How to Teach Your Kids CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

By Kimberly Blaker

Kids are inundated with information on a daily basis. So how do they learn to distinguish facts from opinion, fiction, and falsehoods? Teaching kids to think critically is the solution. Good critical thinking skills are necessary to assess information and form logical conclusions. Here are a few ways to help your child develop problem-solving skills and foster critical thinking.

Ask your child questions.

When your kid comments on or asks a question about a situation, turn it into an opportunity. Rather than immediately providing a definitive response, ask your child open-ended questions that require thought. For example, respond with, “What would you do to solve this problem?” or “I’d like to hear what you think.”

Once your child answers, ask him or her (in a nonjudgemental tone) to defend their answer. “Can you tell me why you think that?” or “What led you to this conclusion?” This provides kids the opportunity to consider how they arrived at their responses. The idea is for your child to discover faulty thinking and connect the dots to logical thinking.

Whether or not your child or adolescent’s thinking is correct or logical, offer praise for their effort to think the answer through. Then, if the reasoning is faulty, gently explain what you believe and why to correct false assumptions or misconceptions.

Use play to foster critical thinking

Play provides lots of learning opportunities. Encourage your kids to strategize when they play games. Have them think through their next move and consider what their opponent might do. Building with Legos or blocks provides another opportunity. Have your child consider how placing one piece will affect the placement of others and, ultimately, the look or functionality of the structure.

Take advantage of everyday tasks

Real-life opportunities to problem solve are an excellent way to hone kids’ critical thinking skills. When your child does chores, let your kid do it their way a few times to try to figure out an efficient way to conquer the task.

If your kid hasn’t figured it out after multiple tries, ask if your child can think of a faster or better way to do it. If necessary, you can offer a tip and ask how that might help.

Encourage outside-the-box thinking

Kids have the innate ability to think outside the box. This is known as divergent thinking. As we grow, however, thought becomes more convergent. A certain degree of convergent thinking is necessary, so we don’t give the same weight to all possibilities. But divergent thinking is still crucial to solving problems.

When a problem arises, ask your child to think of all the possible ways to solve it. Also, have your kid consider and weigh out the pros and cons of each solution to determine which is best.