Critical thinking has always been a valued skill and you would be hard-pressed to find a job seeker who hasn’t at one point listed it among their skills. This skill is even more critical in present day society where we’re inundated with information everywhere we turn, all presented authoritatively and inviting us to accept it as true sans further evaluation or argument. It has never been more important to teach children how to evaluate information and make their own judgments. Here are some ways to encourage critical thinking in your child.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking refers to the ability to imagine, analyze, and evaluate information in order to determine its integrity and validity. Often, school teaches children to accept as gospel truth what their teachers say and even in the home, depending on the parenting style, they can be required to wholly believe what they’re told without asking questions. This makes all of us who grew up in such environments highly susceptible to misinformation and disinformation as long as it’s presented authoritatively or by someone in authority.
How to teach children critical thinking skills
Encourage inquisitiveness
Children are often full of questions. As exhausting as it can be, you should encourage it. Encourage it by explaining things to them from an early age and not shutting down this natural curiosity. When you encourage them to ask questions, you are helping them think logically and formulate arguments and you make them confident in their own reasoning skills. It also improves their ability to articulate themselves and their thoughts.
Don’t demand blind obedience
One of the most effective ways to discourage critical thinking is to demand blind obedience to authority figures. Try to explain to your children why you want them to do what you’re asking them to do. This helps them see how sound judgments are made based on sound reasoning.
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Be a good role model
Children are the biggest imitators. They will do what you do. One way to encourage critical thinking is to model it for them by verbalizing your thoughts on things. You could also research things that sound untrue, just simply pull out your phone and look things up. You can also challenge statements that seem unethical or unfair even when they’re said by authority figures, giving your arguments why.
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Play with them
Children are constantly learning and playtime is often a great time to learn by trial and error. Some great games to develop critical thinking skills are board games. There are board games that are designed specifically to help kids learn to question, analyze, examine, make judgments and more. Such times of relaxation also offer a great opportunity to discuss things on a deeper level and examine issues critically. You can also play brainstorming games where there are say five different ways to solve a problem.
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Practice making choices
Part of critical thinking includes making choices and learning from/dealing with the consequences. Allow them to make small choices like whether or not they want to accept an invitation to a party or how they want to spend their allowance.
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