There are many people who believe that children have it easy these days, but if anything, life is more complex for younger generations than ever. There’s no such thing as simplicity anymore, and this means that children have to not just deal with what the modern world throws at them in terms of overstimulating devices and too much choice, but they’ve also got to learn the lessons of thriving in a world that the previous generation views as relentless and harsh. What is the key question? Is it about battening down the hatches and hiding away, or is it about teaching how to problem solve? It can be the fault of us, the parents, because if we don’t model problem-solving behavior or give our children the tools, they will never be able to deal with things themselves. So let’s show you some effective strategies to teach children problem-solving skills.
Always Provide a Problem
One of the easiest solutions for us as parents is to shy away from any problem, and this means that we set our children up for a fall as well because if we view a problem as overwhelming, no matter how simple it is, our children are going to take on this behavior. This is why we need to incorporate problems into our children’s lives, but about making sure that it’s problems they can solve or at the very least acquire the skills. Something like board games can be an excellent way to stretch everybody’s brains, and whether it’s online chess or Monopoly, these tough games we can easily shy away from. However, it’s an incredibly well-controlled problematic environment that we should present. Rather than becoming overwhelmed when we experience a problem, it’s about that slow controlled dose of discomfort that we can all benefit from.
Ask Your Child for Their Input
The most wonderful thing about children is that they will provide unique perspectives to even your problems. You don’t want to burden your child with your particular problems; however, encouraging them to practice applying problem-solving skills will boost their confidence, but it will also show them that you value their input and creative thinking. It can be easy for us to not take our children’s opinions on board, but if you ever face an age-appropriate problem, asking your children for their ideas and how to solve it can provide a very unique insight, not just into their approach to problems but also how you have presented the notion of problem-solving up to this point. If they have no thoughts on how to solve the problem, this is the perfect time for you to start working together. Open-ended questions that encourage your child to explore different possibilities and avoid simply giving them the answer will be an excellent way for them to start digging deep into their gray matter and figuring out what they are capable of.
Teach Specific Problem-Solving Steps
If there is one thing that we all need to help our children with, it’s breaking things down into components that can avoid overwhelm, but also increase confidence. We need to resist the urge to provide immediate solutions when our children get stuck on something, for example, their homework, and they need to learn the importance of making mistakes because this is what will solidify those answers and solutions in their minds. Problem-solving can be about five general methods:
- Identifying the problem in its exact form.
- Brainstorming solutions.
- Evaluating the viability of each option.
- Trying a solution out for size.
- Assessing the outcome.
Giving ourselves and our children a structure for solving a problem is invaluable. Our children can think that there are people who have the natural ability to do something when, in fact, everything we learn and acquire is, for the most part, about practice. It’s about making sure that you gradually dial up the intensity of these problems just to test whether they’ve been able to assimilate the appropriate structure to solving a problem.
There are so many problems we deal with as parents that sometimes we can benefit from remembering the importance of problem-solving. Some of the most common challenges for children are things like a lack of patience, limited perspective, giving up too easily, or getting distracted. The key is about remembering that when something is a problem, it’s not the end of the line; it’s just that the solution is not as apparent as we think it is. With every problem, there is a solution, and we can all benefit from remembering this.
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