In today’s cut-throat and highly competitive world, one of the most important abilities every child must possess is analytical skills. Analytical skills are extremely important for our day-to-day personal, professional, intellectual and social lives. They help us to understand the situations around us better and solve problems with the best of our abilities. It would not be wrong to say that our analytical skills lay the foundation of our success. Which is perhaps why all parents want their children to develop better analytical skills and do better in their lives.
Improving these skills is both simple and difficult. It requires hard work and dedication from both parties involved in the process, i.e. children and parents. If you use the right tricks and get the required support from your children, improving their analytical skills can be like a cakewalk. To make things simpler for you, here are five easiest things you can do to enhance the analytical skills of your children.
Read: Reading is a widely-acclaimed practice that helps children in more ways than one. When it comes to enhancing these skills, reading is what every parent should look up to. Read a story or passage that has an ongoing argument or issue that your child is familiar with. After reading, ask your child to think about the situation and what are her / his views on it. Her / his feedback will enable you to know how her / his mind works and how much she / he has grasped. Read as much as you can with her / him. If you think, you can also turn the conversation into a healthy debate. It will give you a better chance to tap into your child’s brain and see how much faster it is learning things.
Ask questions: Usually, asking questions is a child’s job. But when it comes to enhance your child’s analytical skills, asking questions can be very useful. Start by asking simple questions that test your child’s comprehension and knowledge. You can ask questions while watching her / his favourite cartoon show. Something simple like, “What do you think will happen now?” or “How did he did all the superpower?”, will induce your child to think and answer. The more questions you ask; the better for your little one.
Let her / him do the math: Math is a great way to enhance analytical skills. Start with simple calculations. Take your child to the grocery store with you, hand over the products you intend to buy and simply ask her / him to add their prices. Or just ask her / him to calculate the discounts on the items you are buying. Either way it will give her / him a chance to develop her / his analytical skills.
Play brain games: Everything happens inside the brain. One of the best ways to enhance your child’s analytical skills is by engaging her / him in playing brain games that challenge her / him to do something or apply thought on the spot. Logic puzzles like crossword, riddles or Sudoku and board games like scrabble, chess or checkers will test her / his thinking abilities and encourage to develop analytical skills. Apart from puzzles and board games, depending on your child’s age, some video games might also be looked at.
Give new tasks: When children are given new things to do, their brain starts to function like a new one. A simple task like rearranging their room or putting the books back in the shelf can simulate their brain and give them a chance to look at things with a new perspective. Take her / his help in the kitchen while cooking food. Have her / him recite a recipe to help you prepare a dish. Or just give her / him the grocery list to remember. Little everyday things can serve in a wonderful way to help you enhance your child’s analytical skills.
Parents can play a very vital role to help children enhance their analytical skills. Parents are a child’s first role models and she / he loves to engage in activities with them. Also, children feel very comfortable in learning from their parents. So it automatically becomes easier to teach them something new. As far as analytical skills go, a dedicated parent is always willing to go the extra mile to bring out the best in her / his child and equip her / him with everything she / he needs to hone her / his analytical skills.
Suggested Reading: Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Children
