what is childhood problem solving

Problem-Solving

Learning & Cognitive Skills

8 to 11 months

Sorting & Matching, Stacking, Executive Function, Concentration

From tackling a complex project at work to figuring out how to manage your busy schedule, every day you use problem-solving skills like critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity. How did you learn these skills? Just as your child will: through exploration and play. Support their problem-solving skills through activities that let them independently try new things, learn from their mistakes, and test out different ways of thinking.

In this article:

What is problem-solving?

What are examples of problem-solving skills, when do children develop problem-solving skills , why are problem-solving skills important in child development.

• Problem-solving games & activities for babies and toddlers

Problem-solving and frustration tolerance

Developmental concerns with problem-solving.

Problem-solving is the process by which your child spots a problem and comes up with a solution to overcome it. Your child uses problem-solving skills in all sorts of contexts, from figuring out how to get a ball out of a cup to interacting with a child who took their toy. 

Children don’t inherently understand different approaches to solving problems—these skills develop gradually over time, starting in the earliest days of life. As your child gains experience, tests out strategies, plays with various materials, and watches people around them, they learn how to problem-solve. 

Think about strategies you might use to tackle a project at work—for example, creating an outline, breaking the project into steps, or delegating tasks. With your help, your child will develop problem-solving skills like these:

• Breaking a large problem into smaller steps
• Persevering through challenges or setbacks
• Using creativity to think “outside the box” about different solutions
• Being resourceful by using available items as tools to reach a goal 
• Taking the initiative to try a possible solution and see if it works
• Seeking help when you get stuck
• Using compromise or negotiation to help resolve a conflict
• Using critical thinking to discover what the next step should be

As early as 8 to 11 months, you may see the earliest signs of your child’s problem-solving skills at work. If you hide a toy under a blanket or basket, for example, they may use basic problem-solving to try to uncover it. 

As a toddler, your child will grow more experienced with different types of playthings and the challenges they offer. They’ll also develop more focus and patience to work through problems on their own. Support their emerging problem-solving skills by observing their efforts—without stepping in right away to help. It’s tempting to intervene when you see your toddler struggle to fit the pieces of a puzzle, align blocks so they won’t fall, or get a stuck car out of the Race & Chase Ramp . Banging, rotating, failing, and trying again are all important parts of the process. Your toddler gains more problem-solving experience with every attempt.

RELATED: Subtle signs of your toddler’s developing focus

By 3 years of age, your child will have more skills to help them solve a problem. They’ve learned how to communicate and follow directions. They also have more control over their emotions and their body. Not only are they ready to solve more complex puzzles and games, they’re  learning how to solve social problems, like working through conflict and negotiating with peers during play.

If your child is accustomed to tackling problems, they’re more likely to at least attempt to get the cup they need off the high shelf, or try to buckle those tricky sandal straps. Practicing problem-solving can help your child overcome challenges, try flexible ways of thinking, and become more confident and independent in the process.  

Problem-solving skills are also crucial to your child’s cognitive development. They encourage your child’s brain to make new connections and process information in new ways. This is why so many of the best games, toys, and activities for young children stress some element of problem-solving, critical thinking, or creativity. 

Your child can develop better social skills when they practice problem-solving, too: Understanding how to resolve conflicts and compromise with peers is a crucial problem-solving skill they’ll take with them into preschool and beyond.

Problem-solving activities & games

You don’t need elaborate planning or fancy equipment to help your child develop these skills. Many problem-solving activities for kids can be incorporated into daily life or during playtime.

Problem-solving activities for babies

It will be years before your baby is ready for advanced problem-solving skills, like compromising with others and project planning. For now, they’ll experiment with different ways to solve simple problems, showing initiative, perseverance, and creativity. Here are a few activities that help spark your baby’s problem-solving skills.

Reaching for a toy: Setting a goal is the very first step in problem-solving. Once your baby can sit independently, place toys one at a time in front of them, behind them, beside them, between their legs, or on a nearby shelf. This allows them to practice setting a goal—get the toy!—and making a plan to achieve it. 

Emptying a container: Dumping objects out of containers sounds like a mess, but it’s a valuable skill for babies to learn. Place a Wood Ball in a Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cup and show your baby how to tip over the cup to empty it. Then, put the ball back into the cup and let your baby figure out how to get the ball out of the container on their own. 

Finding hidden objects: Your baby practices problem-solving with the Sliding Top Box every time they work to figure out how to slide the top to reveal the ball inside. This also builds fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Posting: The Wooden Peg Drop lets your baby experiment with “posting,” or fitting an object into its container, a much-loved fine motor activity. The tab release is an engaging problem-solving task for your baby, as they discover how to press down to release the pegs from their slots.

Explore playthings that encourage problem-solving

The Thinker Play Kit

The Thinker Play Kit encourages your 11 – 12 month old baby’s curiosity as they start solving problems, working on hand strength and investigating everything in their path.

Problem-solving activities for toddlers

At 12 to 18 months, your toddler’s problem-solving skills are still taking shape. But you may begin to see them work to figure out more complex problems, like pulling toys around obstacles or getting objects “unstuck.” Encourage your toddler through play with activities that challenge their creative thinking.

Object interactions: What happens when you push a squishy ball through a small opening? How does a bendy thing react when it hits something hard? Understanding how different objects interact helps your child learn to use tools for problem-solving. 

As you play with your toddler, demonstrate different ways playthings can interact. Two blocks can be banged together, stacked, or lined up side by side. The insects from the Fuzzy Bug Shrub can be stuck to the outside of the shrub or put inside. Give your child pieces from different playthings and see how they can make them interact. Perhaps the balls from the Slide and Seek Ball Run and the rings from the Flexible Wooden Stacker can interact in some new, fun way?

Asking questions : Once your toddler learns how to push the Carrots through the Carrot Lid for the Coin Bank, the question becomes how to get them out. Ask your toddler simple questions to spark their problem-solving skills: “Where did the carrots go?” or “How can we get them out?” Encourage your child to explore the Coin Bank and give them time to discover a solution on their own.

Simple challenges: Your toddler may be ready for some problem-solving challenges with their playthings. For example, when your toddler can pick up a toy in each hand, offer a third toy and see if they can figure out how to carry all three at once. Or place parts of a toy—like the rings for the Flexible Wooden Stacker—in different locations around the room, so your child needs to plan how to retrieve the pieces. Pack as many Quilted Critters as will fit in The Lockbox  and let your toddler discover how to get them out. This type of challenge may seem simple, but your child has to problem-solve how to navigate their hand into the box to pull out the Critters. 

Cause and effect: Your toddler may discover how to pull on a string attached to a toy to make it move. They understand that the toy and the string are linked, and use simple problem-solving skills to test—and re-test—what happens when they move the string differently. This type of problem-solving can be supported by pull toys such as The Pull Pup . As your toddler encounters different obstacles—like the corner of the couch—with The Pull Pup, they’ll have to problem-solve to keep the toy moving.

RELATED: Pull toys are classic for a reason

Puzzles are a classic childhood problem-solving activity for good reason. Your child learns  how things fit together, how to orient and rotate objects, and how to predict which shape might fit a particular space. Puzzles come in such a wide variety of difficulty levels, shapes, sizes, and formats, there’s a puzzle that’s right for almost every stage of development. 

Lovevery co-founder Jessica Rolph explains how Lovevery puzzles are designed to progress with your child’s problem-solving and fine motor skills:

Babies can begin exploring simple one-piece puzzles around 6 to 8 months of age. Puzzles that have round slots and easy-to-hold pieces with knobs, like the First Puzzle , are ideal for this age. Around 13 to 15 months of age, they can try simple puzzles with several pieces in the same shape, like the Circle of Friends Puzzle .

By 18 months, your toddler is probably ready to work with puzzle shapes that are geometric, animal, or organic, like the Community Garden Puzzle . This reinforces your toddler’s newfound understanding that different shapes fit in different places. As they progress, they may start to enjoy stacking and nesting puzzles, like the 3D Geo Shapes Puzzle . This type of puzzle requires problem-solving on a new level, since your child may have to turn the shapes in different directions to orient and place them correctly.

As your toddler approaches their second birthday, they may be ready for classic jigsaw puzzles. Puzzles with large pieces that are easy for your toddler to hold, like the Chunky Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle , are a great place to start. At this age, your toddler may also find 3D puzzles, like the Wooden Posting Stand , an engaging problem-solving challenge. Since the dowels are different diameters, your child will likely use trial and error to determine which size fits in the correct slot. At first, you may have to guide them a bit: Point out that the dowels need to go in straight in order to fit.

How to encourage puzzle play for active toddlers

Depending on your toddler’s temperament, they may love to sit quietly and work on a puzzle—or they may be constantly on the move. Highly active toddlers may seem like they never sit still long enough to complete an activity. Here are a few ways to combine their love of movement with puzzle play:

• Play “hide-and-seek” with toys (or puzzle pieces) by placing them on top of furniture that’s safe to cruise along or climb on.
• Place puzzle pieces in different places around the room, so they have to retrieve them one by one to solve the puzzle. 
• Place the puzzle pieces on stairs or in different rooms so your toddler has to walk or climb to find them.

Stacking toys

Stacking toys such as blocks or rings engage babies and toddlers in a challenging form of problem-solving play. Your child’s skills are put to the test as they plan where to place each item, work to balance their stack, and wrestle with gravity to keep the stack from toppling.  

You can introduce your baby to stacking play around 9 to 10 months with playthings that are easy to work with, like the Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cups . Stacking takes coordination, precision, and patience, and if they try to stack items that are too difficult to keep upright, they may become frustrated and give up. 

You can also make basic blocks easier to stack by using a larger item, like the Little Grip Canister Set , as a base. Demonstrate how to stack a block on top of the canister, then knock the tower down. Hand a block to your toddler and allow them to try stacking and knocking it down. As their movements become more controlled and purposeful, introduce another block to stack.  

Stacking a tower with the pegs from the Wooden Stacking Pegboard is a fun way to introduce goal-setting, an important aspect of problem-solving. The pegs nest together securely, allowing your toddler to build a higher, more stable tower than they could create with regular blocks. You can gently suggest a goal for your child—“Can we stack it higher?”—and see if they’re ready for the challenge. Then, sit and support them as they try to solve any problems that arise: “Is the tower too tall? Can we make it wider so it won’t fall so easily?”

Hide-and-seek

The classic childhood game of hide-and-seek offers your toddler many problem-solving opportunities. Your child has to use reasoning to figure out what would be a good hiding spot. They also use the process of elimination when they think about where they have and haven’t looked. They might even use creative thinking skills to discover a new place to hide.

The game doesn’t always have to involve you and your child hiding. When your child is around 12 months, you can introduce them to the concept using toys or other objects. Hide a small ball in one of two identical containers that you can’t see through, like upside-down cups. Make sure your child sees you put the ball under one of the containers, then mix them up. Lift the empty container to show your toddler that the ball isn’t inside and say, “Where is the ball?” If your toddler looks at the other container, say, “Yes! The ball is under this one.” Let your toddler lift the second container to find the ball. 

Your toddler might enjoy a game of hide-and-seek with The Lockbox . Hide a small toy, like one of the Quilted Critters or a small ball, inside The Lockbox. This activity challenges your toddler’s problem-solving skills on two levels: figuring out how to unlock the different mechanisms to open the doors, and feeling around inside to discover what’s hidden. Add another layer of fun to the challenge by letting your child try to guess the object just by touching it—no peeking.

Using tools to solve problems

Around 17 to 24 months of age, your child may begin using tools to solve simple problems. For example, if you ask your child to pick up their toys, their hands may become full quickly. You can model how to load toys into a bucket or bag to carry them to another spot. This might seem like an obvious choice, but the ability to use a tool to make a task easier or solve a problem is an important cognitive skill.

Here are a few ways you and your toddler can explore using tools to solve a problem:

• Show your child how to make a “shirt bowl” by using the upturned edge of their shirt as a cradle to hold toys or playthings.
• If a toy gets stuck behind the sofa, model how you can use a broomstick to push the toy to a place where you can reach it.
• Provide a child-size stool that your child can use to reach the sink or counter.

The Transfer Tweezers are a simple tool that your toddler can use to pick up other items besides the Felt Stars . They could try picking up the animals from the Quilted Critter Set or other child-safe items. Whenever you model how to use tools in everyday life, your child learns to think about new and different ways to solve problems.

Pretend play

Pretend play supports your child’s problem-solving skills in many ways. Research suggests that children’s pretend play is linked to different types of problem-solving and creativity. For example, one study showed that pretend play with peers was linked to better divergent problem-solving—meaning that children were able to “think outside the box” to solve problems. 

Pretend play is also a safe place for children to recreate—and practice solving—problems they’ve seen in their lives. Your 2- to 3-year-old may reenact an everyday challenge—for example, one doll might take away another doll’s toy. As practice for real-world problem-solving, you can then help them talk through how the dolls might solve their issue together

Pretend play may help children be more creative and open to new ideas. In pretend play, children put together play scenarios, act on them, and develop creative solutions. A 3- or 4-year-old child might be ready to explore creative problem-solving through pretend play that uses their playthings in new ways. Help your child start with an idea: “What do you want to pretend to be or recreate — a favorite storybook scene or someone from real life like a doctor or server at a restaurant?” Then encourage them to look for playthings they can use to pretend. Maybe a block can be a car or the beads from the Threadable Bead Set serve as “cups” in your child’s pretend restaurant. As your child gains practice with creative pretend play, they may start to form elaborate fantasy worlds.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as creative, you can model creative thinking by showing your child how a toy can be used in many different ways. Research finds that parents who model “out of the box” ways to play can encourage creative thinking and problem-solving in their children, starting in toddlerhood.

It can be difficult for young children to manage their frustration, but giving your child opportunities to solve problems on their own helps build both confidence and frustration tolerance . Research suggests that the ability to set goals and persist in them through challenges—sometimes called “grit”—is linked to school and career success. Here’s how you can play an important role in helping your child develop problem-solving persistence.

Model persistence. You know your toddler closely observes everything you do 🙃 A 2017 study shows that young children who watch their parents persist in their own challenge were more likely to show persistence themselves. Allow your toddler to see you attempting an activity, failing, and talking yourself through trying again. While playing with blocks, try stacking a few off balance so they fall. Notice aloud what went wrong and continue to narrate as you move slowly to carefully stack the blocks again.

Give them time. A little frustration can go a long way toward learning. It can take enormous restraint not to point out where to put the puzzle piece or how to slot the peg in place—but try to give them time to problem-solve on their own. You’re helping them feel capable and confident when faced with new challenges.

RELATED:  11 ways to build your toddler’s frustration tolerance

Ask questions to encourage new strategies. If your toddler gets frustrated with a problem, encourage their problem-solving process by asking questions: “Are you trying to race the car down the ramp but it got stuck? Is the car too long to go down sideways?” This may help your child refocus their attention on their goal instead of what they have already unsuccessfully tried. With a little time and creative problem-solving, your child may figure it out on their own.

Problem-solving skills are just one component of your child’s overall cognitive development. By around 12 months of age, you should see signs that your child is attempting to solve simple problems, like looking for a toy under a blanket. By about 30 months, your child may show slightly more advanced problem-solving skills, like using a stool to reach a high counter. Their attempts might not always be successful at this age, but the fact that they’re trying shows they’re thinking through different options. If you don’t see signs of your child trying to solve problems in these ways, talk to your pediatrician about your concerns. They can assess your child’s overall development and answer any questions.

Posted in: 7 - 8 Months , 9 - 10 Months , 11 - 12 Months , 13 - 15 Months , 16 - 18 Months , 19 - 21 Months , 22 - 24 Months , 25 - 27 Months , 28 - 30 Months , Learning & Cognitive Skills , Cause and Effect , Problem Solving , Cognitive Development , STEM , Independent Play , Puzzles , Child Development , Learning & Cognitive Skills

Meet the Experts

Learn more about the lovevery child development experts who created this story..

Research & Resources

Alan, S., Boneva, T., & Ertac, S. (2019). Ever failed, try again, succeed better: Results from a randomized educational intervention on grit . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134 (3), 1121-1162.

Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children’s cognitive development . Early Childhood Research & Practice , 4(1), n1.

Bruner, J. S. (1973). Organization of early skilled action . Child Development , 1-11.

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92 (6), 1087.

