As they grow older, your child will need to make decisions and evaluate their choices. This requires critical thinking and something that you can help them with by giving the opportunity to practice and make some of their own. They can be as small as what they want to wear, eat or buy with their pocket money. Either way, they will begin to understand that not every option is the best and it’s important to think about them carefully. Here are some teacher suggestions on how you can help your child to develop their critical thinking skills.
Patience Is Key
When asking questions it’s important that parents provide their children enough time to not only respond but also think carefully about the best way in which to. When we rush children for answers, it makes them feel pressured, limiting the time and effort that they give to their ideas. Being patient on the other hand communicates that their ideas are important and gives the impression that they should think about things in more detail.
Pros and Cons
What you can also do is show them how to weigh up their options. You can start with a table of pros and cons for each and encourage them to think of each using hints. Doing this every time that they need to make a decision will help it to become a part of their thought process and something which they do mentally.
Think About the Future
Aside from giving them the power, you can also encourage them to think about the implications of their actions which is what they will need to do to make good decisions. Something that you can help them to do by encouraging them to form their ideas and hypotheses, during play, watching TV, etc.
