Encourage Your Child to Become a Critical Thinker

Araceli, the author of our last entry on chapter 5 who is pictured at the end of this, obviously practices what Galinsky's preaching. This is a picture of her two daughters, 29-month-old Alexxa, and 9-month-old Ana'Bella, "being curious in the kitchen." Open-ended play....great for fostering critical thinking. Happy reading!

In chapter five, Galinsky presents nine suggestions to help parents “promote critical thinking in children” (p. 237). There were three suggestions that were really interesting, and thought provoking.

Galinsky’s first suggestion is to “watch your child forming theories about how things work” (p. 237). By allowing children to form their own theories about how something may work, you’re giving your child the opportunity to think outside of the box. A child may build his or her theory after analyzing the facts, which then leads them to build their own conclusion, and finally, they’ll test their theory to see if their results are the same or different.

The first suggestion reminded me of when I was three years old, and my mother told me not to touch the hot frying pan full of oil on top of the stove. I remember asking her “why?” She responded, “Because you may burn yourself and you won’t be a happy little girl.” Just as my mother left the kitchen, I walked over to the stove, and put my finger in the hot oil. I closed my eyes, and screamed at the top of my lungs. My mother came running into the kitchen and said, “Let me guess, you touched the hot oil.” Although my mother had warned me not to touch the hot frying pan full of oil, I still did, but boy did I learn my lesson. The next time my mother told me not to touch the hot frying pan, you bet I stayed away from it.

Galinsky’s second suggestion was also very interesting. Here she suggests that parents “promote your child’s curiosity." As we already know children are very curious about everything and it is our duty-as parents-to encourage them (our children) to figure out how to resolve a problem on their own. Children’s curiosity “can be weakened or strengthened by what we do’” (p.238).

This suggestion reminded me of the time when I picked up my bicycle, and I asked my dad to remove the training wheels. I was really curious to see if I could ride it without them. I didn’t want to be the only child in the neighborhood who didn’t know how to ride a bicycle without training wheels. I wanted to learn how to ride my bicycle without those ugly training wheels, just like the big kids on the block. After the first unsuccessful try, I fell on the hard pavement and scraped my hands and knees. I got up and wiped the tears off my face, and I got back on my bicycle. After a few more tries, my dad came up to me and said, “I see that you’re struggling with the taking off part and your pedaling. Do you think that it will be easier for you if you try taking off from the sidewalk? Don’t give up, you can do it!” It took me all day to learn how to ride my bicycle, but I never gave up. My dad helped strengthen my curiosity.

In suggestion four, Galinsky informs us that “we can model critical thinking by encouraging our children to ask questions and by responding with accurate information, always keeping in mind what they already know” (p. 241). From previous experience, we - as parents - might already know the answer to one of their questions, and if we don’t have an answer for them, we can always get back to them when we have looked into the matter. It is very important that your child can recognize the people who they can turn to for accurate information.

All of Galinsky’s suggestions in this chapter are very helpful for educators and parents in promoting good critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is an essential tool for children; therefore it is important that we promote it at an early age.