Hoicka, E., Mowat, R., Kirkwood, J., Kerr, T., Carberry, M., & Bijvoet‐van den Berg, S. (2016). One‐year‐olds think creatively, just like their parents . Child Development , 87 (4), 1099-1105.

Keen, R. (2011). The development of problem solving in young children: A critical cognitive skill. Annual Review of Psychology , 62 , 1-21.

Mullineaux, P. Y., & Dilalla, L. F. (2009). Preschool pretend play behaviors and early adolescent creativity . The Journal of Creative Behavior , 43(1), 41-57.

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10 Ways to Strengthen Your Preschooler’s Problem-Solving Skills

As an adult, you make many decisions throughout your day without even thinking twice about some– from setting up the coffee machine at home to avoiding the long line at the drive-thru that can make you late to work to having a difficult but necessary conversation with your partner about finances. These are just a few examples of problem-solving skills and how you adapt to the situations around you and use your skills to exist on personal, professional, and social levels. 

While some problem-solving skills are innate, your ability to access a situation and take a course of action is based on the fact that when you were a child, the adults around you taught you problem-solving skills. Our Raleigh early-childhood development center is sharing our best advice for anyone looking to strengthen their pre-schoolers problem-solving skills. 

What is Problem Solving in Early Childhood?

Problem-solving refers to the ability to find a solution to a problem. For preschool-aged children, this can be difficult to learn if not modeled for them through the appropriate ways to react to the issues they face. 

For instance, if two children are playing with a toy and one pushes the other in an effort to take the toy, this is clearly an inappropriate way to react to the problem. Furthermore, screaming or yelling for the child to give them the toy is also not a proper way to solve the issue. To model mature and proper problem-solving skills, adults around the child should be practicing the concept of sharing, patience, and communication while avoiding physical and emotional reactions when they don’t get what they want.

When the child learns that they can ask the other child, “Can I play with the toy next?” or understand the concept that another child was playing with the toy first, they are exhibiting the ability to problem solve. 

Why is it Important to Develop Problem Solving Skills in Early Childhood?

Children aged 3 to 5 are developmentally experiencing growth in the following areas: 

• Cognitive 
• Emotional 
• Language 
• Sensory 
• Motor 

Because this time for preschoolers is so substantial to their intellectual, emotional, and social development, the world around them can seem overwhelming, unfair, intimidating, and even confusing. By modeling and teaching problem-solving skills to preschoolers , they can learn how to react logically, think creatively, communicate their needs, and assess how best to react to a situation at hand. 

How Can You Teach Problem Solving Skills to Your Children?

It is the responsibility of the adults who raise and teach children to provide kids with opportunities to strengthen their problem-solving skills in early childhood. If you are a parent, guardian, childcare provider, or early-childhood educator, it’s important to consider the best strategies for helping little ones adapt to the world around them and learn problem-solving skills. And remember, it can be frustrating when things do not work out as expected for anyone at any age, particularly for preschool-aged children who are just learning to adapt to their surroundings. 

When teaching your preschool-aged child how to problem solve, consider these four steps that are used in early-childhood classrooms : 

• Identify the problem
• Brainstorm solutions to the problem
• Choose and implement one of the solutions
• Evaluate how that solution resolved the problem

Following this four-step guideline can help the adults in a preschooler’s life address how a child acquires problem-solving techniques to help them navigate through the difficult and everyday situations that arise. 

When teaching problem-solving, focus on developing these key skills that relate to problem-solving: 

• Lateral thinking
• Decision-making
• Communication
• Persistence
• Negotiation
• Logical thinking
• Analytical thinking

10 Problem-Solving Activities for Preschoolers

You know that you want to guide your child through developing and strengthening strategies for problem-solving, but where do you begin? Our early-childhood development school is sharing some of our favorite ways to incorporate problem-solving activities into your life so that you can teach your child to grow on a personal and social level. 

#1 – Use Everyday Moments

You do not need a textbook or outline of how to teach your preschooler problem-solving. Simply using everyday moments to demonstrate problem-solving techniques is more useful than any “how to” book or homework assignment can teach your child. 

Going to the grocery store, driving in the car, making dinner at home, and cleaning the house are all everyday opportunities to present your child with decisions related to problem-solving. Having your child put ingredients away in the pantry while you cook, asking your child what aisle at the supermarket they think you can find a particular item, or seeing that there is a mess of toys and supplies and directing the child to initiate where they should be placed prior to starting a new activity are ways to integrate problem-solving into everyday moments. 

#2 – Look to the Child for the Solution

As your child grows up, they will not always have you by their side to solve each and every problem that arises. From issues with friends, future relationships, and future careers, the child you raise will one day become an independent adult who needs to problem-solve on their own. 

Asking children to weigh in for solutions to problems as they arise is one way to get them thinking critically early on in life. When a child is taught to not only assess an obstacle but to trust their own decision-making abilities to resolve a problem, they will be better equipped for success as they get older. 

#3 – Solve Mathematical Problems

Mathematics is a great way to engage children at an early age in problem-solving and solution-making activities. Math is logical and non-emotional, having very clear set rules and boundaries with a single solution is one prime example of problem-solving. When children are given age-appropriate mathematical problems and math word problems, they are given opportunities to troubleshoot and follow an order of operation that leads to a solution.

#4 – Ask Open-Ended Questions

As adults, we often find that the most convenient way to get through the day when caring for a preschooler is to complete tasks for them so that we can get on with our busy day. However, it’s important to pause and present your child with the opportunity to find their own solutions to problems they are faced with by using open-ended questions. 

For instance, your child cannot find their favorite pair of shoes. Rather than tear the house apart on your own looking for them, present the child with a question: “Where did you last wear those shoes?” or “When did you last see your shoes?” This requires your child to consider where they last may have placed them. Additionally, a question like, “If we can’t find those shoes right now, you’ll need to choose a different pair to wear so we aren’t late.” guides them toward finding an alternative solution to the problem. 

Giving children the opportunity to find their own solutions to issues that arise by asking open-ended questions equips them with problem-solving skills they will need throughout life when things do not always go as planned. 

#5 – Puzzles and Board Games

Puzzles and board games, much like math equations, allow children to use their cognitive problem-solving abilities to complete tasks in a fun and unique way. Pre-schoolers are often drawn to images and visual learning components as well as interactive play. Putting puzzles together allows for pattern recognition, while board games allow for interactive problem-solving techniques to be utilized through a set of rules. Incorporating puzzles and games into the lives of children are excellent ways to get them to think critically and find solutions that offer immediate results. 

#6 – Read Books and Tell Stories

Books and storytelling are always exceptional ways to build vocabulary and introduce kids to characters and situations outside of their own. When children are given the opportunity to relate to characters and situations, and then address how those characters can react and engage in their conflicts and interpersonal relationships, it not only fosters imagination and creativity but also problem-solving skills. 

#7 – Center Emotions

As adults we understand that while reacting emotionally to a situation is sometimes natural, it does not get us very far when it comes to solving a problem. Children should be taught how to center those emotions, without shame or guilt by providing an alternative to emotional responses. This is often in the form of learning communication and language. 

If your son’s best friend hurt his feelings, he should not be made to feel that he shouldn’t feel how he is feeling. Having your feelings hurt, particularly by a friend, is, well, hurtful, and there should be no shame attached to that feeling. However, when it comes to addressing those hurt feelings to the friend, it would be inappropriate to shout, “I hate you!” or “I don’t want to be your friend anymore!” Rather, providing your preschool-aged child with words and phrases for when their feelings are hurt is essential to emotional and social development. 

Teaching your son to tell his friend, “It hurts my feelings when you say that” or “I get sad when you are mean to me” are great ways to help children not only process their emotional feelings but express them in appropriate ways that lead to a resolution. 

#8 – Model Problem-Solving Behaviors

Children look to the adults in their lives for how to handle the problems they face in the world. If your child sees you politely ask a waiter to return a plate of food that was incorrectly served, they will learn that proper communication, respect, and patience lead to resolution. In contrast, if a child sees their parents speak rudely and blame a waiter for an incorrect order, they will learn that emotional reactions are the way to address problems. As a parent and caretaker, it is your responsibility to use mistakes, obstacles, and hardships as learning opportunities passed on to your preschool-aged children, demonstrating first-hand that non-emotional responses, kindness, and communication are the keys to getting most issues resolved. 

#9 – Break Down Problems into Chunks

As an adult, one of the ways to get through major projects at work is to set up a schedule that breaks down a large-scale project into smaller portions. Using this technique in childhood education and development is a successful way to teach children how doing one small task can lead to an overall greater, larger picture in the long run. Since a large task can seem overwhelming or even impossible, breaking it down into smaller, easily achievable pieces that will eventually lead to the full, complete picture is a wonderful way to help children of any age, but particularly preschool-aged, tackle large issues without feeling the weight of the big picture.

#10 – Utilize Natural Curiosities and Interests 

Using natural, organic opportunities for learning and problem-solving is always one of the best ways to foster creativity as well as logical and analytical thinking. All children are naturally drawn to some interest– whether it’s unicorns, dinosaurs, airplanes, trucks, or the color blue… every child has something that they become naturally drawn to, often to the surprise of their parents. 

For example, maybe every time your daughter sees the mailman drop off the mail, she is fascinated. Maybe her face lit up with interest and excitement to check what was left in the mailbox today. This is an opportunity to ask questions that lead to analytical thinking and problem-solving. Inquiring, “what does the mail carrier drop off at other houses?” or teaching the concept of writing a letter to grandma and how it goes through the mail can continue to foster interests while teaching logical steps, planning, and problem-solving techniques. 

Enroll Your Child in an Interactive Preschool Care System 

It’s no secret that when a child is at preschool age they are naturally curious and soak up all the information around them. By teaching your child problem-solving skills, they are better equipped to handle the everyday struggles the world has to face. However, the professionals at our preschool development center understand that busy working schedules, multiple children, and life’s responsibilities do not always make it easy for parents to dedicate time to fostering and strengthening problem-solving skills in their children. 

If you have a preschool-aged child who will benefit from emotional, social, and personal development related to problem-solving, contact Primary Beginnings to enroll your child in our 5-star preschool program in Raleigh. 

Contact us today at 919-790-6888 for our Spring Forest Rd. location or 919-785-0303 for our North Hills Dr. location, or fill out our contact form below. 

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How to Teach Kids Problem-Solving Skills

KidStock / Blend Images / Getty Images

• Steps to Follow
• Allow Consequences

Whether your child can't find their math homework or has forgotten their lunch, good problem-solving skills are the key to helping them manage their life. 

A 2010 study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy found that kids who lack problem-solving skills may be at a higher risk of depression and suicidality.   Additionally, the researchers found that teaching a child problem-solving skills can improve mental health . 

You can begin teaching basic problem-solving skills during preschool and help your child sharpen their skills into high school and beyond.

Why Problem-Solving Skills Matter

Kids face a variety of problems every day, ranging from academic difficulties to problems on the sports field. Yet few of them have a formula for solving those problems.

Kids who lack problem-solving skills may avoid taking action when faced with a problem.

Rather than put their energy into solving the problem, they may invest their time in avoiding the issue.   That's why many kids fall behind in school or struggle to maintain friendships .

Other kids who lack problem-solving skills spring into action without recognizing their choices. A child may hit a peer who cuts in front of them in line because they are not sure what else to do.  

Or, they may walk out of class when they are being teased because they can't think of any other ways to make it stop. Those impulsive choices may create even bigger problems in the long run.

The 5 Steps of Problem-Solving

Kids who feel overwhelmed or hopeless often won't attempt to address a problem. But when you give them a clear formula for solving problems, they'll feel more confident in their ability to try. Here are the steps to problem-solving:  

• Identify the problem . Just stating the problem out loud can make a big difference for kids who are feeling stuck. Help your child state the problem, such as, "You don't have anyone to play with at recess," or "You aren't sure if you should take the advanced math class." 
• Develop at least five possible solutions . Brainstorm possible ways to solve the problem. Emphasize that all the solutions don't necessarily need to be good ideas (at least not at this point). Help your child develop solutions if they are struggling to come up with ideas. Even a silly answer or far-fetched idea is a possible solution. The key is to help them see that with a little creativity, they can find many different potential solutions.
• Identify the pros and cons of each solution . Help your child identify potential positive and negative consequences for each potential solution they identified. 
• Pick a solution. Once your child has evaluated the possible positive and negative outcomes, encourage them to pick a solution.
• Test it out . Tell them to try a solution and see what happens. If it doesn't work out, they can always try another solution from the list that they developed in step two. 

Practice Solving Problems

When problems arise, don’t rush to solve your child’s problems for them. Instead, help them walk through the problem-solving steps. Offer guidance when they need assistance, but encourage them to solve problems on their own. If they are unable to come up with a solution, step in and help them think of some. But don't automatically tell them what to do. 

When you encounter behavioral issues, use a problem-solving approach. Sit down together and say, "You've been having difficulty getting your homework done lately. Let's problem-solve this together." You might still need to offer a consequence for misbehavior, but make it clear that you're invested in looking for a solution so they can do better next time. 

Use a problem-solving approach to help your child become more independent.

If they forgot to pack their soccer cleats for practice, ask, "What can we do to make sure this doesn't happen again?" Let them try to develop some solutions on their own.

Kids often develop creative solutions. So they might say, "I'll write a note and stick it on my door so I'll remember to pack them before I leave," or "I'll pack my bag the night before and I'll keep a checklist to remind me what needs to go in my bag." 

Provide plenty of praise when your child practices their problem-solving skills.  

Allow for Natural Consequences

Natural consequences  may also teach problem-solving skills. So when it's appropriate, allow your child to face the natural consequences of their action. Just make sure it's safe to do so. 

For example, let your teenager spend all of their money during the first 10 minutes you're at an amusement park if that's what they want. Then, let them go for the rest of the day without any spending money.

This can lead to a discussion about problem-solving to help them make a better choice next time. Consider these natural consequences as a teachable moment to help work together on problem-solving.

Becker-Weidman EG, Jacobs RH, Reinecke MA, Silva SG, March JS. Social problem-solving among adolescents treated for depression . Behav Res Ther . 2010;48(1):11-18. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.08.006

Pakarinen E, Kiuru N, Lerkkanen M-K, Poikkeus A-M, Ahonen T, Nurmi J-E. Instructional support predicts childrens task avoidance in kindergarten .  Early Child Res Q . 2011;26(3):376-386. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.11.003

Schell A, Albers L, von Kries R, Hillenbrand C, Hennemann T. Preventing behavioral disorders via supporting social and emotional competence at preschool age .  Dtsch Arztebl Int . 2015;112(39):647–654. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2015.0647

Cheng SC, She HC, Huang LY. The impact of problem-solving instruction on middle school students’ physical science learning: Interplays of knowledge, reasoning, and problem solving . EJMSTE . 2018;14(3):731-743.

Vlachou A, Stavroussi P. Promoting social inclusion: A structured intervention for enhancing interpersonal problem‐solving skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities . Support Learn . 2016;31(1):27-45. doi:10.1111/1467-9604.12112

Öğülmüş S, Kargı E. The interpersonal cognitive problem solving approach for preschoolers .  Turkish J Educ . 2015;4(17347):19-28. doi:10.19128/turje.181093

American Academy of Pediatrics. What's the best way to discipline my child? .

Kashani-Vahid L, Afrooz G, Shokoohi-Yekta M, Kharrazi K, Ghobari B. Can a creative interpersonal problem solving program improve creative thinking in gifted elementary students? .  Think Skills Creat . 2017;24:175-185. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2017.02.011

Shokoohi-Yekta M, Malayeri SA. Effects of advanced parenting training on children's behavioral problems and family problem solving .  Procedia Soc Behav Sci . 2015;205:676-680. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.09.106

By Amy Morin, LCSW Amy Morin, LCSW, is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind. She's also a psychotherapist, an international bestselling author of books on mental strength and host of The Verywell Mind Podcast. She delivered one of the most popular TEDx talks of all time.

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How Your Child Learns to Problem-Solve

Your preschooler is figuring out what things are, why things are, and how things work..

In the course of your child's day, dozens of questions like these arise: "What's inside this box?" "How can I get into it?" "How far can I throw this ball?" "What will happen if I spill all of the crayons out of the box?" "I wonder if my teddy bear floats?" "How can I get these pieces of paper to stick to that piece of paper?" "Why does my block tower keep falling over?"

