When do kids start developing thinking skills?
As your child goes into her third year, you will see a big jump in your child’s thinking skills. She starts to be curious with almost everything around her. She starts to appreciate humor and jokes. She will be able to come up with solutions to solve more complex challenges. And she will be able to empathize, putting herself in other people’s shoes. She knows they have thoughts and feelings that are different from hers and she can imagine what these thoughts and feelings might be. She may give you a hug when you are sad. You may see her help another child who is struggling.
For parents out there, this is a period of time where you may want to spend more time with your child as they are beginning to understand things, i.e. the how and why. Remember, kids grow fast!
Build your child’s logical thinking skills
As children get closer to age 3, they begin to understand how things are logically connected; for example, that you need to eat in order to grow. They use their increasing language skills to ask questions about what they see, hear, and experience in the world. That’s the reason it seems that every other word 2-year-olds speak is “Why?” The ability to think logically—to put 2 and 2 together—is critical for thinking through problems and being successful in school and life.
What you can do:
Don’t answer your child’s questions right away. Cultivate the habit of your child directing her own learning in order to develop an exploratory environment for your child. Ask first what she thinks the answer is. This gets her wheels turning and thinking.
Remember to listen carefully to her response and acknowledge her ideas. This is something parents usually forget or gets impatient about.
You can then offer the correct answer. For example, if he says he thinks it gets dark at night so people can sleep, you might respond: Yes, it is easier to sleep when it’s dark, and then go on to explain as simply as possible about the sun setting and rising each day.
Ask lots of questions during your everyday play and routines. As you go through your day together, ask your child “why” questions. Why do you think the leaves fall from the trees? Why does it snow? This gets your child’s mind working and also lets her know that you are interested in and value her ideas.
This form of learning is celebrated by many child psychologists and is important particularly in the Asian culture that we live in. Although Singapore is a highly progressive country, our roots has conditioned as to defer to authority from a young age and hence we are told to listen than to question.
As parents, we should embrace a child’s inquisitive mind and allow them to explore as much as they can while they are growing so that they would be expose to the world around them. Or, perhaps try Coding next time!
