The ability to recognize, approach, and solve problems are important skills for navigating life in childhood and beyond. These skills are built through playful experiences and interactions with caregivers during childhood, beginning as young as infancy and continuing through adulthood. In this article, we explore how problem-solving skills develop in early childhood and how we can support young children in developing these skills.
Problem-solving skills are the process by which children encounter a problem and they come up with a plan to solve and overcome it. This requires a variety of different skills put into action together:
Knowing how to solve problems is important, because we’re faced with them everyday! When children are young, they face problems such as a block tower falling over or two children wanting to use the same toy at the same time. As we get older, problems become increasingly complex, as we are faced with more challenging situations in our schooling, personal lives, and relationships.
To help the little ones in our care become confident, independent, and self-reliant, they need to be equipped with skills to face the many different problems they will encounter. By encouraging children to practice these skills while they are young, we can help them build a strong foundation for navigating more problems when they get older.
The Illinois Early Learning Project highlights how young children develop problem-solving skills from birth to young childhood, noting key milestones and achievements that children reach at different ages:
At this age, children are building the foundation for problem solving through active exploration and social interaction. You might observe them attempting to get a caregiver’s attention when they need something through the use of sounds, cries, gestures, and facial expressions.
To support the development of problem-solving skills at this age, educators and care providers can respond with thoughtfulness and intention when infants attempt to get their attention and interact with them frequently with back-and-forth exchanges throughout the day to encourage them to continue utilizing and practicing their skills.
As children approach toddlerhood, they begin to develop more physical strength that allows them to manipulate their environment. They discover that they can solve problems on their own and that they can rely on their caregivers when they need support. At this age, you might observe children repeating an action over and over again to figure out how an object works. You might also see them experimenting with different strategies to accomplish a goal, such as pulling the string of a toy train to move it closer or crawling to get a ball that has rolled away.
To support little ones at this stage in strengthening their problem solving skills, by encouraging their independence to try new things and praising them for accomplishing new tasks on their own.
As children approach their second birthday, they have an enhanced capacity to solve problems independently. You may observe them utilizing trial and error to figure out a problem, such as trying to insert a shape at different angles to make it fit in a sorter. You will likely also see children verbally communicating their needs with caregivers and utilizing objects in the environment to solve problems, such as using a bucket to move numerous books to the other side of the room.
At this age, care providers and educators can support children in practicing problem-solving skills by talking through various solutions with the child, such as “I wonder what would happen if we turned the puzzle piece this way.” It can also be beneficial to give children opportunities to solve problems without your help by stepping back and encouraging them to try on their own before you jump in to support.
Preschoolers are able to handle more complex thoughts, such as strategizing solutions and making a decision about the best option to solve a problem, with fewer trials. At this age, children increasingly become more autonomous and will attempt to overcome obstacles on their own or with limited support from their caregiver. You might also observe them showing pride when accomplishing tasks and using more refined skills to solve problems, such as using a napkin to clean up a spill without asking an adult for help.
To support preschoolers in strengthening their skills, educators can follow the child’s lead and pay attention to their cues when assisting in a task and provide the child with uninterrupted time to work on activities independently.
As educators and care providers, we can create a classroom environment that encourages children to utilize their problem solving skills.
Puzzles are a great way to engage children’s problem-solving skills, as they are encouraged to figure out how the pieces fit together through analytical thinking and trial and error. Toddlers and young preschoolers can work with simpler wooden puzzles with a few large pieces, while older children can take on more pieces. If you don’t have puzzles available in your classroom, you might consider making your own with construction paper.
STEM activities invite little ones to experiment, test hypotheses, and figure out how to approach problems. STEM activities incorporate science, technology, engineering, and math, for learning through hands-on experiences. If you are looking for inspiration for bringing more STEM learning into your classroom, you might enjoy checking out some of these G2K articles from the archives.
Loose parts are any material that can be utilized, taken apart, and put back together in multiple ways. Almost any item, from rocks to corks to pieces of fabric can be used for loose parts play. Offering these kinds of materials to young children encourages them to get creative, experiment, think critically, and figure out different ways to use the items which gives children a chance to practice a variety of problem-solving skills. As children build, construct, and create, they have opportunities to test their ideas and try to figure out how to make their visions come to life.