By asking these questions, your child is identifying and figuring out ways to solve them, and trying out her ideas. Every time she experiments with and investigates things in her world, such as how far water will squirt from a sprayer and what's inside a seedpod, for example, she is building her ability to solve problems. This is also true when she selects materials for building or when she learns to resolve an argument with a friend or sibling over a toy.

If we look at this process more closely, we discover that problem solving involves both creative and critical thinking. Both are necessary to figure out the solutions to problems of all kinds.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is the heart of problem solving. It is the ability to see a different way to do something, generate new ideas, and use materials in new ways. Central to creative thinking is the willingness to take risks, to experiment, and even to make a mistake. Part of creative thinking is "fluent" thinking, which is the ability to generate or brainstorm ideas. So ask your child "wide-open" questions! For instance, ask him to:

• imagine all the different ways to get to school (walking, flying, driving, swimming!).
• name everything he can think of that's red.
• name everything he can think of that's round.
• imagine all the things he could make out of clay or paper bags or even an empty box.

These are good examples of thinking problems that have many right answers. Research has shown that the ability to think fluently has a high correlation to school success later on. Another part of creative thinking is "flexible" thinking, which is the ability to see many possibilities or to view objects or situations in different ways. The next time your child pretends a pot is a hat or a spoon is a microphone or speculates on all the reasons that a child in a picture might feel sad, he is practicing his flexible thinking.

Critical Thinking

Critical, or logical, thinking is the ability to break an idea into its parts and analyze them. The math skills of sorting and classifying, comparing similarities and differences, are all parts of critical thinking. Whenever your child looks at, say, two glasses of juice and tries to figure out which one holds more, he is practicing this kind of thinking. To encourage it, ask your child:

• how many different ways he can sort his blocks.
• how many different ways he can make a building out of the blocks.
• how the building would be different if he used blocks of only one size.
• how a bottle of juice and his lunch box are alike and how they are different.
• how family members' shoes are alike and how they are different.

Asking questions about things that don't seem to make sense is another way children think critically. Questions such as "Why do I have a shadow on the playground but not inside?" or "Why can't I see the wind?" are examples of critical thinking. You don't need to have one right answer, but do encourage your child to express his ideas. There's one other thing to remember about problem solving: It's fun! So make room for spontaneity and prepare yourself to be surprised and delighted as you discover your child's unique way of thinking.

Problem Solving: How to Teach Young Children

Jul 07, 2023.

Problem solving is a very important skill that we need to teach children from a young age. The simplest problems can be of great concern to children; for example, if we have four kids and three cookies, who gets (or doesn’t get) a cookie? My answer would be to take two of the cookies, split each in half and give each child a half of a cookie…and mom gets the left-over cookie!

As parents or caregivers, we will not always be available to solve the cookie debate, a tough math problem or negative peer pressure. Kids in all age ranges, face problems and challenges every day. Our job is to prepare them for these decisions by teaching them how to solve problems by themselves.

A child who lacks problem-solving skills may avoid taking action when faced with a problem. They may get frustrated or give up when something seems too challenging. On the contrary, having problem-solving skills builds confidence. A child with problem-solving skills keep going until they find a solution; they’re creative thinkers and can adapt better in a variety of settings.

Here are four strategies for teaching problem-solving skills to children:

• Set a good example. Children learn by watching us; let them see how you deal with problems.
• Involve your child in family problem-solving meetings. Encourage your child to participate in solving a small family problem. They’ll learn while building confidence.
• State the problem clearly
• Come up with some possible solutions – brainstorm together
• Choose what seems like the best solution
• Try out the solution
• Review how the solution worked and make changes, if necessary
• Encourage your child to solve their own problems. Having your support on stand-by while they practice their skills will help them find success.

The methods used to teach problem solving provide more challenge with age:

• 3-5 years: Name and validate emotions, ask “show me” and use creative play.
• 5-7 years: Don’t forget their feelings, use the problem-solving steps above and ask open-ended questions, like “what do you think will happen next?”
• 7-9 years: Break down the problem into smaller parts, use the problem-solving steps above and ask open-ended questions.

Problem-solving skills are best taught in the moment. When your child comes to you to talk or ask a question, that is when they are more likely ready to learn. It’s important for parents and caregivers to show up and be present when those moments occur. Remember to give them your attention. Listen, show empathy, ask open-ended questions, and guide them as much as they need but do not solve the problem for them.

If you are looking for more tips around positive parenting, Nationwide Children’s Hospital offers free Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) support on a wide variety of topics for parents of young children. For more information, click here , email [email protected] or call (614) 355-8099.

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Crystal milner.

Crystal Milner is a Behavioral Health ECMH Consultant at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

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How to Teach Problem-Solving Skills to Children and Preteens

• By Ashley Cullins

Whether it’s a toy-related conflict, a tough math equation, or negative peer pressure, kids of ALL ages face problems and challenges on a daily basis.

As parents or teachers, we can’t always be there to solve every problem for our children. In fact, this isn’t our job. Our job is to TEACH our children how to solve problems by themselves . This way, they can become confident , independent, and successful individuals.

Instead of giving up or getting frustrated when they encounter a challenge, kids with problem-solving skills manage their emotions, think creatively, and persist until they find a solution. Naturally, these abilities go hand-in-hand with a  growth mindset .

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our FREE Your Words Matter Volume 2 Kit . With these 10 one-page parenting guides, you will know exactly how to speak to your child to help them stand up for themselves, be more confident, and develop a growth mindset.

So HOW do you teach problem-solving skills to kids?

Well, it depends on their age . As cognitive abilities and the size of the child’s challenges grow/evolve over time, so should your approach to teaching problem-solving skills.

Read on to learn key strategies for teaching problem-solving to kids, as well as some age-by-age ideas and activities.

3 General Strategies to Teach Problem-Solving at Any Age

1. model effective problem-solving .

When YOU encounter a challenge, do a “think-aloud” for the benefit of your child. MODEL how to apply the same problem-solving skills you’ve been working on together, giving the real-world examples that she can implement in her own life.

At the same time, show your child a willingness to make mistakes . Everyone encounters problems, and that’s okay. Sometimes the first solution you try won’t work, and that’s okay too!  

When you model problem-solving, explain that there are some things that are out of our control. As we're solving a problem at hand we should focus on the things we CAN actually control.

You and your child can listen to Episode 35  of the Big Life Kids Podcast to learn about focusing on what you can control.

2. Ask for Advice

Ask your kids for advice when you have a problem. This teaches them that it’s common to make mistakes and face challenges. It also gives them the opportunity to practice problem-solving skills.

Plus, when you indicate that their ideas are valued ,  they’ll gain the confidence to attempt solving problems on their own.

3. Don’t Provide “The Answer”

As difficult as it may be, allow your child to struggle, sometimes fail , and ultimately LEARN  from experiencing consequences.

Now, let’s take a look at some age-specific strategies and activities. The ages listed below are general guidelines, feel free to choose any strategies or activities that you feel will work for YOUR child.

Use Emotion Coaching

To step into a problem-solving mindset, young children need to first learn to  manage their emotions . After all, it’s difficult for a small child to logically consider solutions to a problem if he’s mid-tantrum.

One way to accomplish this is by using the  emotion coaching process  outlined by John Gottman.

First,  teach your kids that ALL emotions are acceptable. There are NO “bad” emotions. Even seemingly negative emotions like anger, sadness, and frustration can teach us valuable lessons. What matters is how we  respond  to these emotions.

Second,   follow this process:

• Step One: Naming and validating emotions.  When your child is upset, help her process the way she’s feeling. Say something like,  “I understand that you’re upset because Jessica is playing with the toy you wanted.”
• Step Two:   Processing  emotions.  Guide your child to her  calming space. If she doesn't have one, it's a good idea to create one.  Let her calm her body and process her emotions so she can problem-solve, learn, and grow. 
• Step Three: Problem Solving.  Brainstorm solutions with your child, doing more   LISTENING   than talking during the conversation. This allows your child to practice her problem-solving skills, and she’s more likely to actually implement the solutions she came up with herself.

Say, “Show Me the Hard Part”

When your child struggles or feels frustrated, try a technique suggested by mom and parenting blogger Lauren Tamm . Simply say, “Show me the hard part.”

This helps your child identify the ROOT   of the problem, making it less intimidating and easier to solve.

Repeat back what your child says,  “So you’re saying…”

Once you both understand the real problem, prompt your child to come up with solutions . “There must be some way you can fix that…” or  “There must be something you can do…”

Now that your child has identified “the hard part,” she’ll likely be able to come up with a solution. If not, help her brainstorm some ideas. You may try asking the question, “If you DID  know, what would you think?” and see what she comes up with.

Problem-Solve with Creative Play

Allow your child to choose activities and games based on her  interests . Free play provides plenty of opportunities to navigate and creatively solve problems.

Children often learn best through play. Playing with items like blocks, simple puzzles, and dress-up clothes can teach your child the process of problem-solving.

Even while playing, your child thinks critically:  Where does this puzzle piece fit? What does this do? I want to dress up as a queen. What should I wear?   Where did I put my tiara? Is it under the couch?

Problem-Solve with Storybooks

Read age-appropriate stories featuring characters who experience problems, such as:

• Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy by Jacky Davis: The story of two friends who want to play together but can’t find a game to agree on. After taking turns making suggestions, they arrive at a game they both want to play: Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy.
• The Curious George Series by Margaret and H.E. Rey: A curious little monkey gets into and out of dilemmas, teaching kids to find solutions to problems of their own.
• Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber: Ira’s thrilled to have a sleepover at his friend Reggie’s house. But there’s one problem: Should he or should he not bring his teddy bear? It may seem small, but this is the type of early social problem your child might relate to.

Connect these experiences to similar events in your child’s own life, and ASK your child HOW the characters in these stories could solve their problems. Encourage a variety of solutions, and discuss the possible outcomes of each.

This is a form of dialogue reading , or actively ENGAGING   your child in the reading experience. Interacting with the text instead of passively listening can “turbocharge” the development of literacy skills such as comprehension in preschool-aged children.

By asking questions about the characters’ challenges, you can also give your child’s problem-solving abilities a boost.

You can even have your child role-play the problem and potential solutions to reinforce the lesson.  

For book suggestions, refer to our Top 85 Growth Mindset Books for Children & Adults list.

Teach the Problem-Solving Steps

Come up with a simple problem-solving process for your child, one that you can consistently implement. For example, you might try the following five steps:

• Step 1: What am I feeling?  Help your child understand what she’s feeling in the moment (frustration, anger, curiosity, disappointment, excitement, etc.)  Noticing and naming emotions will diffuse  their charge and give your child a chance to take a step back.
• Step 2: What’s the problem?  Guide your child to identify the specific problem. In most cases, help her take responsibility for what happened rather than pointing fingers. For instance, instead of, “Joey got me in trouble at recess,” your child might say, “I got in trouble at recess for arguing with Joey.”
• Step 3:   What are the solutions?  Encourage your child to come up with as many solutions as possible. At this point, they don’t even need to be “good” solutions. They’re just brainstorming here, not yet evaluating the ideas they’ve generated.
• Step 4: What would happen if…? What would happen if your child attempted each of these solutions? Is the solution safe and fair? How will it make others feel? You can also try role-playing at this step. It’s important for your child to consider BOTH  positive and negative consequences of her actions.
• Step 5: Which one will I try?  Ask your child to pick one or more solutions to try. If the solution didn't work, discuss WHY and move on to another one. Encourage your child to keep trying until the problem is solved. 

Consistently practice these steps so that they become second nature, and model solving problems of your own the same way.  It's a good idea to   reflect :   What worked? What didn’t? What can you do differently next time?

Problem-Solve with Craft Materials

Crafting is another form of play that can teach kids to solve problems creatively.

Provide your child with markers, modeling clay, cardboard boxes, tape, paper, etc. They’ll come up with all sorts of interesting creations and inventive games with these simple materials.

These “open-ended toys” don’t have a “right way to play,” allowing your child to get creative and generate ideas independently .

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Asking open-ended questions improves a child’s ability to think critically and creatively, ultimately making them better problem-solvers. Examples of open-ended questions include:

• How could we work together to solve this?
• How did you work it out? or How do you know that?
• Tell me about what you built, made, or created.
• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you think would happen if…?
• What did you learn?
• What was easy? What was hard?
• What would you do differently next time?

Open-ended questions have no right answer and can’t be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No.”

You can ask open-ended questions even when your child isn’t currently solving a problem to help her practice her thinking skills, which will come in handy when she does have a problem to solve.

If you need some tips on how to encourage a growth mindset in your child, don't forget to download our FREE Your Words Matter Volume 2 Kit .

Break Down Problems into Chunks

This strategy is a more advanced version of “Show me the hard part.”

The bigger your child gets, the bigger her problems get too. When your child is facing a challenge that seems overwhelming or insurmountable, encourage her to break it into smaller, more manageable chunks.

For instance, let’s say your child has a poor grade in history class. Why is the grade so low? What are the causes of this problem?

As usual, LISTEN as your child brainstorms, asking open-ended questions to help if she gets stuck.

If the low grade is the result of missing assignments, perhaps your child can make a list of these assignments and tackle them one at a time. Or if tests are the issue, what’s causing your child to struggle on exams?

Perhaps she’s distracted by friends in the class, has trouble asking for help, and doesn’t spend enough time studying at home. Once you’ve identified these “chunks,” help your child tackle them one at a time until the problem is solved.

Show “ The Broken Escalator Video ”

Discuss the importance of embracing challenges and solving problems independently with the “broken escalator video.”

In the video, an escalator unexpectedly breaks. The people on the escalator are “stuck” and yelling for help. At this age, it’s likely that your child will find the video funny and immediately offer a solution: “Just walk! Get off the escalator!”

Tell your child that this is a simple example of how people sometimes act in difficult situations. Ask, “Why do you think they didn’t get off the escalator?” (they didn’t know how, they were waiting for help, etc.)

Sometimes, your child might feel “stuck” when facing problems. They may stop and ask for help before even attempting to find a solution. Encourage your child to embrace challenges and work through problems instead.

Problem-Solve with Prompts

Provide your child or a group of children with materials such as straws, cotton balls, yarn, clothespins, tape, paper clips, sticky notes, Popsicle sticks, etc.

With just these materials, challenge your kids to solve unusual problems like:

• Make a leprechaun trap
• Create a jump ramp for cars
• Design your own game with rules
• Make a device for two people to communicate with one another

This is a fun way to practice critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Most likely, it will take multiple attempts to find a solution that works, which can apply to just about any aspect of life.

Make Them Work for It

When your child asks for a new toy, technology, or clothes, have her make a plan to obtain the desired item herself. Not only will your child have to brainstorm and evaluate solutions, but she’ll also gain confidence .

Ask your child HOW she can earn the money for the item that she wants, and encourage her as she works toward her goal .

Put It on Paper

Have your child write out their problems on paper and brainstorm some potential solutions.

But now, she takes this process a step further: After attempting each solution, which succeeded? Which were unsuccessful? Why ?

This helps your child reflect on various outcomes, learning what works and what doesn’t. The lessons she learns here will be useful when she encounters similar problems in the future.

Play Chess Together

Learning to play chess is a great way for kids to learn problem-solving AND build their brains at the same time. It requires players to use critical thinking, creativity, analysis of the board, recognize patterns, and more. There are online versions of the game, books on how to play, videos, and other resources. Don’t know how to play? Learn with your teen to connect and problem solve together!

Have Them Learn To Code

Our teens and tweens are already tech-savvy and can use their skills to solve problems by learning to code. Coding promotes creativity, logic, planning, and persistence . There are many great tools and online or in-person programs that can boost your child’s coding skills.

Encourage to Start a Meaningful Project

This project has to be meaningful to your teen, for example starting a YouTube channel. Your teen will practice problem-solving skills as they’re figuring out how to grow their audience, how to have their videos discovered, and much more. 

In the Big Life Journal - Teen Edition , there’s a section that guides them through planning their YouTube channel and beginning the problem-solving process.

