The Child Care Business Owner Institute

Are You Encouraging Kids to Think?

A Guest blog post by Linette Daniels, ” The Youth Success Doctor”

If we teach children everything we know their knowledge is limited to ours.  If we teach children to think, their knowledge is limitless. 

Research shows that a child’s ability to succeed in life is directly proportional to their ability to solve the problems they encounter along life’s journey. Research has found that the more often a student is exposed to critical thinking, the greater the probability that the student will transfer critical thinking to other areas of his or her life.  Based on this research, it is important to expose your students to critical thinking opportunities wherever possible. 

Critical thinking can be thought of as reasonable, reflective, responsible and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or what to do. A child who thinks critically will learn to master what I call . . .

The 3 Pillars of Thinking:

1) Think things through,

2) Make good choices, and

3) Solve problems wisely

Critical thinking is more than your student knowing if they receive the correct change after a purchase or their ability to process information well enough to know to turn the water off before the bathtub overflows. Those thinking skills, although important, are only enough for personal survival.  To thrive in a world filled with people and problems, your students will need to achieve higher-order thinking; the level of thinking that enables a child to ask the right questions, collect important information, efficiently and creatively sort through the information, make sense of the information, and come to responsible conclusions that enable the child to live and act successfully in society.

A child is not born with the capacity to think critically nor is it a skill that will be developed naturally. In fact, most people never develop critical thinking skills because it is a learned ability that must be taught. 

Critical thinking in its simplest form is the ability to think for one’s self and use information to make good decisions.  Unfortunately society often punishes critical thinking because thinkers question the status quo and challenge authority.  As a result, most people become followers who rely on others to think for them. 

Well I’m on a mission to change the future by empowering youth with the ability to be responsible-independent thinkers!

Children are constantly processing information.  What they need in order to succeed is practice in “how” to process information carefully, correctly, and completely, in a way that leads to the most reliable, reasonable, and responsible conclusions, from which wise decisions can be made about his or her life, behavior, and actions with full awareness and acceptance for the consequences of their choices.

So let me ask YOU,

Are you encouraging kids to think and analyze even at a young age?  Are you teaching them the art of questioning and working through the answers?  Are you empowering your students with the essential skills of success in life?

 About the Guest Author, Linette Daniels 

Dr. Linette Daniels is a nationally acclaimed speaker, author and award-winning success strategist who, for the past 20 years, has empowered youth from the cradle through college in a variety of youth-serving arenas to include public school, child care, foster care, juvenile court, social services, and early intervention.

As a single parent, she raised 12 therapeutic foster care and 2 biological children using her vision to see infants’ progress into developmentally strong toddlers, academically prepared preschoolers, empowered youth and successful adults.

Dr. Daniels believes that given the right space, tools, and training; ALL youth can succeed, and as founder of the International Movement To Empower More Youth, her mission is to empower youth for financial, business and leadership success so they can create the life they want to live.

Whether you are a young person, a parent or from a youth-serving program, visit http://EmpowerMoreYouth.com and get in where you fit in!

Look forward to a 3-part series  by Linette Daniels on empowering youth for financial, business and leadership success!