Between ages two and six, one of your child’s favorite words may become “Why.”
At this age, children start to develop the cognitive ability to think logically.
That is, their ability to form logical connections between their experiences and understand why things in the world around them happen.
Your preschooler shows a significant increase in cognitive skills. Her imagination spurts, and she can develop her ideas and solve problems.
The Ability To Put Two And Two Together
By the age of five or six, most children begin to use logical thinking, develop solutions to more complex challenges, and use language to express emotions and thoughts.
Logical thinking is a skill that develops gradually, depending on a child’s individual capacity.
However, every typically developing child eventually grows the ability to think logically.
How To Foster Logical Thinking
The best way to nurture logical thinking is to allow your child to engage in free, unstructured play.
Experiences they gain through play and free exploration help kids learn to observe, compare, analyze, understand cause and effect, and solve problems.
Those experiences also help them think critically, which allows critical thinking development.
Encourage Independence
Neuroscience research shows that experiences during the first five years of life provide the foundation for the child’s brain development, determining which brain connections will develop and last for life.
To help your child develop the ability to reason logically, foster independence in their play and learning.
Provide opportunities for hands-on experiences and exploration in a safe environment.
It’s also important to allow your child to discuss his ideas, ask questions, and give his opinion, take safe risk, and encourage him to follow his interests.
Choose Toys That Help Children Think Logically
Playing with toys is an essential role in your toddler’s development.
Toys help children learn about the world around them, foster independence, master their motor skills, develop emotional control, think logically, and much more.
Here are some toys that can help foster logical thinking:
Pretend Play Toys: Your child’s imagination and the ability to pretend are the best manifestations of their thinking skills.
A child who uses their imagination understands symbols and that words stand for ideas and objects.
A good understanding of symbols is essential for your child’s school success, as it promotes the development of skills such as numeracy, logical thinking, abstraction, and writing.
To boost your child’s imagination, provide pretend-play toys and props, and encourage pretend play.
Let your child plan and organize the play, as this helps her come up with her own ideas, think of solutions to problems, make logical connections, and develop critical reasoning.
Provide dress-up clothing, such as dresses, hats, gloves, dolls, dollhouses, play kitchen and toy dishes, and household objects such as cardboard boxes, laundry baskets, blankets, paper towel or toilet paper tubes, etc.
Offer pretend food and animal figurine toys to help your child understand how things are logically connected.
These toys spark curiosity and creativity, and boost your child’s intrinsic motivation (the act of doing something because it is exciting and enjoyable).
They also help kids develop their language skills.
Construction Sets and Building Toys: Building toys and construction sets encourage patience, attention, and focus.
These toys foster independence, promote organizational skills, boost fine motor skills, and improve hand-eye coordination.
Toys like blocks and puzzles promote creativity, language, persistence, problem-solving, and abstract thinking.
Sorting Toys: Shape sorters and other sorting toys are excellent tools for practicing hands-on learning experiences, boosting independence, and developing logical thinking.
Shape sorters help children improve hand-eye coordination, enhance creativity, improve attention, and encourage classification and pattern recognition.
Offer various sorting toys to help your child understand cause and effect, master problem-solving, and practice recognition and discrimination of colors, shapes, and textures.
Arts and Crafts Toys: The ability to explore the world through sensory play is essential for your child’s development.
Encourage art and sensory play to spark your little one-s creativity, foster independence, and promote emotional expression.
Studies show that art and sensory toys can help develop memory, boost your child’s problem-solving skills, strengthening connections in the brain’s pathway, and improving its plasticity and flexibility.
These things are all essential for the development of your child’s ability to think logically.
Provide art and sensory toys and items for your child to hold and manipulate. Offer items such as brushes, pencils, crayons, squeeze bottles, pom poms, pipe cleaners, modeling clay, beads, straws, stickers, and similar objects.
Arts and crafts toys will also promote fine motor development and encourage your child’s eye-hand coordination.
Get Involved
Positive learning experiences at home have long-lasting benefits because kids need love, attention, and affection to develop into healthy adults.
Research shows that attentive parents and caregivers who respond to a child’s needs help build the child’s brain.
A positive learning environment in which your child feels safe and motivated to explore helps him develop and reach his milestones.
To create a positive learning environment at home, plan daily activities that you will do together with your children, such as talking, reading books, or playing games.
Learning through play that involves a parent-child interaction is a great way to promote self-esteem, spark interest in learning, and set the foundations for your child’s healthy development.
Encourage Creative Exploration
To help your child develop the ability to think logically, reinforce positive experiences, and provide many opportunities to explore.
Take nature walks with your child or play with sand and water at your local beach.
Encourage manipulative play and provide objects that your child can take apart and examine.
By exploring familiar and less familiar objects, your child will figure out how things work and practice problem-solving skills. This is critical for the development of logical thinking.
Summary
The ability to “put two and two together” – to think logically – is essential for your child’s success in school and in life in general.
Play and free exploration help children develop their logical reasoning, promote a sense of curiosity, and foster intrinsic motivation, encouraging children to learn for themselves.
Encourage your child to ask questions and seek answers. Let them take objects apart to investigate, make connections, understand cause and effect, and draw conclusions.
Support your child’s development by participating in their learning process and providing a range of toys that encourage logical thinking.