Apply the SODAS Method

Looking for a game plan that your teen can employ when faced with a problem? The SODAS method can be used for big or small problems. Just remember this simple acronym and follow these ideas:

• D isadvantages
• A dvantages

Encourage to Join Problem-Solving Groups

Does your teen enjoy solving problems in a team? Have them join a group or club that helps them hone their skills in a variety of settings--from science and robotics to debating and international affairs. Some examples of groups include: 

• Odyssey of the Mind
• Debate team
• Science Olympiad

Looking for additional resources?  The Bestseller’s Bundle includes our three most popular printable kits packed with science-based activities, guides, and crafts for children. Our Growth Mindset Kit, Resilience Kit, and Challenges Kit work together as a comprehensive system designed specifically for children ages 5-11.

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25 thoughts on “ How to Teach Problem-Solving Skills to Children and Preteens ”

I love, love, love the point about emotional coaching. It’s so important to identify how children are feeling about a problem and then approach the solutions accordingly.

Thank you for putting this together. I wrote an article on problem-solving specifically from the point of view of developing a STEM aptitude in kids, if you like to check it out – https://kidpillar.com/how-to-teach-problem-solving-to-your-kids-5-8-years/

I feel that these techniques will work for my kid.. Worthy.. Thank you

I love you guys

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Pave the Way for Self-regulation and Problem-solving With Social-emotional Learning

Posted: April 3, 2024

Problem-solving is a social-emotional learning (SEL) skill children need for lifelong success. Effective problem-solving skills support children's ability to self-regulate, focus on tasks, think flexibly and creatively, work with others, and generate multiple ways to solve problems. When young children develop and build these skills, it positively impacts their interactions with others, grows their capacity to manage challenges, and boosts a sense of competence.

A group of school-age children are stacking plastic blocks with an educator.

The foundation for effective social problem-solving is grounded in self-regulation, or the ability to regulate emotions when interacting with others. It is easier to focus on one's feelings and the feelings and perspectives of others and to work cooperatively toward solutions when a child can self-regulate and calm down. Children develop self-regulation skills over time, with practice and with adult guidance. Equally important is how an adult models emotion regulation and co-regulation. 

"Caregivers play a key role in cultivating the development of emotion regulation through co-regulation, or the processes by which they provide external support or scaffolding as children navigate their emotional experiences" (Paley & Hajal, 2022, p. 1).

When adults model calm and self-regulated approaches to problem-solving, it shows children how to approach problems constructively. For example, an educator says, "I'm going to take a breath and calm down so I can think better." This model helps children see and hear a strategy to support self-regulation.

Problem-solving skills help children resolve conflicts and interact with others as partners and collaborators. Developing problem-solving skills helps children learn and grow empathy for others, stand up for themselves, and build resilience and competence to work through challenges in their world. 

Eight strategies to support problem-solving 

• Teach about emotions and use feeling words throughout the day. When children have more words to express themselves and their feelings, it is easier to address and talk about challenges when they arise. 
• Recognize and acknowledge children's feelings throughout the day. For example, when children enter the classroom during circle time, mealtime, and outside time, ask them how they feel. Always acknowledge children's feelings, both comfortable and uncomfortable, to support an understanding that all feelings are OK to experience.  
• Differentiate between feelings and behaviors. By differentiating feelings from behaviors, educators contribute to children’s understanding that all feelings are OK, but not all behaviors are OK. For example, an educator says, "It looks like you may be feeling mad because you want the red blocks, and Nila is playing with them. It's OK to feel mad but not OK to knock over your friend’s blocks."
• Support children's efforts to calm down. When children are self-regulated, they can think more clearly. For example, practice taking a breath with children as a self-regulation technique during calm moments. Then, when challenges arise, children have a strategy they have practiced many times and can use to calm down before problem-solving begins.  
• Encourage children's efforts to voice the problem and their feelings after they are calm. For example, when a challenge arises, encourage children to use the phrase, "The problem is_______, and I feel______." This process sets the stage to begin problem-solving.
• Acknowledge children's efforts to think about varied ways to solve problems. For example, an educator says, "It looks like you and Nila are trying to work out how to share the blocks. What do you think might work so you can both play with them? Do you have some other ideas about how you could share?"
• Champion children's efforts as they problem-solve. For example, "You and Nila thought about two ways you could share. One way is to divide the red blocks so you can each build, and the other is to build a tower together. Great thinking, friends!"
• Create opportunities for activities and play that offer problem-solving practice. For example, when children play together in the block area, it provides opportunities to negotiate plans for play and role-play, build perspective, talk about feelings, and share. The skills children learn during play, along with adult support, enhance children’s ability to solve more complex and challenging social problems and conflicts when they occur in and out of the early learning setting.

References: 

Paley, B., & Hajal, N. J. (2022). Conceptualizing emotion regulation and coregulation as family-level phenomena. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review ,  25 (1), 19-43.

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How to Teach Kids Responsible Problem-Solving

May 14, 2020 by Samantha Song

As kids are changing and growing, they are figuring out the balance of requesting help and acting independently , while negotiating what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in given circumstances. This can be a tricky world to navigate. When problems arise, children’s big feelings can sometimes be consuming and affect their ability to make what we adults deem to be responsible decisions. And sometimes when they are overwhelmed with emotions, their immediate reactions can lead to many unintended consequences that don’t actually solve the original problem, but add to the frustration. Adults can empower children to solve problems responsibly and with time, children will be able to independently develop their own thinking processes for solving problems.

But first, what does responsible problem solving mean? This has to do with one’s ability to make choices about our personal behavior based on safety, ethics, and social norms . In simple, kid-friendly terms -  When you have a problem, do the choices you make hurt or harm others or yourself? Are your choices fair to others? Do they show caring? 

Provide some structure for your child and guide them through these steps as a way to approach future situations. 

Responsible Problem-Solving 

1. identify the problem.

Is this a small, medium, or big problem? 

Categorizing the magnitude of problems can be a weighty enough topic to be its own separate discussion and lesson. Younger children, with less life experience, generally have a harder time with perspective taking. And for others who are still developing in their maturity, their small problems (or mole hills) can still feel like mountains to conquer. We as adults have a responsibility to instill habits and behaviors that allow children to face challenges with more ease. We don’t want them to struggle with overwhelming emotions over the smaller obstacles that inevitably occur throughout the day. And so in that vein, we want to teach them that the size of the reaction should correspond to the size of the problem. 

This mini-lesson can lead to making decisions more responsibly but also effectively. 

To help ground their understanding, offer concrete examples, especially ones that are most relevant and meaningful to their life. You could brainstorm different problems from the past and work together to categorize and discuss those scenarios! 

An easy way for children to remember is ...

I can fix it myself!

I broke my pencil. I can fix it myself by finding the pencil sharpener or I can use another pencil or writing tool. 

I am standing in line and someone bumps into me from behind.

I may need help 

(from a friend or maybe an adult).

I spilled my juice on the floor. I can try to clean it myself but I may need someone to help if the mess is big or sticky.

I am playing a board game and I’ve lost 3 times in a row. 

I need adult help right away. 

Someone pushed me really hard and I fell down and scraped my knee. 

I am playing on the playground and a growling dog is running over. 

2. Acknowledge the feeling

Once the size of the problem is identified with some perspective taking, it’s good to acknowledge that no matter the magnitude of the issue, it still affects how a child feels. Check in - Are they frustrated? Sad? Angry with a friend? 

3. Name the desired goal

In other words, what do they want to happen? Does the child want to make up with their friend? Do they want to replace what is broken? Do they want to feel happier, and not sad anymore? 

4. Brainstorm 2 - 3 solutions  

It’s important to have the child consider these questions...

Will my choice hurt or harm others? 

Will my choice hurt or harm myself?

Does my choice help my goal?

5. Pick a solution! 

Pick the solution that best meets the criteria from Step 4.

As with any routines or expectations, responsible problem solving takes time, practice, and guidance from adults. It can be helpful to think through some memories and have your child act them out again. How would they evaluate their past reactions or solutions? What different decisions could they make if there was a redo? Using your personal knowledge of your child’s personality and areas of growth, you could also generate some likely scenarios for your child to review and discuss, or go ahead and choose from these printable cards that can be turned into a deck. A visual step by step flowchart to stick on the fridge, in their room, or in their go to calm spot can also be a helpful reference when they’re facing a challenge. Finally, children may need help brainstorming potential solutions - this printable problem-solving choice board could be a good place to start as they begin to build their toolbox of strategies . 

Problem solving is foundational to a child’s learning capacity and their ability to face future roadblocks independently. Whenever possible, don’t swoop in for the rescue, but help facilitate these decision making processes with a positive attitude and encourage your child to make their own choices. Keep in mind that the best solution may not always be picked and those mistakes are part of the equation. We should allow it to enable learning! With guidance and patience, children will grow in their ability to solve problems responsibly. 

Samantha Song has been an educator of K-3 grades for over 9 years, and is currently based in San Diego. You can follow her on instagram @ms.song_grade1 .

Teaching Problem Solving Skills for Kids the Ultimate Guide

Hey there, little problem-solvers! Imagine your brain as a superhero headquarters where problems are challenges waiting to be conquered.

Today, we’re going to dive into the world of problem-solving skills – the secret powers that make you a superhero in the game of life!

Why are Problem-Solving Skills Important in Early Childhood?

Picture this: you’re the captain of your ship, and problem-solving skills are your navigation tools.

These skills help you sail through the sea of challenges, making you independent, super smart, and ready for anything that comes your way.

They’re not just skills; they’re your superhero gear for life’s adventures! See below list for more details.

Helps to Think Critically

Developing problem-solving skills in early childhood is essential for children to develop the ability to think critically and logically.

Problem-solving skills help children find solutions to everyday issues, such as how to solve a complicated math equation or fix a practical problem.

Helps with life lessons

Problem-solving skills also provide children valuable life lessons on better managing difficult situations as they mature into adulthood.

They learn that it’s ok to experiment with different approaches when faced with a challenge and eventually come up with the best possible solution.

Allows to use creativity and imagination

Solid problem-solving abilities allow children to use creativity and imagination when faced with challenging tasks rather than relying solely on instructions presented by adults to guide them.

This teaches them to make decisions based on their judgment and reasoning rather than succumbing to peer pressure or unthinkingly following orders.

Helps to think outside the box

By developing early childhood problem-solving skills, children can think outside the box, which helps them build self-confidence, an essential part of development as they grow older.

When allowed independent thought without fear of failure or criticism from other people, they are more likely to take risks and ultimately reach their full potential throughout life.

Lays the foundation for success

Investing in developing problem-solving skills in early childhood will lay the foundation for success for children later in life since good problem-solving skills are essential in many college courses and professional careers in all industries.

Like, medical research, engineering, and computer science up through management jobs or CEO roles where decision making is critical.

Role of Problem-Solving Skills in Holistic Development

Let’s connect the dots between problem-solving skills and your superhero team – cognitive development .

Just like superheroes need strong teamwork, your brain’s problem-solving skills work with cognitive development to make you a master thinker and decision-maker. It’s like having a dynamic duo inside your head!

Ultimately it will boost your child’s Holistic Development !

Key Aspects of Problem-Solving Skills Development

Identification of problems.

Think of this as your superhero radar. Teaching you to identify problems is like giving you the power to spot challenges from a mile away.

Activities like treasure hunts or detective games can help you become a problem-finding expert. Why? Because superheroes need to know what they’re up against!

Generation of Solutions

Now, it’s time to put on your inventor’s hat! Guiding you to generate solutions is like giving you a toolbox full of ideas.

Brainstorming sessions, role-play scenarios, or solving riddles are like workouts for your creative muscles. The more solutions you think of, the stronger and more creative you become!

Decision Making

Welcome to the superhero control center! Decision-making is choosing the best tool from your toolbox.

Weighing pros and cons, using decision-making charts, or even flipping a coin (yes, superheroes can be a bit whimsical!) are ways to make sure you pick the perfect solution. Decision-making makes you the captain of your ship!

Evaluation and Learning

After every adventure, superheroes gather to share their stories. Evaluating outcomes and learning from experiences is like your superhero debriefing session.

Reflective discussions help you understand what worked and what didn’t, making you wiser for the next challenge. Learning from experiences is how superheroes become legends!

Strategies to Teach Problem Solving Skills

Now, let’s talk about the superhero training camp!

Teaching problem-solving strategies is a critical component of early childhood problem-solving. Strategizing will help a child break down a complicated issue into smaller and more manageable steps, making finding solutions much more accessible.

Strategies like brainstorming, breaking tasks into small steps, or trying different approaches can promote creative thinking and teach children how to persevere when faced with a challenge.

Provide Guided Support

When teaching problem-solving skills to young children, it is essential to provide guided support throughout the process.

Although it might be tempting to jump in and provide solutions, offering guidance instead can help foster a feeling of autonomy for your little ones.

Ask them questions about their ideas and encourage them to come up with solutions on their own.

Encourage Open Communication

Open communication between yourself and your child is another critical component to successful problem-solving in early childhood.

You want your little one to be comfortable bringing any questions or concerns directly to you instead of bottling it up or feeling too intimidated or embarrassed to speak up.

Encourage them to talk openly about anything troubling them — whether figuring out how many pieces are left after you cut a cake into eight slices or thinking through their feelings when someone makes fun of them at school.

Talk About Feelings

It’s also important that young kids learn how each emotion manifests differently as soon as possible — this will enable them to act appropriately regardless of their environment or circumstance.

Talk about negative emotions (ex: anger) if something has upset them and positive feelings (ex: excitement) if they have accomplished something great like mastering a new skill or puzzle!

This exercise will encourage verbalization and increase understanding of self-regulation techniques, which will prove helpful far beyond primary school age.

Ways to Teach Problem-Solving Skills To Preschoolers

Learning how to solve problems is one of the essential skills your child will ever develop. After all, problem-solving and critical thinking are vital components of successful learning in any subject ranging from mathematics to social studies.

To help your child build those skills and gain a better understanding of problem-solving, here are seven tips that you should consider:

1. Break down complex tasks and concepts: 

Complex tasks and concepts such as counting or sorting objects can be tricky for preschoolers to understand.

It is essential to break these tasks into smaller and more manageable pieces that preschoolers can easily understand.

2. Create games: 

Games are a great way to encourage problem-solving skills in preschoolers. Incorporating puzzles, drawing activities, or letter identification games can be fun for kids while also helping them practice their problem-solving skills.

Puzzles are excellent tools for teaching young minds about problem-solving strategies. For example, you could attempt jigsaw puzzles or logic games like Sudoku or Chess.

3. Ask open-ended questions: 

Asking open-ended questions encourages preschoolers to think creatively and come up with answers independently without being given all the correct answers upfront.

Questions such as “What do you think will happen if you move this block?” allow kids to explore and experiment before they figure out the answer themselves.

4. Utilize trial and error: 

Preschoolers learn best through trial and error-based problem-solving approaches; instead of immediately answering, let them try different solutions to see the result themselves!

5. Encourage collaboration over the competition: 

Collaborative problem-solving is vital for promoting problem-solving skills in preschoolers; it helps children establish cooperative relationships by encouraging teamwork over competition!

6. Make use of props :  

Props such as Legos, dolls, or even stuffed animals are valuable tools for teaching problem-solving strategies; these items allow children to build upon what they’ve learned visually!

Furthermore, using props also gives kids something tangible they can refer back to while playing or completing tasks with others who may not have seen what was built previously!

7. Celebrate each success : 

Problem-solving is a process of trial and error – don’t get discouraged if preschoolers make mistakes along the way; instead, celebrate every small success they have to keep motivation high!

8.   Teach Them to Break Problems Down into Smaller Parts

Sometimes a complex problem can seem overwhelming for children. Teaching them how to break down a significant issue into smaller pieces makes it easier to understand and focus on one task at a time.

Encourage them to divide each problem into steps that can be completed individually – this can give them the confidence they need to tackle the challenge head-on.

Simple Activities To Teach Problem-Solving To Your Preschooler

As you plan activities for your preschooler to help them become creative and efficient problem solvers, it’s essential to remember that this process never stops.

Therefore, it’s crucial to maximize their early development. Here are some simple activities you can use to teach your preschooler problem-solving skills.

Drawing Links Between Ideas: 

This activity gets kids used to figuring out how different ideas are connected and relies on creativity rather than knowledge of many specific facts.

Get a whiteboard or paper and divide it into four equal quadrants. In each of the four corners, have the child draw a picture related to other images on the board (e.g., a bird in one corner and a nest in another).

Ask the child how all objects relate by drawing lines from one thing to another where appropriate (e.g., from the nest to the bird).

