How Can We Help Our Children to Think?

©Ryan Katz

How Can We Help Our Children to Think?

Dr. Montessori first observed the ability to reason in an infant at 3 weeks old. This is an important observation because it leads one to contemplate what it is that she was observing to say that the infant was using the reasoning mind? Firstly, let us identify what it means to reason. Reason is defined as the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways. The ability to reason is not a skill but a development. The frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that deals with the function of reason. This part of the brain is also involved in language and emotion. Rather than bog you down with science, let’s just make the connection between reason and language. It would be easily assumable to consider that reason needs language to develop. How? This language can be an internal dialog or an external dialog with you, the parent. Early on, during the child’s life, it is the role of the adult to help develop reasoning by offering an environment rich in language. Let’s imagine that we are speaking to an infant, that is a child that is yet to be walking. If we want the infant to develop language, we do not teach but model by using a rich and varied language. “Look, at that leaf it is beautiful, its shape is oval, and it is a lovely

green. I would probably call that color, lime green.” As parents we provide an environment rich in language if we want our children to absorb a varied vocabulary. Now, what about reason? For the infant, we again must aid the development by supplementing our ability as an adult to reason. In this way, we aid reasoning capabilities in the child. “Look at this leaf on the ground. I wonder where it came from? Hmm, it looks like the same leaf as the leaves on that tree right there. Therefore I think that it came from that tree.” Now, this may seem

strange but in this way, we as adults consciously aid the child in developing the reasoning mind. Young children under three are unconsciously absorbing their environment and this also includes reasoning. Sometimes you may even be unaware that you are reasoning but your child is certainly absorbing those reasoning experiences. Imagine that you go to the bakery, and they are out of the bread you want, you start a conversation with the baker and explain that you need bread for a dinner party. With the baker you may reason out what bread you will get and why it will be sufficient. If your child is with you, they will absorb it.

This happens all the time. In the home and outside the home. If your child is within earshot they will absorb it.

Now let’s move to the 3-6 child, this is the child that possesses the conscious absorbent mind. What that means is that children at this age are moving into consciousness. For example if we take the concept of time, they are becoming more cognizant of actual time. They begin to have the concepts of tomorrow, yesterday, this weekend, or this year. You have to be a somewhat conscious being to understand these concepts. The 3-6 year old is a lover of questions. They are at times, it seems, relentlessly posing questions to the adults. What is this? What is that? How come? Why? Again we must continue to give the child of this age

an environment rich in language. We must answer their questions because not only does it stimulate development and build the intellect but it is also emotional satisfying. Yet what about reasoning? How do we support the development of reasoning in this child? We need to remember that children and even adolescents are developing their ability to reason and that all adults in their lives have an impact on the outcome of reasoning power. At some point during the 3-6 age period, the adult needs to actively call upon the child’s ability to reason. Rather than just continue to answer those relentless questions, occasionally, it is

necessary to invoke reasoning. So, if this child asks you a question, you will have to see if it is an opportunity for your child to reason out the answer for themselves. Maybe your child might ask, “Is it going to rain today?” Rather than just give the answer right away, return the question with another question, “Do you think that it is going to rain today?’ When your child answers, you will need to follow that up with another question because most likely they will respond with a yes or a no. “Why do you think it is not going to rain?” Help your child with the reason. “I agree. Look at the sky. It is so blue. There is not a cloud in the sky.” With a young child, you will need to occasionally do this in order to help your child build

reasoning. However avoid asking the child all the time as this will discourage your child. If you do this then ultimately they will shut down and not be open to reason. Moderation is th key.

What about the elementary child? The elementary child is in a sort of golden age for reasoning. By the time the child is 7, the brain enters a new stage of development as frontal and temporal lobes significantly increase. Between 7 and 9, children can think more abstractly and symbolically, understand parts of concepts before knowing the whole, understand the feelings of others, think more complexly, and participate in inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is the use of reason to draw conclusions on observed patterns. “Every morning at school we sing therefore this morning I will probably sing.” Deductive

reasoning is used in the scientific method. “All birds lay eggs. A robin is a bird therefore a robin lays eggs.” Practically speaking, we must challenge the elementary child to constantly use their reasoning capabilities. This child will apply reason to nearly everything they do. Reason can be used for mathematics or it can be used to test limits and understand social norms. “It’s time to go to bed.” “Yeah but last night I went to bed 15 minutes early, so tonight I can stay up 15 minutes later.” It is your position, as the parent, to decide if the reasoning that your child uses is logical or not. It may very well be logical but it might be a

use of reason that you may consider to be inappropriate, unjust, or manipulative. A discussion is necessary in these situations. However, the vast amount of time, this is a child that wants to know the reason behind things and you as the adult must create an environment rich in the opportunities to express the reasoning power of the child.

Children need to think for themselves. This is an important aspect to being in possession of a strong intellect. The ability to reason helps with nearly all aspects to life from mathematics to morality. One might clearly see why reasoning might help with mathematics but what about morality? If we use morality without reasoning then our ability to empathize without fairness can lead to nepotism or justified moral retaliation such as road rage. “He cut me off, now I will show him a lesson!” Just like language we cannot make a child speak but we can

certainly have an impact on the peripheral experiences of our children. We need to give our children rich experiences in the use of reason with morality. Moral development is related to cognitive development. A child has different stages of the ability to moralize and reason depending on their maturity. We must therefore play an active role in the experience that our children are receiving. Let us end with mathematics and reasoning. Most mathematicians say that mathematical truths already exist and are ready for discovery. We all have a

mathematical mind, yet it is a rudimentary mind, therefore we must offer it rich experiences in order to build up its prowess. These experiences build up our ability to reason mathematically. Once mathematically reasoning has been developed, so too does the possibility of mathematical discoveries. We need to offer our children rich experiences to develop their ability to reason and this certainly warrants a participation on the parents part.

©Ryan Katz