although open-mindedness can be a difficult skill to teach, it all starts with, you guessed it, modelling!
Being open-minded is about leaving your judgements and opinions aside and, instead, dealing with the person or situation that’s right in front of you. Talk to your child about the importance of diversity, fairness, and being inclusive.
THE TAKEAWAY
We live in such an information-saturated world that it’s become crucial to teach children critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills will help your child to develop their own values and beliefs, build deep connections with other people, and value the opinions of others – even when they might differ from their personal views.
There are so many ways to teach your child to be a critical thinker that it can be hard to know where to start! But once you have got started, critical thinking will start to become a normal part of your day to day life and how your family chooses to approach life.
Stay open-minded, give your child time to think and share their own opinions, and lead by example whenever you get the chance.
For a range of different activities and resources to build critical thinking skills as well as nine other important future-proof super skills, check out our program below and sign up to our mailing list to receive free tips and activities.
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