Word Puzzles: 

Word puzzles encourage kids to figure out patterns between words as well as help them learn new sight words, and reinforce spelling when they write down their answers. Print off simple word puzzles for your child, such as crossword puzzles, Mad Libs stories, or Scattergories lists with prompts or objects your preschooler might know, like animals, colors, and shapes.

After they finish writing down their answers depending on the puzzle, either set up the rules where applicable (Scattergories) or read their story aloud (Mad Libs).

Pairing Relatable Subjects: 

Have your child select two categories they enjoy – favorite animal names and superhero names are usually easy picks – then create pairs made up of items within those categories by positioning one thing right above or beside its counterpart (e.g., Black Panther with Panther).

Next, allow them to check if these relational pairs hold throughout these categories by creating charts using Post-it notes while also letting them elaborate why they think specific pairings might not be proper at times –such as wondering why The Flash doesn’t have a Pet Flash.

Loose Parts Play Space: 

Loose parts play is an ideal way for preschoolers to learn about problem-solving, motivate experimentation and build self-regulation skills through unstructured play that promotes discovery and exploration instead of enforcing completion goals; all projects here are successful regardless of the result!

Get some loose parts –think art supplies like tape, feathers, sequins, etc., building blocks are great, too– from around the house, such as empty boxes/bottles/cans with lids/paper towel rolls, etc. Now give them an open invitation, “Build me something!” so they can explore their ideas!

Examples Of Problem-Solving In Early Childhood

1. working out how to put together a toy or game that siblings have taken apart:  .

Toddlers will often have to use their problem-solving skills to figure out how all the pieces of their toys go back together, as they’ve likely been taken apart or mixed up by older siblings.

2. Making decisions between two similar activities they both want to do: 

Young children often try to determine which action is better when presented with two toys or activities they want to engage in.

This could include picking between two colors for a building block set or deciding which book should be read first in storytime.

3. Determining how far away an object is: 

Toddlers need to learn about spatial relations, and determining how far away something is from them can be tricky but essential for their development; this includes things like being able to gauge when someone is too close or too far away from them.

As well recognizing when an object is within arms reach of them vs. needing help getting it down from a higher shelf.

4. Creating solutions to move on from complex emotional states: 

Even in early childhood, problem-solving can extend beyond physical objects and come into play making decisions about their own feelings and emotional states.

Finding ways to manage strong emotions during temper tantrums, peaceful resolution strategies during quarrels with other children, and coming up with creative solutions to work through boredom or loneliness while at daycare/preschool.

Obstacles in Problem-Solving Skills Development and Solutions

Sometimes, young minds face obstacles on their problem-solving journey. Overcoming fear of failure, lack of independent thinking opportunities, or excessive guidance from adults is key.

Promoting a growth mindset, providing open-ended tasks, and allowing children to make mistakes and learn from them are strategies that transform obstacles into stepping stones for success.

Problem-Solving Skills and School Readiness

As kids embark on their school journey, problem-solving skills become their trusty companions. These skills influence academic performance by fostering critical thinking, logical reasoning, and adaptability.

The ability to handle school-related challenges is heightened, setting the stage for a successful and fulfilling educational adventure.

So, little problem-solvers, the world is your puzzle, and you’ve got the pieces. With each challenge, you’re not just finding solutions – you’re discovering the superhero within.

Keep exploring, keep solving, and get ready for a future filled with exciting adventures and triumphant victories!

I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. I’m here to help you with play-based learning activities and crafts for kids ages 0 – 8. ( Cledemy.com is my Next startup on Pre to 8th Grade Printable and Worksheet Education Resources)

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• Spanish – español

Approaches to Learning: Problem Solving

Birth to 9 months

7 months to 18 months, 16 months to 24 months, 21 months to 36 months.

Children attempt a variety of strategies to accomplish tasks, overcome obstacles, and find solutions to tasks, questions, and challenges.

Children build the foundation for problem-solving skills through nurturing relationships, active exploration, and social interactions. In infancy, children learn that their actions and behaviors have an effect on others. For example, children cry to signal hunger to their caregivers; in turn, their caregivers feed them. Caregivers’ consistent responses to children’s communication attempts teach children the earliest forms of problem solving. Children learn that they have the ability to solve a problem by completing certain actions. Children build this knowledge and translate it into how they interact and problem-solve in future situations.

Children discover that their actions and behaviors also have an impact on objects. They learn that certain actions produce certain results. For example, children may bang a toy over and over as they notice the sound that it makes. This behavior is intentional and purposeful; children learn that they have the ability to make something happen. As they get older, children will experiment with different ways to solve problems, such as moving puzzle pieces in different ways to place them correctly. They will use trial and error to find solutions to the tasks they are working on, and use communication skills to ask or gesture for help from caregivers.

By 36 months, children are able to decrease the amount of trial and error they use when solving problems. Their cognitive skills are maturing and they are able to use logic and reasoning when working through challenges. Increased attention allows children to focus for longer periods of time when working through challenges. Children still depend on their caregivers for help, but are likely to attempt problem solving on their own before asking someone for help.

Children are building the foundation for problem solving through active exploration and social interaction.

Indicators for children include:

• Focuses on getting a caregiver’s attention through the use of sounds, cries, gestures, and facial expressions
• Enjoys repeating actions, e.g., continues to drop toy from highchair after it is picked up by a caregiver or sibling
• Communicates the need for assistance through verbal and/or nonverbal cues, e.g., pointing, reaching, vocalizing

Strategies for interaction

• Respond thoughtfully and promptly to the child’s attempts for attention
• Provide interesting and age-appropriate toys and objects for exploration
• Engage and interact with the child frequently during the day

Children begin to discover that certain actions and behaviors can be solutions to challenges and obstacles they encounter. Children also recognize how to engage their caregiver(s) to assist in managing these challenges.

• Repeats actions over and over again to figure out how an object works
• Begins to recognize that certain actions will draw out certain responses, e.g., laughing and smiling will often result in an adult responding in the same manner
• Attempts a variety of physical strategies to reach simple goals, e.g., pulls the string of a toy train to move it closer or crawls to get a ball that has rolled away
• Demonstrate how to try things in different ways and encourage the child to do the same, e.g., using a plastic bucket as a drum
• Gently guide the child in discovering and exploring, while allowing him or her enough independence to try new things
• Respond thoughtfully and promptly to the child’s communication attempts

Children have an enhanced capacity to solve challenges they encounter through the use of objects and imitation. Children may take on a more autonomous role during this stage, yet, reach out to caregiver(s) in most instances.

• Imitates a caregiver’s behavior to accomplish a task, e.g., attempts to turn a doorknob
• Increases ability to recognize and solve problems through active exploration, play, and trial and error, e.g., tries inserting a shape at different angles to make it fit in a sorter
• Uses objects in the environment to solve problems, e.g., uses a pail to move numerous books to the other side of the room
• Uses communication to solve problems, e.g., runs out of glue during an art project and gestures to a caregiver for more
• Validate and praise the child’s attempts to find solutions to challenges
• Narrate while assisting the child in figuring out a solution, e.g., “Let’s try to turn the puzzle piece this way”
• Provide the child with opportunities to solve problems with and without your help; minimize the possibility for the child to become frustrated
• Respond to the child’s communication efforts

Children begin to discriminate which solutions work, with fewer trials. Children increasingly become more autonomous and will attempt to first overcome obstacles on their own or with limited support from caregiver(s).

• Asks for help from a caregiver when needed
• Begins to solve problems with less trial and error
• Refuses assistance, e.g., calls for help but then pushes a hand away
• Shows pride when accomplishing a task
• Uses increasingly refined skills while solving problems, e.g., uses own napkin to clean up a spill without asking an adult for help
• Follow the child’s lead and pay attention to his or her cues when assisting in a task
• Share in the child’s joy and accomplishments
• Model and narrate problem-solving skills through play
• Provide the child with blocks of uninterrupted time to work on activities
• Be available for the child and recognize when he or she needs guidance

Real World Story

Sebastian, who is 25 months old, is engaged in a fine-motor activity provided by his caregiver. He is holding large, plastic tweezers and is attempting to use them to pick up big, fuzzy balls off a plastic plate and move them into a plastic cup. He is holding the plastic tweezers in one hand, and holds the plate steady on the table. He repeatedly tries to use one hand, but cannot pinch the tweezers tightly enough to pick up one of the balls. Sebastian pauses, looks around, and picks up the balls with his thumb and forefinger.

Holding the plastic tweezers in one hand and the ball in the other, Sebastian places the ball in the tweezers and then pinches it closed. He moves it over to the plastic cup and drops it inside. He then grabs another fuzzy ball and places it in the tweezers. Again, he pinches it tightly and transfers it to the cup. Sebastian engages in the same method until all the fuzzy balls on his plate are now inside his cup. Once he is done, he empties out the cup onto the plate and starts all over. After successfully completing the process again, he holds out his full cup toward his caregiver, Maria. She sees him, smiles, and gives two thumbs up. Sebastian grabs his cup and walks over to her. He hands Maria the cup and walks away from the table.

Discover how this Real World Story is related to:

• Self-Regulation: Foundation of Development Attention Regulation
• Developmental Domain 1: Social & Emotional Development Self-Concept
• Developmental Domain 2: Physical Development & Health Fine Motor
• Developmental Domain 2: Physical Development & Health Perceptual
• Developmental Domain 4: Cognitive Development Logic & Reasoning

THIS EXAMPLE HIGHLIGHTS how children use physical trial and error to solve problems. Sebastian is not successful in his initial attempts to pick up the small objects with his tweezers. However, he pauses to think about possible ways to work on this problem, and then changes his process. Instead of pinching the tweezers to grab the ball, he places the ball in between the tweezers and then pinches it closed. This is easier for him, as he is still developing the fine motor skills necessary to be able to complete this task. Once he realizes he is successful in accomplishing his goal, he engages in this task until he has finished placing every ball on his plate into the cup. He then repeats the activity all over again. Sebastian’s ability to successfully problem solve builds his self-confidence. Maria’s positive acknowledgment of his accomplishment further supports his social and emotional development. A positive self-concept and increasing self-confidence is very important for Sebastian’s future learning and overall healthy development.

Discover how Problem Solving is related to:

• Self-Regulation: Foundation of Development Emotional Regulation
• Developmental Domain 1: Social & Emotional Development Relationship with Adults
• Developmental Domain 4: Cognitive Development Memory

Related Resources

Importance of Problem Solving Skills  and How to Nurture them in your Child

We all face problems on a daily basis. You, me—our kids aren’t even exempted. Across all different age groups, there rarely is a day when we don’t experience them.

Teaching our kids to develop resilience can help as they face these challenges. Practical problem solving skills are just as necessary to teach our kids. The methods needed to resolve problems may require other skills such as creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, teamwork, decision making, etc.

Unlike with math problems, life doesn’t just come with one formula or guidebook that’s applicable to solve every little problem we face. Being adaptable to various situations is important. So is nurturing problem solving skills in your child. 

Here we’ll take a look at the importance of problem solving skills and some ways to nurture them in your child. 

Why do we need problem-solving skills?

One thing that always comes up when we speak of problem-solving skills are the benefits for one’s mental health .

Problems are often complex. This means that problem solving skills aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution to all problems.

Strengthening and nurturing this set of skills helps children cope with challenges as they come. They can face and resolve a wider variety of problems with efficiency and without resulting in a breakdown.

This will help develop your child’s independence, allowing for them to grow into confident, responsible adults. 

Another importance of problem-solving skills is its impact on relationships . Whether they be friendships, family, or business relationships, poor problem solving skills may result in relationships breaking apart.

Being able to get to the bottom of a problem and find solutions together, with all the parties involved, helps keep relationships intact and eliminate conflicts as they arise. Being adept at this skill may even help strengthen and deepen relationships.

What steps can you take to nurture your child’s problem-solving skills?

Nurturing problem-solving skills in your child requires more than just focusing on the big picture and laying out steps to resolve problems. It requires that you teach them to find and focus on a problem’s essential components.

This may challenge your child’s critical thinking and creativity, among other things. 

Critical Thinking

This refers to the ability of breaking down a complex problem and analyzing its component parts.

The ability to do that will make it easier to come up with logical solutions to almost any problem. Being able to sort through and organize that pile of smaller chunks of information helps them face problems with ease. It also prevents your child from feeling overwhelmed when a huge barrier is laid out in front of them. 

Help your child practice critical thinking by asking them questions. Open-ended questions specifically help them think outside the box and analyze the situation.

Teach them to look into possible reasons why something is the way it is. Why is the sky blue? Why are plants green? Encourage them to be curious and ask questions themselves. 

Creative thinking is being able to look at different possible reasons and solutions in the context of problem-solving. It’s coming up with ideas and finding new ways of getting around a problem. Or being open to different ways of looking at an object or scenario.

Creative thinking is best nurtured with activities that involve reflection.

Try getting your child’s viewpoint on topics that may have different answers or reasons for taking place. Get them in the habit of brainstorming ideas, doing story-telling activities, and reading books. All of these help broaden a person’s thinking and flex their creative muscles.

Encourage Independence 

It’s important to retain your role as an observer, supporter, or facilitator. Step back and let your kids try out their own solutions. Watch what happens while ensuring their safety and well-being.

As an observer, you encourage independence by stepping back and watching how your child resolves the problem in their own way. It may take longer than it would if you jumped in, but leaving them to their own devices can do a lot for nurturing their skills at problem solving. 

Support your child by appreciating and acknowledging their efforts. Create a space where they can freely and effectively express their ideas without fear of judgement. Present them with opportunities to play and solve problems on their own. Encourage them to express themselves by brainstorming activities that they might want to do instead of telling them what to do.

These simple steps of overseeing your child can help them become more independent and be resilient enough to tackle problems on their own. 

Here at Early Childhood University , we value the importance of enhancing problem solving skills, creativity and critical thinking. Send your little ones to a school that focuses on a child’s holistic development. Give us a call for more information. 

• April 18, 2012

Developing Thinking Skills From 24 to 36 Months

While you often hear this stage called the “terrible two’s”, it is also an amazing time when your toddler’s skills and personality continue to deepen and grow. find strategies to support the development of your toddler’s thinking skills during this year..

In this third year, you will see a big jump in your child’s thinking skills. He will start to appreciate humor and jokes. She will be able to come up with solutions to more complex problems. Toddlers are also starting to be able to put themselves in another person’s shoes. They know that others have thoughts and feelings that are different from their own. For example, your child may give you a hug when you are sad. It is also an amazing time when your toddler’s skills and personality continue to deepen and grow.

What Can You Do to Support Your Toddler’s Thinking Skills?

Encourage pretend play. Let your child be the “director.” This helps her develop her own ideas. It also strengthens her thinking skills as she uses logic in her play: *The dog has to go back in his house because it’s raining.* You can help her develop her ideas by asking questions: *What is the doggy feeling? Why? What might happen next?*

Offer materials that help your child act out the stories he’s creating —hats, dress-up clothing, toy dishes, child-sized brooms, pads of paper, blocks, play food, and household objects like big cardboard boxes, blankets, pillows, etc.

Ask questions during your everyday play and routines. As you go through your day together, ask your child questions about what the two of you are seeing: *Why do you think the leaves fall from the trees? Where do you think the butterfly is going?* This gets your child’s mind working and lets her know that you are interested in her ideas.

Offer lots of chances to explore in creative ways. Take nature walks. Play with sand and water. Give your child objects he can take apart and investigate. By exploring objects during play, children figure out how things work and develop problem-solving skills.

Use everyday routines to notice patterns. Using language to explain these patterns helps your child become a logical thinker and increases her vocabulary *When the buzzer rings, the clothes are dry.* Or, *You wear mittens to keep your hands warm when it’s cold.*

Sort and categorize through the day. Your child can separate laundry into piles of socks, shirts, and pants. He can help set the table and organize the forks, plates, and spoons. At clean-up time, have him put the cars on one shelf and books on another.

Talk about feelings. Help your child develop a feelings vocabulary. Put words to what you think she might be feeling. *You are so mad that we have to leave the park.* This helps your child understand and cope with her emotions. Talk about what others might be feeling: *That little girl is jumping up and down and smiling. How do you think she feels?*

Encourage your child to test out different solutions to problems , rather than doing it for him: You might suggest he try the square block in another hole in his shape-sorter, or add some blocks to the bottom of his tower to keep it from collapsing.

