Baby\’s thinking ability cannot be cultivated by asking a few \”whys\”. The correct approach is…

When we were studying, professors often took us to visit kindergartens and elementary schools in the United States. I have interacted a lot with American children, and one of my deepest experiences is that American children are very capable of independent thinking. They have their own understanding of things, and they can express some coherent ideas to support their own opinions, and they do not follow what others say. When I was choosing a kindergarten in New York for Su Bao this year, there was a kindergarten whose educational philosophy I liked very much. The principal found out that we were alumni of the Columbia University School of Education and was very happy to ask me to have a cup of coffee together. I also took this opportunity to talk to her. We talked about a lot of questions I had about parenting, including how to train the thinking of preschool babies? The principal shared with me a model for training thinking ability called the \”Bloom Classification Method\”: This triangular model divides human thinking ability into six levels. It was first proposed by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and is used by many in North America. Schools are used by teachers to develop children\’s thinking skills. The key to training babies\’ thinking ability is that parents and teachers ask questions. Thinking training can start as soon as the baby can speak. If your baby reaches a certain age and his cognition still remains at the level of \”what is\” and does not know how to apply, analyze and create, it is because no one guides and inspires him to ask deeper questions. For example, when reading the story \”The Ugly Duckling\”, you can refer to this model to ask questions at different levels to children of different ages and thinking abilities (the red part is the keyword of the question) 1. Remember the home of the ugly duckling. where? Are there any chicks on the farm? What color are the ugly duckling\’s feathers? 2. Understand why the ugly duckling leaves home? What is the difference between the ugly duckling and other ducklings? What is this story mainly about? 3. Apart from leaving the farm, does the ugly duckling have any other way to solve the problem? What would you do if you were the ugly duckling? 4. What conclusion does analysis of this story give us? What would happen if the ugly duckling didn\’t leave the farm? How would the ending of the story be different if the ugly duckling was like the other ducklings? 5. Evaluate Do you think farm animals should bully ugly ducklings? What advice would you like to give to the ugly duckling? 6. Creation If you were to tell this story, how would you rewrite it? The principal suggested that I refer to Bloom\’s triangle model, starting from the lowest level of \”memory\”. After the baby masters the ability of one level, it will then move up to a new level, gradually deepening the difficulty of the problem. I have been using the Bloom model to train Su Bao\’s thinking. After practicing for a period of time, my conclusion is: Questioning is an important thinking training tool, but it must be done step by step and try not to ask the child questions that he cannot answer at all. It’s not that many parents are unwilling to ask questions to their children, but the questions they ask are too difficult for their children to answer, which is not helpful for thinking training. Asking frequently is more important than asking frequently. For example, a child around two years old is unlikely to answer a question like \”What advice would you like to give the ugly duckling?\” The baby\’s thinking ability develops in a step-by-step manner, but you must respect the child\’s cognitive development progress and start training from the lowest level of thinking ability.For babies under 3 years old, when starting thinking training, the questions must be specific, specific, and more specific. For example: What animals are on the farm where the ugly duckling lives? (Specific) instead of: What difficulties did the ugly duckling encounter on the farm? (Too abstract) Su Bao is less than two years old now, and his thinking training is still at the level of memory and understanding. When we read picture books, most of the time our questions focus on \”what\” and \”how many\”. Don\’t underestimate the two levels of thinking, memory and understanding. Although they seem to have nothing to do with creativity, they are actually the basis of high-level thinking abilities. Children with strong memory and understanding abilities can have richer high-level complex thinking. During the process of thinking training, how do you know when your baby is ready to enter the next stage of thinking training? You can try to introduce some more logically complex statements during the conversation with your baby. For example, when reading picture books with Su Bao, I would explain to her: Because the little alpaca misses his mother, he is a little sad. This is just a statement, not a question. It is normal if the baby does not respond to this sentence. However, if adults pay attention to using logical words to communicate with the baby, it will also have a subtle influence on the baby. If you find that your baby is interested in your words and even tries to imitate them, you can gradually introduce causal thinking training. For advanced thinking training for babies, in addition to asking questions, we will also use some auxiliary tools, such as mind maps, which Su’s mother will continue to share in future articles.