Teaching the Pre-K Child How to Solve Problems

Kids, like most adults, learn to solve problems quickly when motivated by the subject. Teaching your pre-K child problem-solving skills involves selecting important and interesting topics. Use teachable moments around the house or when you take your child out into the community. When your child asks, "Why does this work this way?" or "Can I change this?" create a realistic situation to allow hands-on exploration to find the answers to these questions. Young children have a natural curiously about life, which creates an advantage for learning.

  1. Imitation Games

    • By their first birthdays, kids have begun solving problems by watching others solve similar problems, according to early-childhood researchers Carla Poole, Susan A. Miller and Ellen Booth Church. Games that allow your pre-K child to imitate you in searching and finding the correct answer help teach important problem-solving skills. Blocks and puzzle games encourage problem solving, and they allow you to demonstrate the process for your child to imitate. Move slowly through the problem-solving process and allow yourself time to repeat the demonstration as many times as needed before your child masters the process. Keep it fun so your child will continue to enjoy learning.

    Breaking Down Problems

    • The Georgetown University Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation suggests teaching your young child to take time with the problem and to break the process down into manageable steps as opposed to taking on the entire problem as a whole. The National Center for Learning Disabilities calls this "chunking." Your first instinct when your child fails may be to rush to his aid; instead, allow your pre-K child to learn patience and problem-solving skills by helping him divide the problem into smaller chunks. Offer a helpful tip, however, when your child shows frustration or ask a series of questions. Offering a tip that provides direction, instead of jumping in and solving the problem, allows your child to build problem-solving skills -- and confidence.

    Hands-On Exploration

    • Scholastic.com's education specialists encourage hands-on involvement to keep children engaged in the problem-solving activity. Help your prekindergarten child learn problem-solving skills with a variety of games that allow hands-on interaction. Board games, jigsaw puzzles and plastic block- and wood-construction kits give your preschooler a collection of tools to practice problem solving. Talk about possible assembly projects for construction, and allow your child to explore before offering any suggestions about the exact building configurations. Use board games to teach solution skills while at the same time allowing your child to experiment with rolling dice or manipulating game pieces.

    Moving to Abstract

    • Children reach the level to do problem solving by age 2, according to Scholastic.com, and kids learn between age 2 and the start of kindergarten to think abstractly about problems. Memory skills help your pre-kindergarten child develop the memory to apply knowledge learned earlier in similar situations to new problems. Help your child practice memory and transfer knowledge by selecting toys that present similar problems such as matching block shapes to holes. Once your child masters the basic skill, select a different toy that requires the same matching operation to encourage your child to use memory skills to solve basic playtime problems.

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