Browse our full suite of resources on early childhood development.

10 Simple Activities to Teach Your Preschooler Problem Solving

By: Author Tanja McIlroy

Posted on Last updated: 29 March 2024

Categories Activities for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners

During the first years of a child’s life, an important set of cognitive skills known as problem-solving abilities are developed. These skills are used throughout childhood and into adulthood.

Find out what problem solving is, why it’s important and how you can develop these skills with 10 problem-solving games and activities.

What is Problem Solving in Early Childhood?

So, what exactly is problem solving? Quite simply, it refers to the process of finding a solution to a problem .

A person uses their own knowledge and experience, as well as the information at hand to try and reach a solution. Problem solving is therefore about the thought processes involved in finding a solution.

This could be as complex as an adult working out how to get out of a financial crisis or as simple as a child working out how two blocks fit together.

Problem Solving Skills for Kids

Problem-solving skills refer to the specific thinking skills a person uses when faced with a challenge. Some problems require the use of many skills, while others are simple and may only require one or two skills.

These are some examples of problem-solving skills for preschoolers , as listed by kent.ac.uk .

• Lateral thinking
• Analytical thinking
• Decision-making skills
• Logical reasoning
• Persistence
• Communication skills
• Negotiation skills

The Importance of Developing Problem-Solving Skills in Early Childhood

Problem solving is a skill that would be difficult to suddenly develop as an adult. While you can still improve a skill at any age, the majority of learning occurs during the early years.

Preschool is the best time for a child to learn to problem solve in a fun way. The benefits of learning early will last a lifetime and the beauty of learning anything at a young age is that it is effortless .

It is like learning to play an instrument or picking up a new language – it’s just much easier and more natural at an early age.

Of all the many things preschoolers need to learn , what makes problem solving so important?

There aren’t many situations in life, at work or at school that don’t require some level of problem resolution.

Child’s play itself is filled with opportunity upon opportunity to solve all kinds of tricky situations and come up with solutions to challenges.

Problem Solving in Preschool

During the foundational years, children are constantly solving problems as they play .

Here are just a few examples of problem solving in early childhood :

• Resolving a fight over the same toy
• Reaching a ball that’s stuck in the tree
• Forming a circle while holding hands
• Making a bridge to connect two block towers
• Tying or untying a shoe
• Making up rules for a new game
• Trying to get the consistency of a mud cake right so it stops falling over

The more creative play opportunities and challenges children are given, the more they get to exercise their problem-solving muscles.

During free play , there are non-stop experiences for this, and parents and teachers can also encourage specific problem-solving skills through guided activities .

Problem Solving for Older Children

During the grades, children experience problems in many forms, some of which may be related to their academic, social and emotional well-being at school. Problems may come in the form of dealing with life issues, such as:

• Problems with friendships
• Struggling to understand something during a lesson
• Learning to balance the demands of sport and homework
• Finding the best way to study for a test
• Asking a teacher for help when needed

Problems will also form a large part of academic life as teachers will be actively developing this skill through various activities, for example:

• Solving a riddle or understanding a work of literature
• Working on projects with a friend
• Finding solutions during science experiments
• Solving mathematical problems
• Solving hypothetical problems during lessons
• Answering questions and completing exam papers

Children who have had practice during preschool will be a lot more capable when facing these challenges.

Solving Problems in Mathematics

Mathematics needs to be mentioned separately as although it is part of schooling, it is such a huge part and it depends heavily on a child’s ability to solve problems.

The entire subject of mathematics is based on solving problems. Whether you are adding 2 and 3, working out how many eggs will fit into each basket, or solving an algebraic expression, there is a problem in every question.

Mathematics is just a series of problems that need to be solved.

What we refer to as problem solving in Maths is usually answering word problems .

The reason many children find these so difficult to answer is that the question is presented as a problem through a story, rather than just numbers with symbols telling you what operation to use (addition, division, etc.)

This means a child is forced to think carefully, understand the problem and determine the best way to solve it.

These problems can involve various units (e.g. mass, capacity or currency) as well as fractions, decimals, equations and angles, to name a few. Problems tend to become more and more complex over the years.

My experience in the classroom has shown that many, many children struggle with solving word problems, from the early grades right into the senior years.

They struggle to analyze the question, understand it, determine what information they’ve been given, and what exactly they are required to solve.

The good news is that exposing a child to regular problem-solving activities and games in preschool can greatly help him to solve word problems later on in school.

If you need one good reason to do these kinds of activities, let it be for a smoother experience in mathematics – a subject so many children unnecessarily fear.

Problem Solving in the Workplace

Adults in the workplace seldom thrive without problem-solving skills. They are required to regularly solve problems .

As adults, employees are expected to independently deal with the frequent challenges, setbacks and problems that are a big part of every working environment.

Those who can face and solve their own problems will go further and cope better than those who seek constant help from others or cannot show initiative.

Some  career websites even refer to problem solving as a universal job skill. They also mention that many employees are not good at it. 

Again, although it may seem far removed, learning this skill at a young age will help a child cope right into adulthood and in the working world.

How to Teach Children Problem-Solving Skills

If early childhood is the best time to grow these skills in your young children, then how does one go about teaching them to toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners?

Problem solving can be taught in such a way that you expose your child to various opportunities where they will be faced with challenges.

You would not necessarily sit your 3-year-old down and tell or “teach” him all about fixing problems. Instead, you want to create opportunities for your child to grow this skill .

Using the brain to think and find solutions is a bit like working a muscle over time. Eventually, your muscle gets stronger and can handle more “ weight. ” Your child will learn to problem solve in two ways:

• Incidentally – through free play
• Through guided opportunities provided by a parent or teacher

If you make a point of encouraging thinking through games and activities, your child will develop stronger skills than if you let it all happen incidentally.

Problem-Solving Strategies and Steps

If we take a look at the steps involved in solving a problem, we can see that there are many layers involved and different types of skills. Here are the problem-solving steps according to the University of Ken. 

Step 1: Identify the problem

Step 2: Define the problem

Step 3: Examine the options

Step 4: Act on a plan

Step 5: Look at the consequences

Therefore, activities at a preschool level need not present complicated high-level problems.

• A simple activity such as identifying differences in a picture can work on the first skill needed – identifying a problem.
• Playing with construction toys can develop a child’s ability to try various solutions and examine the options when faced with a problem such as trying to find the best way to build something.
• Playing Tic-Tac-Toe would make a child predict the consequences of placing their mark in a particular square.

The most basic of activities can work on all these skills and make children competent solution finders.

How to Teach Problem Solving with Questions

The language you use around your child and your questioning technique will also greatly affect their understanding of a problem or challenge as merely something waiting for a solution to be found .

While your child is playing or when she comes to you with a problem, ask open-ended questions that will guide her in finding a potential answer independently. Use the steps listed above to formulate your questions.

Here are some examples of questions:

• What do you think made the tower of blocks fall down?
• If we build it again, how can we change the structure so that it won’t fall down next time?
• Is there a better way we can do it? If you think of a different way, we can both try it and see which works better.
• Did that work? The tower fell again so let’s try another solution.

Resist the temptation to fix every one of your child’s problems, including conflict with friends or siblings. These are important opportunities for children to learn how to resolve things by negotiating, thinking and reasoning.

With time, your child will get used to seeing a problem, understanding it, weighing up the options, taking action and evaluating the consequences.

Problems will be seen as challenges to be faced logically and not “problems.”

This post contains affiliate links for educational products that I personally recommend. If you purchase through one of them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

10 Problem-Solving Activities for Preschoolers

Here are 10 simple, easy games and problem solving activities for kids at home or at school. Many of them are the kinds of activities children should have daily exposure to.

Puzzles are one of the best thinking activities out there. Each puzzle is basically one big set of muddled-up things to be sorted out and put back together again. Find out why puzzles are important for development .

Children should have regular exposure to puzzles. They are great for developing thinking skills.

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2. Memory games

Memory games will develop your child’s memory and attention to detail.

Get your own memory game cards by downloading the FREE set of printables at the end of the post.

Use pairs of matching pictures and turn them all face down, shuffled, on a table. Take turns choosing any two cards and turning them face up on the table. If you turn over a matching pair you keep the cards and if the pair doesn’t match, turn the cards back over until it is your turn to try again.

Encourage your child to concentrate and pay attention to where the pictures are and try to find a matching pair on each turn. 

3. Building with Construction Toys

Construction toys such as engineering blocks, a proper set of wooden blocks or Legos (shown below) should be a daily staple in your home.

Everything your child builds is a challenge because it requires thinking about what to build and how to put the pieces together to get a design that works and is functional.

Leave your child to construct freely and occasionally set a challenge and ask him to build a specific structure, with conditions. For example:

• Make two towers with a bridge joining them together
• Build a creature that stands on its own and has 3 arms.

Then watch your child wracking his brain until he finds a way to make his structure work.

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• Special pieces encourage imaginative building with endless possibilities

4.  Activity Books

These activity books are really fun and develop a child’s ability to identify problems and search for information.

• Pomaska, Anna (Author)
• English (Publication Language)

• Handford, Martin (Author)

• Books, Webber (Author)

5. Following Patterns

This simple activity can be played with a set of coloured blocks, shapes or counters.

Simply make a pattern with the blocks and ask your child to continue it. Vary the pattern by changing the colours, shapes or sizes.

This activity will train your child to analyse the given information, make sense of it, recognise the pattern and re-create it.

6. Story Time Questions

Get into the habit of asking questions during your daily story time that develop higher-order thinking skills . Instead of just reading and your child passively listening, ask questions throughout, concentrating on solving problems.

Here are some examples:

• Why do you think the bear did that?
• Do you think his friend will be happy? Why?
• What would you do if you were the monkey?
• How do you think Peter can make things better with his friend?
• If the crocodile had decided not to eat the rabbit, how could the story have ended?

7. Board Games

Board games are an excellent way to develop problem-solving skills.

Start off with simple games like Ludo and Snakes and Ladders to teach the skill of following rules and moving in a logical sequence.

• Double-Header: Enjoy two classic games in Ludo and Snakes and Ladders on this double-faced game board
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Card games like Go Fish are also great for teaching young children to think ahead and solve problems.

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8.  Tic-Tac-Toe

This is a perfect game to teach decision-making skills , thinking before acting and weighing up the possible consequences.

Use a Tic Tac Toe Board or d raw a simple table like the one above on paper or a chalkboard.

• Wooden tic-tac-toe game board with eye-catching red, orange, blue, and green color pattern
• Includes white-framed wooden board with indented squares for mess-free play, 10 colored x and O game tiles,...

Take turns to add a nought or a cross to the table and see who can make a row of three first.

Your child will probably catch on in no time and start thinking carefully before placing their symbol. This game can also be played with coloured counters or different objects.

9. Classifying and Grouping Activities

This activity can be done with a tin of buttons or beads or even by unpacking the dishwasher. The idea is to teach the skill of classifying and categorizing information by learning with physical objects. Here are some other ideas for categorizing:

• Separate the washing – mom’s clothes, dad’s clothes, etc; or socks, tops, shorts, etc.
• Empty out the cutlery drawer for cleaning, mix all the utensils up and then sort into knives, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.
• Classify and sort out the toys in your child’s bedroom together – all books, construction toys, soft toys, etc.
• Play category games .

Here are more button activities for kids .

10. Building a Maze

This activity is lots of fun and suitable for any age. It is also going to be way more fun than doing a maze in an activity book, especially for younger children.

Draw a big maze on the paving with sidewalk chalk . Make passages, including one or two that end in a dead-end. Teach your child to find her way out .

• Non-Toxic Formula: Our sidewalk chalk is specially formulated to minimize chalk dust and is safe for indoor...
• Convenient Packaging: Comes in a 20-piece plastic bucket with a lid and handle for easy transport and storage.

As your child gets better at figuring out a route and finding the way out, make the maze more complex and add more dead-end passages.

Get FREE access to all the Exclusive Content, which includes short stories, songs, games, puzzles & matching cards, fine motor, gross motor, early literacy and numeracy activities.

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Friday 3rd of June 2022

hi maam , This Is Uma from India,Can i get this in pdf format or a book. Thank You

Tanja Mcilroy

Monday 6th of June 2022

Hi Uma, thanks for your message. These articles are not available in PDF, but you are welcome to copy and paste them from the website, as long as you add the reference: https://empoweredparents.co/problem-solving-activities-preschoolers/ Thanks for reading!

Wednesday 20th of May 2020

Very very useful content. Good work. Thank you.

Friday 22nd of May 2020

Thanks Ann.

Tuesday 19th of May 2020

Would like to download the free activity pack please.

Hi Kelly, Please download the activity pack on this page: www.empoweredparents.co

• Collaborative Problem Solving® »
• What Is Collaborative Problem Solving? »

What Is Collaborative Problem Solving?

Helping kids with challenging behavior requires understanding why they struggle in the first place. But what if everything we thought was true about challenging behavior was actually wrong? Our Collaborative Problem Solving ® approach recognizes what research has pointed to for years – that kids with challenging behavior are already trying hard. They don’t lack the  will  to behave well. They lack the  skills  to behave well.

Collaborative Problem Solving ® is different than most approaches to working with kids with behavioral challenges in that it has a guiding philosophy attached to it. And the philosophy is a simple one. Kids do well if they can. And what that means is if a kid could do well, they would do well. And if they're not doing well, let's figure out what's standing in their way so we can help. Unfortunately, most people tend to adhere more to the philosophy of kids do well if they want to, which means if a kid isn't doing well, it must be because they don't want to. Our job is to try to make them want to, to motivate them to do better. We use 50 years of research in the neurosciences to help us understand what's getting in a kid's way. Because what we've learned over the years is that kids who struggle with their behavior, they actually don't lack the will to behave well. What they lack are the skills to behave well. Skills like flexibility, and frustration tolerance, and problem solving.

In Collaborative Problem Solving, we think of it much in the way you might think of a learning disability, except instead of areas like reading and math and writing. This is in areas like flexibility, frustration, tolerance, problem-solving. These kids are delayed in the development of those skills. Now, a long time ago, we used to think kids with learning disabilities were simply "lazy" or "dumb." Thank goodness we've come to a very different place in understanding kids with learning disabilities. However, we haven't made as much progress when it comes to kids with behavioral challenges. We still assume that they aren't trying hard to behave well when the truth of the matter is they're trying harder than anybody else because it doesn't come naturally to them. We've yet to meet a child that prefers doing poorly to doing well.

We believe kids do well if they can. We teach adults a practical assessment process that helps identify the specific skills that these kids struggle with and the situations in which they happen. Then we provide adults with three basic options for handling any of those situations. We call those our three plans. We call it Plan A. When you try to impose your will to make the child do what you want them to do, we call it Plan B. When you do Collaborative Problem Solving, and we call it Plan C, when you decide strategically to drop your expectation for now or solve the problem the way the child wants it solved. So we teach adults that they really only have these three options when it comes to handling any problem with a kid. Which one they choose depends on what they're trying to accomplish. Not surprisingly, we spend most of our time teaching adults how to do Plan B, collaborate with kids to solve problems in mutually satisfactory ways, not just to solve the problem and reduce challenging behavior, but to actually practice and build the skills that these kids lack.

Plan B has three ingredients to it. It seems simple, but don't confuse simple with easy. Those three ingredients are first and foremost, trying to understand the kid's perspective. The kid's concern, the kid's point of view about the problem to be solved. And only once we understand the child's concern can we move to the second ingredient of Plan B, where we put the adult's concern on the table, not our adult solution, but the adult concern on the table. And only once we have two sets of concerns on the table, the child's concern and the adult's concern, do we move to the third and final ingredient of Plan B. And that's where you invite the child to brainstorm potential solutions to the problem, which the two of you are going to test out together, aiming for one that is mutually satisfactory, doable, and realistic. And we teach adults lots of guideposts along the way to help facilitate that process. And once again, the goal of Plan B, not just reducing challenging behavior and solving the problem, but also helping the child and the adult to practice a whole host of skills related to flexibility, frustration, tolerance, and problem-solving. So in summary, Collaborative Problem Solving provides a guiding philosophy and then a corresponding set of assessment tools, a planning process, and a robust intervention that builds relationship, reduces challenging behavior, and builds skill. But let's remember that it all starts with the underlying philosophy that kids do well if they can. And this is about skill, not will.

