How to Improve Critical Thinking in Children: What to Do

Critical thinking is an integral part of learning which can start in early childhood. Children learn to solve problems, make associations, and imply things even as infants, but sharpening these skills as they mature also need help especially when they reach toddlerhood and middle childhood. Perhaps you are here because you are wondering how to improve critical thinking in children as a parent or an educator.

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How to develop critical thinking skills: My personal experience

As an educator, one of the topics I am most interested in teaching is critical thinking. These are a wide net of subjects where children are stimulated to solve problems, make implications, or understand patterns and analogies in sequences.

One of the things that worked for me on how to develop critical thinking skills in students are using examples they are familiar with. Everyday situations and familiar topics within their context (such as at home, going to school, or their daily routines) are some of the situations I used to help them in different areas of critical thinking.

With my own son, I also teach age-appropriate critical thinking skills through games, books, and daily situations. I love the seeing the satisfaction he gets when he learns to imply, reason, solve problems, or figure out patterns.

In this post, I will be sharing some of the things that worked for my students and my own child.

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How to improve critical thinking: Strategies that worked for me

Asking age-appropriate questions

Some of the ways on how to teach critical thinking to a child are asking age-appropriate questions. My favorites include “What would happen if..” types of questions and “What would you do..”. These are questions that encourage the child to think about outcomes as well as ways to solve a problem.

If there is an opportunity, you can also demonstrate their answer and how it worked or did not work based on the situation. An example of this is when a child has stained hands with food coloring. You would ask them what would they do to make it clean. If they have no idea, you can make choices such as:

• Wipe it off with a towel
• Use soap and water
• Wipe it off with a tissue

You can demonstrate the choice they picked and let them see for themselves if the solution worked or did not work. This will help them experience hands-on learning, simply by asking a question.

Use helpful resources

Another way on how to improve critical thinking skills in children are using helpful resources such as books, cards, games, and other materials.

In the workbook “Critical Thinking for Kids”, you can practice developing critical thinking for preschool age and up in different areas, such as:

• Problem Solving
• Forming Conclusions and Making Implications
• Logic and Reasoning
• Patterns and Analogies

This book is especially designed to move in a progressive order, allowing the child to practice first with cues, and fostering independence in answering questions. You can find “Critical Thinking for Kids” in Amazon.

Simply narrating a teachable moment

Truth be told, any moment of interaction with your child can be a critical thinking teachable moment. By simply narrating this or explaining how things happened, you can learn how to improve critical thinking.

I’ll give you an example. My son had a habit of climbing up the sofa, sitting at the very edge. I always reminded him that doing that can make him off balance and will make him fall. On one day, he missed this reminder and he really did fall from the sofa. Thankfully, our living room is carpeted and it was a teachable moment for me!

I told him, “See what happens when you sit at the edge of the sofa? You fell down. So, to solve that problem, next time, put your back on the rest over here.” Notice that I used age-appropriate language, just narrated the teachable situation. From then, he always remembered that and tries his best to always sit properly.

Critical thinking games

You can integrate critical thinking skills in games that you would usually play with your child. For example, if you enjoy some board games or sports, you will ask questions using a critical thinking resource when it’s their turn to play.

Or, you can also enjoy classic games such as Taboo and I-Spy, which are some fun games that have an element of critical thinking to it.

Hope this post helps! As always, don’t forget to check out the “Critical Thinking for Kids” workbook in Amazon.

Also read:

How to Treat Apraxia of Speech: Things That Help

How to Fix Dyscalculia: Strategies to Do

How to Teach Opinion Writing for Kids

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