There is a palette of skills that every child has to learn and build upon before he/she is ready to face the complexities of life outside the familiar and safe home environment. Be it social skills, negotiation skills, leadership skills or problem solving skills, parents can positively reinforce patterns of behavior and encourage their children to effectively deal with problems when they occur.
A child who has good problem solving skills will also have a strong will, because solving a difficult task implies persevering until a solution is found, and enough confidence to tackle yet harder and harder issues without being afraid. Without a doubt, children can benefit from developing adequate problem solving skills, and not just short-term, especially because it helps them feel in control, capable, and it boosts their self-esteem. Alongside, imagination and creativity, as cognitive processes related to problem solving, are equally stimulated.
Some of the best tips to get your child to work on those problem solving skills imply that you have the time, patience and desire to get involved in the process beginning with your child's yearly childhood:
· First of all you have to stimulate your child's curiosity. Show him/her how many different kinds of trees there are in the park or how gravity works. Then let the child explore his/her environment freely and encourage touching and feeling the texture of objects around him/her. When he/she gets bored you can propose other ways for them to experience those objects by weighting or measuring them, by imagining what they could be used for and so on.
· The next step is to encourage self-expression. Remember that children see the world from a totally different perspective than adults do. For them everything is novelty and asking questions is their way of getting a grasp of the immense complexity surrounding them. To this extent, never let a question unanswered and strive to explain in words that your child can understand what he/she asks.
· For the third step you need to encourage your child's independent thought and action. For example, if your child breaks a toy ask him/her how the toy could be mended and let him/her do it, or create hypothetical situations which involve finding a solution to a problem and ask the child how he/she would solve them. Always reward the child's efforts and abstain from trying to help with finding the right answer.
· The last stage is follow-up. Make sure that your child receives an everyday task that he/she needs to attend to and which involves using his/her problem solving skills. It can easily be a puzzle game, filling the missing words in a text, writing a song, repairing a broken object or finding the shortest route home.
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