Related Content

Managing challenging behavior during traumatic times, collaborative problem solving, a talk with dr. stuart ablon, rethinking challenging kids: where there’s a skill there’s a way, privacy overview.

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Promoting Problem-solving Skills in Young Children

Roselia Ramirez : I'd like to welcome you to the Home Visiting webinar series. We are happy that you have joined us today. The topic for our session is focused on problem-solving and how home visitors can partner with parents to really support its development. Before we get started, we want to tell you a little bit about us and want to have you meet your hosts for today's session.

My name is Roselia Ramirez and I am a senior training and technical assistance specialist at the National Center on Early Childhood Development Teaching and Learning, or DTL for short. I'm happy to be joining you from my home state of Arizona, and I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues and have them introduce themselves. Hey Joyce.

Joyce Escorcia: I am Joyce Escorcia, and thanks everyone for choosing to spend your hour with us. I work alongside Roselia and Sarah at DTL as a senior T and T specialist. You may have seen me in the Coaching Corner webinars and some other places and spaces. Thanks for joining us. We're excited to dig into our topic today. Sarah, do you want to introduce yourself, and share a little bit about yourself?

Sarah Basler: I'm excited to join you all today; you might recognize me as one of the presenters of the Coaching Corner webinar series and my role and work tends to be around coaching and specifically using PBC to support practitioners and even supporting coaches in their PBC practice. I also have a background in pyramid model practices. I'm excited to be here today and talk with you all about problem-solving, which is one of my passions. Thanks so much for having me today.

Roselia: Thanks for joining us, Sarah. It's exciting to see you and to have you as our guest for today on this often-challenging topic for many home visitors as well as parents. Thank you again, and it's so nice to see you. We do probably have some new viewers joining us today. We were wondering if you could start by giving an overview of the Practice-Based Coaching model and then share with our viewers some of the benefits of coaching for a home visitor.

Sarah: Sure. A quick little recap for some of you, and an introduction for others, Practice-Based Coaching or PBC as we call it for short, is a coaching model that when used with fidelity can lead to positive outcomes for children and their families. PBC can be used with anyone, so you can, a coach can support teachers or support home visitors, family childcare providers, or even other coaches. We refer to those that are receiving the coaching as a coachee, to support them to use a set of effective practices. PBC is a content-ready model, which means that any set of practices can be the focus for the middle of the cycle, visual, and so whatever set of practices that you might want to be the focus of coaching can go in the middle there.

The coach and the coachee together identify some strengths and needs related to those effective practices that have been selected for coaching and together they write a goal and an action plan to support that coachee in their implementation of those goals. The coach and the coachee engage in focused observation. The coach will come in and observe the coachee using those effective practices selected in their action plan. Then they meet and reflect about what happened during the focused observation, and the coach will give some feedback, some supportive, and some constructive feedback.

All of these components of PBC fit within a collaborative partnership. PBC occurs in that context, and it's really about a coach and a coachee coming together to work together and support the implementation of those effective practices. When we think about what those benefits might be for a home visitor, a home visitor could share with their coach, challenges that they might be facing related to working with families and together, a coach and the home visitor could talk through maybe some possible solutions or strategies that the home visitor may want to try with the family or support the home visitor in learning a little bit more about a certain set of effective practices.

Sometimes it's really nice to have that support and a colleague to ask your questions and get some ideas. A coach can support a home visitor to grow their home visiting practices. A coach could support them not only around maybe effective practices to try with the, to support the family to use, but could support the home visitor in growing their home visiting practices themselves. Thinking about how to enhance those skills.

Roselia: Thanks, Sarah, I really like the whole notion. The first thing that kind of comes to my mind is this whole idea of having a thought partner. But before we go any further into this topic, and this discussion, if you're just joining the session, we would like to remind you to visit that teal color widget that's at the bottom of your screen. Here's where you can gain access to this participant's guide that you're seeing a little screenshot on your screen now. This resource is intended to be interactive and you're going to hear us reference it and then direct you there during the session for some opportunities for engagement as well as some reflection.

I also want to point out that on the first page of the participant's guide, you're going to find some icons and images that we have been using in our home webinar series, such as the focus on equity segment and this is represented by that little magnifying glass image. I also wanted to mention that not every one of our Home Visiting webinars will have each of the segments in each of the webinars, but just to give you an idea of what those are when you do see them. The other thing we want to do before we go any further is we want to review the learning objectives that we have established for this session.

We have identified and framed the session around two learning goals. First, by the end of the session, we anticipate that you'll be able to describe some essential components of problem-solving, and then second, that you will have some practical strategies and resources that are intended to not only strengthen but nurture problem-solving within that home environment. Now in your participant's guide, we have provided a space for you to reflect and to think about your own learning goals and what you would like to walk away with from this session. Think about that for a moment. What's something that maybe a question that you might have or a type of reflection, something that you would like to walk away with. Take a moment and then jot down your thoughts in your participant's guide.

Joyce: To frame the space that we're in today for our Home Visiting webinar series this year, we've been focusing in on topics that have an impact on social and emotional development. As many of you know, social-emotional development is one of the domains in the Head Start Early Learning and Outcomes Framework, or the ELOF . You can see we have it highlighted here on the slide. When we began the series this year in October, we focused in on the home environment, and then in December, we focused in on relationships. In our last webinar, we really focused in on emotional literacy.

If you missed these webinars, don't worry, you can catch it on Push Play, and you'll have information about that towards the end of our webinar today. For our time today, we're really excited; again, I'm super excited to have my cohost from the Coaching Corner webinar series. I'm excited to be here with Sarah to focus on problem-solving and the practical strategies that we're going to be talking about today. We're really going to be looking at how a home visitor can support and partner with families kind of introduce and nurture that skill within young children. That's really where we're going to be at today.

Again, we wanted to make that connection with the Pyramid Model. While we're not going to go deep into the pyramid, we do want to just make that connection today that the Pyramid Model is a framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children's social-emotional development. The Pyramid Model builds upon a tiered public health approach by providing universal support to, universal supports for [inaudible]. Animations are going a little wonky on me today. Universal support to all children to promote wellness and then targeted services to those who need more support and then also intensive services for those that need them.

In this webinar, we're going to be focusing in on problem-solving, which is that tier two targeted kind of social-emotional support piece, which we know are essential and important to healthy social development. That's where we're going to be focusing in on today, with, we're thinking about the pyramid. If you want to know more about the pyramid, check out the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, or NCPMI . We have links to that within the resource, within your viewer's guide for today. Be sure and check that out as well. We are again super fortunate to have Sarah with us today. We just really want to draw on all of her experience that she's had out in the field and really sharing some of her insight on problem-solving. Sarah, I'm going to pass it over to you.

Sarah: Social competencies like self-regulation, empathy, perspective taking, and problem-solving skills are really foundational to that healthy social-emotional development, and this includes positive interactions like friendship and relationship skills between peers and siblings. Young children really need that support of adults in their lives to help them learn these skills so that they can develop healthy relationships among peers and find ways to really work through social conflicts. As home visitors, you can support this process by really supporting teaching and modeling with families how to help their children develop these skills earlier on.

It can start as young as infants and toddlers. Home visitors can support building these foundational problem-solving and relationship skills that most children can access with adult support and start to use independently as they start to, as they continue to develop these skills. Children, as they become more independent, they'll tend to run into situations in their environment that can lead to frustration or even some challenging behavior.

If parents are intentional and teach children these skills early on in their development, they can become pretty fluent in problem-solving. Then as they learn these skills, they can become more independent and successful with these skills. Their self-esteem will then, in turn, increase, and they will be likely to be able to cope with certain levels of frustration as a result and engage hopefully in less challenging behavior. When they feel confident in these social interactions and are able to problem solve successfully, then we're going to likely see less challenging behavior.

Roselia: Sarah, this is a good place to note that as you get to know your families, you may also discover that there might be some children who struggle, and they don't readily learn these skills through those foundational teaching strategies such as modeling or co-regulation. This might include children with disabilities or suspected delays. Establishing that strong relationship with the parent becomes even more important to get more familiar with and to be aware of the struggles so that you as a home visitor can then explore and use some of those more individualized practices to work on these skills when children need that extra support. We're going to talk some more about that throughout this webinar, but we just thought that would be really important to point that out.

Let's talk a bit more about why problem-solving is important in child development. We know that the earlier that children begin solving those problems, the more ready they are to deal with bigger challenges as they mature. We know that the home is a safe, it's a controlled environment, where parents can direct children as they develop and practice those problem-solving skills. By viewing problems as opportunities to grow, children begin to broaden their understanding while building that confidence that you were talking about.

We also know that when children feel overwhelmed or maybe hopeless, they often, they're not going to attempt to address a problem and that's where some of this challenging behavior for us adults may come up. When they have support, and then adults really support them with that clear formula and some steps for solving problems, they'll feel more confident in their ability to even give it a try. By introducing problem-solving skills at a young age, children learn to think in terms of manageable steps. Sarah, can you share with us how a home visitor might go about this process with families?

Sarah: There are some steps to problem-solving that home visitors can use and introduce to parents and there are some ways that you can support families to incorporate these steps as they encounter social conflict in the home or in socialization. The first is to support children in identifying the problem. This can be simply stating what the problem is out loud and it can make a big difference for children and that even includes infants and toddlers as well as preschool-age children who are feeling stuck. Parents can really think about how to do this in an age-appropriate way to support their child to state what the problem that they're encountering is, such as, your sister doesn't want to play with you, or I see you're having a hard time rolling over, or would you like a turn?

Once the problem has been identified, parents can help their child to think about what some solutions might be to solving their problems. Parents can help to brainstorm possible ways that they might solve that problem. As a home visitor, we can help parents understand that all solutions don't necessarily need to be a good idea, meaning that really just the idea of children coming up with these ideas or sharing some possible solutions. We want to support that process and allow children to share no matter how silly it may sound, and we can support them by offering suggestions to them. The goal is for parents to help their child explore options and the key is to help them do this with creativity and support them to find many different potential solutions because we know that there's not one right way to solve a problem and we want to support children to be able to think of multiple solutions.

Parents can even talk through and help their child identify what the pros and cons of each solution might be. Parents really play this critical role in helping their child identify potential positive and maybe negative consequences for each potential solution they've identified. Once the child has evaluated the possible pros and cons of each solution, the parent can encourage them to pick a solution and try it out and see what happens.

That's where even sometimes those silly solutions that they come up with, it's okay, let them try it out because if it doesn't work, you can support them to try out a different solution. And finally, the last step would be really analyzing or evaluating if it worked. Did this solution that you tried work? Was it, did it solve your problem? And if it doesn't work, you can always come up with a different solution and help them to brainstorm new ones.

Roselia: Thanks Sarah. I think that's a really great way to kind of break down that process and a great way for home visitors to support parents as they're kind of working through that. From your experience as a coach, and then just the various different learning settings that you had the opportunity to work in, why do you think problem-solving is so important?

Sarah: Problem-solving skills give children that independence that they really crave. It gives them agency in their own lives. Even though they may not be able to do this independently right away, when we give children the tools that they need to be able to do this successfully, they're able to navigate interactions with others and it helps to build social competence that they're going to carry with them for the rest of their lives. No matter what the learning environment is that you are in, social interactions are inevitable. They happen all the time. It's important that adults give children the tools that they need and support them to use those tools when they need them so that they become independent and confident in solving these problems when they arise.

Joyce: When Sarah was talking, I said I really love how you made that connection about the importance of parents supporting that, because I think it goes back to what we stated when we started. That about supporting children to become these confident, capable children really does kind of lead into being confident, capable adults who can kind of explore the world around them with all the skills that they need. I think that it just makes a case why this is so important. Because we know that solving problems really is about making choices. As young children develop their problem-solving skills, they build their confidence and we just know that you know, that having all of that, being able to solve problems, figuring things out, really makes them happier, more content, and just independent individuals. That's really what we want.We know when they tackle problems on their own or in a group, they become resilient and persistent. They learn how to look at challenges from a fresh perspective, and therefore, they're confident enough to take more calculated risks and problem-solving is so important in child development.

Again, because we know if we do it and we get it right when they're little, it really turns into this other thing when they become adults that they become confident and capable and are good with taking risk in all kinds of other different ways. Some of you may be wondering why you're here with us, wondering what skills do children need to be successful at problem solving? This is important, like I know it's important. What skills do they need in order to be able to do it well and in order for children to be successful at problem-solving and developing relationships there are a lot of prerequisite skills that are required and needed. 

We're going to talk a little bit about that, but we want to open up the Q and A for you guys to say okay, what skills do you think are important for children? What do you think that they might need in order to problem solve? We're going to ask you to pop that into the Q and A, right there, just click on the Q and A widget and put your responses there. We're going to share some of those out. While you guys are kind of thinking and popping ideas into the Q and A, we want to ask Sarah and bring her into the conversation of, Sarah, can you share with participants what some of those, what you think some of those prerequisites could be?

Sarah: For prerequisite skills, as you mentioned Joyce, problem-solving is really complex and it's going to require that a child be able to do many different things at the same time. When we think about children three and up, what they might need to be successful at problem-solving, then you really need to be able to initiate and respond to others. That could be a verbal or a nonverbal interaction or response, and it would vary, of course, based on the child's age or ability. This might look like if a child wants a toy that another child has, it could look like holding out their hand to ask or asking for a turn. A response might look like the other child saying no, I don't want to give you a turn, or pulling the item back to say, I don't want to give you the toy. Children really need to be able to initiate and respond to be successful at problem solving. 

Another thing that they need to be able to do is identify emotions in themselves and in others. The reason this is important is because have you ever tried to solve a problem when you're upset? It's really hard. You're not thinking clearly. It's just not going to work. Children need to be able to return themselves to that state of calm before they're able to come up with solutions to their problem, or even to recognize what their problem is. Another step is being able to calm themselves or having an adult support them to calm down. 

The next skill might seem obvious, but children really need to be able to identify what the problem is. That could look like a child identifying hey, I've got two apples but there are three siblings here. And what, my problem is I've got two apples, and we don't have enough. Once they've identified the problem, children really need to be able to then come up with possible solutions to solve their problem. That could be that child identifying hey, if I split this apple, we all have some. Or it might be, I don't like apples, so you can have mine. 

These skills that I just mentioned are really higher level for maybe preschool-age children, but a home visitor can also support families of infants and toddlers by setting the stage for problem solving. Making sure the environment really promotes interactions with others. Are there opportunities for that child or other children in the home to engage with one another? There usually are, even in routines that we don't think there are, you can build in possible opportunities. Pointing those out for the family, helping them think about what they might do or say and providing, helping support them to provide more opportunities throughout the day.

Another way that a family could support problem-solving in the environment is narrating or pointing out the intentions or what another child might be wanting or needing so that could sound like, “oh, I see Julia crawling towards you. It looks like she wants to play with your ball.” What this does is really builds awareness of the wants and needs and intentions of others. I think that's so important because often I know you've been around children, you know that sometimes it feels like a threat and when we can narrate what's going on, we can frame what's going on for the child so that then they approach it as in a different way. 

Of course, it's important to share that if a coach is working with a home visitor to support families to use these practices, a coach can help a home visitor identify what those prerequisite skills are that might need to be taught to the child first, the family or the child to be successful. It's important to note that a coach can be an extra set of eyes. And that, some of the things that I mentioned are coming in on the chat, I'm seeing, or in the Q and A, some people are saying kids need to be able to share, kids need to be able to ask for what they need, kids need to be able to identify the problem, and so it looks like you guys are right in line with what we were talking about. Really having friendship skills is important. Thank you so much for your responses.

Joyce: I feel like folks have a lot of ideas to share about what it takes to problem solve. And again, thank you for all your responses; keep them coming in. We just talked about, there are a lot of things needed for children to be successful at problem-solving and we still see a lot of the responses here we see coming in in the chat. We have Kate and Catrina that talk about regulating emotions. We have Tom that talked about think about possible solutions and then also as adults think about how can we help kind of set them up with possible solutions. Thank you for putting all of those things in there. As you can see, there's a list there added to the list that is coming in the Q and A. All of those things all in mind, problem-solving steps that we talked about and how a home visitor might support the development of this process.

