How to help your child develop critical thinking skills

When kids ask questions, parents can tend to respond immediately with the correct answers. To teach your child to think for themself, however, try turning their questions around. Here’s an example:

• Question: Why do I have to go to school?
• Answer: What do you think might happen if you never learned all the things you learn in school?

Turning the tables will force your child to stop, think, and weigh the pros and cons of a situation—keys aspects of critical thinking.

Sometimes, an insatiably curious child can be exasperating. But curiosity is an essential skill for critical thinking! It leads to exploring all sorts of possible solutions and gathering as much information as possible before making a decision. Here are some ideas on how to stimulate your child’s curiosity:

• Stage an internet race: one player asks a question, and the first one to find the right answer wins. The wackier the questions, the better!
• Borrow random books from the library
• Organize theme days at home
• Encourage your child to conduct science experiments at home
• Etc.

Nothing beats fiction as a method for developing your child’s critical thinking skills. Why? Because dealing with fiction is less intimidating than dealing with reality, so your child will be less afraid to make mistakes. Fiction can be found in books, but also in movies, plays, and music! There are many ways to develop critical thinking through fiction:

• Ask your child questions about characters’ attitudes and behaviours
• Ask them to justify their opinion of the fictional work
• Encourage them to draw parallels between the story and real life
• Have them think about the notions of right and wrong
• Etc.

No matter what time of year it is, there’s always something happening in the news. Discussing current events can be a great way to hone your child’s critical thinking skills. This activity will also give them a chance to discover new interests and see how the things they learn in school can help them understand everyday life. Here are some recurring topics you can explore to get your child into current events:

• Elections
• International conflicts
• Scientific discoveries
• Meteorological or environmental disasters
• Newly enacted laws
• Etc.

Children and adults alike tend to let their intuition take charge when faced with a question that needs an immediate answer—but intuition isn’t always the best guide. As it happens, the human brain has two thinking speeds: fast and slow.

1. The fast, or automatic, mode of thinking is used to make decisions very quickly. It’s a survival mechanism.
2. The slow speed, a more analytical mode, is used to make more complex decisions based on the various facts available.

Because kids tend toward fast thinking, they need to develop restraint—that is, the ability to pause for a moment and take the time to think more carefully. There are several games you can use to help your child learn this executive function:

• The Yes or No game: one player asks questions, and the other player must answer without giving a simple “yes” or “no”
• Stacking games, such as Jenga
• Simon Says: one player calls out instructions, which the others must follow only if they begin with “Simon says . . .”
• Simon Says Opposites: players do the opposite of what the leader calls out
• Etc.