Learning how to think

Critical thinking might not be something you associate with your baby or toddler. But like many essential skills the foundations of analysing information and forming a judgement are laid in early childhood.  

The Cambridge Dictionary defines critical thinking as:  

‘The process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea, without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you’.^[1]

Critical thinking is often something we associate with higher level study, but it’s not just a skill you use when writing an essay or solving a problem. It’s part of our daily lives.  

You use this skill to think about all the information you have and make a judgement about what to do. For example, when you research something like weaning, you also think about the credibility of the information, what you know about your child and plan what you’ll do. 

Critical thinking is an important skill in a world where we’re surrounded by information.  

Your child will need to be able to think about what they see or are told. They will need to judge if it’s from a reliable source before deciding if it’s information they will use.  

Critical thinking will help them to think logically about what they know, what new information adds (or doesn’t) to that and ultimately support them to make informed decisions.  

Our ideas for play which supports critical thinking 

For all ages of children: 

• Give your child time to think, don’t step in to help straight away. 
• Talk through your own problem solving when your child is with you (lots of us do all this thinking in our heads but saying it out loud shows our children the process). 
•  For example, “I need to get a birthday card for Auntie. But you need to be at nursery at 12 and we’re going to the park. If we go to the park first, the shop’s nearby, so we can get the card and then have time to come home before nursery – just in case you need to get changed.” 
• Comment on your child’s problem solving to help them think about the decisions they’ve made. 
• For example, “Oh you tried putting the brick in that way, but it doesn’t fit. You’re turning it round to try another way. It fits in when it’s horizontal.”  
• Encourage them to ask questions, and if you don’t know the answers show them how you’d find out by letting them help to look it up or talking through the options.  

Babies 

What’s this? 

What you need 

• A selection of objects, anything that is safe for your baby to explore, for example, a wooden spoon, a metal dish, some plastic teethers. 

What to do 

• Place the objects where your baby can reach them (if they’re not reaching yet you could hold an object while they look at it).  
• Give your baby time to pick up the objects and explore them with their hands and mouth.  
• If they’ve already mastered letting go of an object, they might enjoy having some boxes or containers to drop the objects into.  
• Stay close and smile as they explore.  
• Give them time to play quietly but also comment on what they’re doing sometimes.  

Toddlers 

Ah oh, we have a problem.  

As your toddler seeks greater independence, there are likely to be times when they get stuck and can’t do exactly what they wanted to. This can, if your toddler isn’t too frustrated, be a time to practise some problem solving.  

If they’re stuck but calm, you could try talking through solving a problem together. 

What to try 

• Describe the problem, for example, “You want the cow to go on the tower but it fell off.”  
• Help them think about the problem, “I think the cow is too big for that block. I wonder what we could do?”  
• Your toddler might have a suggestion, but this is quite hard so you could pause to let them think, then suggest something to try.  
• For example, “Let’s try making the tower with the boxes, they’re bigger.”  
• If a solution doesn’t work, show your toddler how you can think about that and try something else. This is an important part of critical thinking as you review and try something else.  

Children 

A bridge for my toys 

What you need 

• Small toys – something your child likes 
• Boxes, blocks and tubs – anything you have at home that could make a bridge 
• Pictures of bridges, either printed or online 

What to do 

• Tell your child they need to make a bridge to get the toy across the stream (you could use a piece of fabric to make a stream – or just imagine one).  
• Show them all the blocks, boxes and tubs you have for them to use.  
• Look at some pictures of bridges and chat about what they have in common and what’s different about them.  
• Start building your bridge.  
• Avoid taking over the building, but ask questions and make suggestions that help you and your child solve problems together. You could say things like, “I wonder how we can make the bridge strong enough.” “It needs to be longer, but this block is short, what could we do?”  
• If you make a bridge and it falls down, talk about why that might be and what you could try again.  
• If your bridges don’t work, go online and see if you can find some information together about what makes a bridge strong.  

Don’t forget to check your activity screen for ideas that will support your child’s active skills and if you missed our ideas for supporting creativity you can find them here.  

References 

[1] Cambridge Dictionary n.d. Critical thinking. CRITICAL THINKING | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary