Problem Solving Exercises for Children

Babies

• Babies are born with a natural curiosity and you can encourage the development of their built-in thirst for knowledge by surrounding them with a variety of interesting toys, food and materials. Promote your child's innate curiosity as well as her fine motor skills by placing interesting baubles or healthy treats just out of reach. This will inspire your baby to explore and perhaps even crawl out of her comfort zone in order to touch, taste and toy with her most recent conquest, thus taking a proverbial step toward her ensuing independence.

Toddler/School-age

• A toddlers or school-aged child is all about self-determination and self-reliance. Toddlers and school-aged children learn best by solving their own everyday problems. This includes such things as putting on their clothes, pouring their milk, washing their hands or painting their room. Although it's often easier (and less messy) to do these things for your child, take a step back and allow for some real-life experience that may lead your child to come up with some creative problem solving on his own behalf. Offer him a hand when he becomes frustrated or impatient, but let him figure it out. Do not to rush to his rescue every chance you get. If parents rush in to save their children too often or give them too much direction in any given task, they are inadvertently discouraging their children from building the self-confidence they will need to flourish.

Tweens

• Children between ages 8 and 12 are too old to be playing with toys, but too young to be caught living large on the teen scene. Life as they know it can be full of drama and self-centeredness. Therefore problem solving may be a little more complicated than it is for youger children. Although the preteen years bring with them physical growth spurts, cognitive development and an increase in reasoning, these are the years that a child will challenge his parents the most. Exercise your child's problem-solving skills by talking to her about the issues kids face. Ask open-ended question. Encourage her to seriously consider these issues as they directly relate to her. Inspire a deep sense of awareness. The more open and honest that parents are with their children, the more apt that they are to confidently make the right choices in life. Allowing children to solve their own problems enables them to grow up to be free-thinking, creative and self-reliant adults--not to mention courageous. There is not always a right or wrong way of doing things, but there is always room for a new way of doing things.

Teens

• Problem solving takes on a whole new meaning for teenagers because most of what teenagers are dealing with is kept in the hidden folds of their personal relationships with parents, siblings, teachers crushes and friends. Parents should free-up the lines of communication and demonstrate trust in their teenager. This can mean encouraging him to take greater responsibility around the home, such as cooking dinner, running errands, picking up siblings from school and doing laundry. This everyday life experience can be an invaluable tool in problem solving and responsibility, although teens may firmly oppose it at first. It also helps to open their minds to the idea that the world doesn't necessarily revolve around their own needs and desires.