Toy tip number 2 - How to encourage problem solving with toys
Your child’s truck is out of gas again? In play, your child enjoys inventing problem-solving situations as much as finding solutions. Through exposure to a variety of problems in real life and play, your child will be prepared for future challenges.
The following tips give your child experience with three kinds of problem-solving situations.
Play tip 1: Finding answers to real world problems
Situational problems arise out of solving everyday, practical problems and children can usually figure them out with observation, thinking and, if needed, a little coaching from you. When it’s time for dinner, let your child set the table and practice gathering and distributing the right number of forks and spoons, napkins and plates that are needed. If it’s raining, give your child a chance to select appropriate clothing.
Provide building and construction toys that challenge your child to ask, “What do I have to do first to get the results I want?”
Tackling situational problems gives your child the satisfaction of applying knowledge in a useful way.
Play tip 2: Use toy figures
Action hero figures and pose able doll house figures encourage children to combine their imaginative and problem-solving skills in “What if?” play.
As children invent more complex make-believe stories, they create problems and crises for their characters and act out solutions. Campers struggle up a mountain. A ship sinks. Horses need water.
You can encourage “What if?” problem solving by extending the memory of your child’s real life experiences—a recent trip, for example, or a book—into play with related toys and props, or into artwork or a story dictated to you.
Experience enriches imaginative adventures and problem-solving skills.
Play tip 3: Use computers
With colorful graphics and sounds, children’s software programs make intellectual problem solving and analysis entertaining.
As your preschooler plays matching, sorting, counting and spelling games, you may notice your child is becoming more tolerant about waiting for the computer to “take its turn” thinking. (You may want to compliment your child’s patience.) Built on logic, computers present an opportunity for children to respond in a logical way. The computer notices every response, encouraging children to try again or rewarding a “right” answer.
There are no failures; children simply try something else. Given a chance to find answers themselves on a computer, children acquire self-confidence in problem solving.
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