Sarah, just to pop in with a quick question here, when you were talking and explaining the, when you were explaining kind of the why. Like why because it kind of helps to take away that threat aspect of it. As a coach we do that with our coachee or home visitor and do you think that there's some importance or connection then as a home visitor having that knowledge than to be able to have that parallel process of sharing that information with a print of like this is why it's important to narrate kind of that parallel top piece. Do you think that that could also be helpful for a home visitor?

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. I think as adult learners, and when you're working with parents, working with adult learners, it's really important for them to know the why. Why are you telling me to narrate? Pairing the narration is important because it helps children feel less threatened by the other child and you share the intentions. Then it helps make it more, gives the parents the why. Why would I do this? And then they know that the possible impact that using that practice might have. It's really a parallel process. What you would, your coach would use with you, you might also use some of those strategies with the families that you would work with.

Joyce: Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I said it was just when you said that, that light bulb went off, like wow, that's important information to kind of share on both sides, so thank you for that. 

Now we're going to just summarize some of those key ideas and practices for home visitors and how they can support some of those problem-solving skills. Again, a lot of things have been coming in through the Q and A. Number one is just to promote healthy relationships, that home visitors can support parents in how they engage with and offer opportunities for young children to work on relationship skills. Sharing and helping and cooperating and comforting and making suggestions about play, even celebrating each other, and creating developmentally appropriate opportunities for practicing those skills throughout the day. 

Home visitors can support parents in creating opportunities within the home as well as exploring options where children can practice turn-taking and sharing. Maybe through a socialization activity. Particularly when you're thinking about when there's just one child in the home, parents may have a concern about their child not having opportunities to engage with other children, so that could be a great time to just kind of pause and think about the value they place on peer relationships and how they might be able to provide some of those opportunities for their child. Thinking about some of those being intentional and some might be planning some outdoor activities, some field trips, some going to the park, visiting with their cousins or whatever that aspect. 

Just knowing that can also help with thinking about, like, 'Wow, every interaction could be a learning moment, an opportunity to kind of learn and grow these skills.' Thinking about teaching problem-solving steps that earlier we talked about - some steps that home visitors can work through with parents. When it comes to developing problem-solving skills, young children are learning to manage their emotions and behaviors through co-regulation. They're beginning to reason and understand simple consequences. Our role as a home visitor, we have that opportunity to work with parents and support the development of problem-solving.

Problem-solving development at this young age allows children to identify problems, brainstorm possible solutions, and then test those out, test out those appropriate solutions, and then analyze and think about, "Okay, so what kind of results did I get? Did I get what I wanted in the end?" Parents can support children to work through these steps and gain confidence in their ability to work through the problems that they encounter.

Another component would be teaching problem-solving in the moment. Problem-solving is hard work. It is hard work, but a 2-year-old solving problems is hard work for everyone involved sometimes. As home visitors, we have that unique opportunity of supporting this process. We want to build a parent's skill base and their confidence really to help their child use problem-solving steps in the moment. As home visitors can partner with parents to brainstorm ways they can anticipate those social conflicts before they happen. When a problem arises, the parent can anticipate or recognize problems before things can escalate and get out of hand and feel overwhelming or intervene as needed to work through those problem-solving steps that home visitors can support. 

How parents individualize strategies they use to provide support, all these skills, really based on the learning kind of style and needs of their child. We know that some children may need the amount of language used to be modified; some children may need visual cues or gestures kind of paired with verbal language; some children may need specific feedback about consequences to really help them learn about the effect of their behavior on the environment really based on the individual needs of that family and the children as well.

Roselia: Thanks for sharing all that, Joyce. That's a lot of great information, and as you were saying all these things that we're doing to support parents or children rather — I think someone mentioned this earlier — about even as adults, problem-solving is difficult for us sometimes. To imagine for children that don't have the words and they're struggling with all these different emotions and wanting to stake their independence, it can really be a tough process. 

As home visitors, we're in that unique position to really help support. Thanks for sharing all that. Throughout this webinar, we've really been discussing ways to foster problem-solving skills for all children. Today, in our focus on equity segment, we're going to use our equity lens to take a closer look and really lift up the value of equity in all learning environments as we work with diverse families in our communities.

As home visitors, it is safe to say that we are working with a diverse group of families, and we never want to make any assumptions. Let's reflect on this question: How can a home visitor be sure that they are being culturally responsive to a family's values related to relationships and problem-solving? Think about that because we know it's not a cookie-cutter approach and we know that there are cultures within cultures. It's important that we don't make any assumptions, and thinking about being culturally responsive, how can a home visitor ensure that that is happening?

We'd like for you to take some time and share some of your thoughts with us in the Q and A. While you're doing that, we do have a few suggestions that we would like for you to consider. First, we want to make sure that the skills that you're introducing are culturally relevant to the family that you're working with. It's important to really take the time and think back to the information that you've gathered as you've been developing a relationship with the family. You want to be sure that you're considering the values, beliefs, what's important to them, what's important that, the importance and the goals that they have for their children, and again, not making any assumptions and really asking these types of questions as you're moving through the process.

We also recommend that you take the time to gather input about social problems that the child may face at home or perhaps other settings that they're participating in. Then lastly, although we just mentioned this, we wanted to place an emphasis on the importance of gathering information about the family's values. As you're building those relationships, as you're observing the family, just really asking those questions, and not making assumptions from your perspective but from how the family states it. It's important to remember that problem-solving and how it is approached is not going to look the same for all families. Again, even if you have families that are from the same culture, what works for one family may not work for another. It's important for the suggestions and the strategies to be culturally responsive and respectful of a family's values. Sarah, folks are still entering their thoughts into the Q and A. Is there anything that you would like to add?

Sarah: Those suggestions you gave are great. Something that I think is important is you want to make sure that teaching problem-solving is relevant. You mentioned that, but we want to make sure that it's meeting the needs of the family, like what you're suggesting. Think about, when I think about it from a coach's perspective, this might be an opportunity to support the home visitor to come up with some ideas.

For example, if a home visitor asks the family what kind of social problems are popping up at home, or in their socialization settings with their child, it could be, “Oh, my child is taking toys, and they don't think sharing is important.” What you might do is offer different suggestions, but it might be tricky for a home visitor if they don't value sharing. What else could I offer? That could be where coming to your coach and trying to brainstorm and problem-solve or with your colleagues or your supervisor. 

If coaching isn't offered, to come up with some different ideas of what they might offer to that family, what they might suggest they teach their child instead. That could be asking for a turn or asking their sibling to give them a turn when they're finished, so there isn't just one right way to do things, and I think sometimes we forget that even as home visitors, our culture and what we value, we bring that into the environment and what we value isn't the only way. That's where getting the input and what the family values because ultimately, you're there to support them to support their child. Remembering that although your culture is relevant as well when you're there to support the family, you want to think about their values and really incorporate it that way.

Some of the responses that are coming in are pretty much in line with what we just talked about. It's looking very similar, getting input from the family, not making assumptions. I'm seeing finding out what they value, learning about their culture is something new that we didn't mention. Getting the parents' input can be really, really helpful. Thank you for those responses.

Joyce: Thank you, and Sarah, like you said, those responses just keep coming in and we encourage you just to keep sharing and keep thinking about, what we need to do to support families in a way that's culturally responsive. 

Now, we want to move into our next portion of our time together, and we want to turn our focus just a bit on looking at how home visitors can support families. We've been talking about this, and that's a great segue into this, so just want to explore that just a little bit more. We want to do that by highlighting the resource, and then you have the link to the resource in your viewer's guide for today.

One resource that was developed by the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning is “Problem-solving in the Moment.” This is a 15-minute in-service suite developed for preschool classroom teachers to help children problem-solve as they arise or in the moment. We've included a link to those materials in the participant's guide.

The content here really talks about these five steps that support and guide children's behavior to encourage problem-solving in the moment. You'll see that the five steps are here: anticipate, be close, provide support, multiple solutions, and then celebrating the success. We're going to explore each of these steps and relate them to how home visitors can partner with parents to guide their child's behavior at home to problem-solve in the moment. Rosalia is going to help us dig into that a little bit more.

Roselia: Anticipate is the first and very important step of this process. As home visitors, we can really work with parents to try and stay one step ahead of problems by recognizing and being proactive. Home visitors can support parents in sensing some of those changes in a child's behavior, as well as their emotions, and then really starting to pay attention to some of those identifying triggers. Home visitors can also help parents be aware as well as to be ready to activate some of those problem-solving steps that we have been talking about.

Let's move on here and talk about the next step, which is to be close. We know that often parents can be very busy, and they're not always going to be physically close when a problem situation presents itself. What parents can do is to relocate themselves and be near the location when the problem is beginning to occur. That's where it becomes important to start to identify some of those triggers, some of the changes in behaviors that are starting to happen, and then start to relocate. 

We want to work with parents to recognize some signs that a problem is about to occur so that they can then move themselves closer to that situation at this stage, rather than when the problem is in full swing. We want parents to know that when they are close, it's an opportunity for them to be able to explore and to begin to provide some support for their child. As a home visitor, you can really support families in beginning to pay attention, starting to recognize, and when to offer some of that proactive or preemptive support and figuring out some of those patterns of the behavior.

Being close, time also provides for families an opportunity to model how to remain calm and then some of those gentle approaches to problem-solving so when the parents are close, they're better able to support and then talk through identifying the problem as well as some of those possible solutions that we've been talking about. They can also support their child in regulating their emotions before they get to that heightened level, and then it's going to be a lot harder for them to be able to calm down. Parents being close also provides that opportunity for them to be able to provide that comfort that might be needed before things just really become too escalated and get out of control. Joyce, tell us a little bit about what this support might look like.

Joyce: One of the things that home visitors can explore with their family when it comes to being close and providing support for their child is knowing what level of support to provide to really ensure there is a teachable moment taking place. Sometimes, that support means helping their child stay near and in proximity to where the problem happens so they can problem-solve effectively. Sometimes, that could mean prompting their child to walk through the problem-solving steps. 

It can also mean verbal prompting, like, “Do you remember what to do when baby sister doesn't want to take a turn?” or maybe the parent can involve an older sibling in it if they're available, saying, “Hey, let's ask brother what would you do?” Sometimes it's really when children don't have those verbal skills, support can mean to use like visual cues as well and to prompt, that prompts them perhaps, takes them into those problem-solving steps. It really depends; that level of support depends kind of on the specific needs of their child. Knowing it's okay to kind of try out different levels of support to figure out what's needed.

Now we want to talk about the next step, which is multiple solutions. Like we said, there's a whole bunch of different ways to be right about things, and so there can be situations in which one solution maybe a good solution but we know that it may not always work. As children become older, parents can support problem-solving skills by encouraging their child to generate multiple solutions. Maybe with younger children they're going to need parents to support to generate choices or solutions. 

This is going to allow children to begin to grow their own toolbox of solutions to draw from when they encounter problems. The solutions don't need to be complicated and can be as simple as maybe using a timer, waiting patiently, or maybe even flipping a coin. Home visitors can support parents by talking through and really helping parents to determine some solutions they can present and help their child when problem-solving, and when problems arise. Sarah, we just want to tag you in here and ask you, do you have any resources in your toolbox that may support families with identifying solutions at home?

Sarah: There's a great resource from the National Center on Pyramid Model Innovations, and it's called the “Solution Kit.” They have a home edition, and it includes some common solutions to everyday social problems and it comes in multiple languages, which is great. Visual supports can be super helpful for young children and this resource might be something that a home visitor can share with families. 

Another great resource for teaching problem-solving is this scripted story, we can be problem solvers at home. This scripted story can be used by the family to help children understand the steps for problem-solving and it includes some scenario cards that you can use with children to help them think about solutions to common social problems that they're going to face, either in the home or the community. Those are two of my favorite resources.

Roselia: I love those, Sarah. Those are actually some of my favorites as well and I really love that they're visual and that they really have been designed to help support in the home environment, because often we see that there is resources for center-based children, but I love that these are specifically designed for the home. We have included the information in your Participant's Guide Resource List, so we want to make sure that you take the time to explore those and think about ways that you can utilize those with families that you might be supporting. 

Continuing on and thinking about the five steps that we've been talking about, the last step that we want to talk about is just as important as anticipating a problem and that is celebrating success. Reinforcing a child's success in problem-solving really supports their development as effective problem solvers, and as home visitors, we want to be sure that you share this with parents. They can reinforce that celebrating success. It can be formal, or it can be informal. Some examples of that informal celebration might be things such as a high five, acknowledging that they did a really great job, you can give them a thumbs up, a wink, a verbal praise, or even just a hug. 

Just letting them know that you're really proud of how they worked through that particular problem. As home visitors, you can really brainstorm some different options and some of those informal gestures that are culturally appropriate and relevant for their family. Then you can also support them in coming up with some more formal ways to celebrate the success. The important thing here is that we want to make sure that parents are acknowledging when children are working through those problems and that they're becoming much more independent so that children feel accomplished and of course if you recognize it in that positive way, they're going to want to do it again. They're going to feel that appreciation. 

We're going to watch a video clip. In this video clip, you're going to notice that the setting is a preschool classroom and that there are two children that have encountered a problem. We want you to take note on how the teacher handles the situation to really engage the children in working through problem-solving. In your participant's guide, you have some space, and we want for you to take some notes and really pay attention to some of the strategies that the teacher is using. It is a classroom; however, think about how this scenario might play out, perhaps in a home between two siblings or even at a group socialization between two children. Let's take a look.

[Video begins]

Teacher 1: Janny, what's the problem? You're getting it to make the fort and it looks like Amy's holding it too. Thanks, Elena for moving so I could get up. So what are we going to do about it? You both want the same block? What are we going to do about it? How are we going to fix the problem? I'm going to hold the block for a minute while you guys help figure it out. What's your idea?

Child 1: [Inaudible] 

Teacher 1: You want to play with it over there. Shall we find out what Jammy's idea was? What was your idea, Janny?

Child 2: [Inaudible] 

Teacher 1:  Oh, and she thinks she needs it for that building. So, you both need this block for two different buildings. Do you want to look for an idea in the basket? Grab the book. See what you can come up with. There's another one over there, right. I think Amy's got the book. What are we going to do? She's looking, so let's play together, so that would be building the same building together. 

Take a break, so you just take a break from building. Wait until she's done. One more minute, so she would have it for a minute and then you would have it for a minute. You build with something else, maybe next time. Playing together. You would build it together. Do you want to build together, Janny? Look at Amy's talking to you. Sorry, I just said it and Amy was saying it. Sorry about that, Amy. Here. So Amy, you're going to help Janny build her tower.

Child 1: Let's do this one.

Teacher 1: Excellent. You guys are expert problem solvers.

[Video ends] 

Joyce: We see some of the strategies coming through in the Q and A, we'll ask you to keep putting those out there for us, and just want to check in with Rosalia and Sarah to say what did you guys notice anything there about some of those great problem-solving skills that we saw happening?

Sarah: My favorite part of that video is that she really supported those two children to solve their own problem. She gave them support by prompting them to find the materials to help them problem solve. She read through some of the problems with them, or solutions with them, but ultimately the teacher didn't solve the problem for them. And that was really great to see because I think sometimes as adults, we want to be the fixer and in this video the children were really the experts. They were the expert problem solvers here. I thought that was…

Roselia: I agree, Sarah. I really love that and just the anticipation from the teacher, but also having their little solution book that they can kind of, the visual to work through and see they had multiple choices to choose from. That was my favorite part.

Joyce: Yeah, definitely lots to see in that one. I like that one. I think watching the adult and also watching the kids and how they react to that. Sarah, we just want to give you some space as we're kind of wrapping up to hear a little bit more from your coaching experience and just maybe some more tips for supporting home visitors and partnering with families.

Sarah: Sure. It's really important to remember that parents are their children's' best teachers and most children already, most of what children know or what they know when you come into a relationship with that family, has been learned by their parents. As home visitors, when we partner with parents, we really want to set the stage to provide those intentional opportunities for learning within the home setting. 

These tips for child size problems that children can solve with the help of their parents or on their own. Here are some tips that you can share with families to set the stage for their child to become problem solvers. One would be to help the child to relax. When children are faced with a problem, they can become upset, frustrated, angry, they might get their feelings hurt or even cry. 

This is not the time to try to solve the problem. When the child becomes calm, we want to help them to work through their problem, but when they're at the height of these emotions, that's not the time. We want to regulate, use some calming strategies to get them to calm down. Then we can support them to problem solve. You can support families to understand that supporting children to calm down is a really important step of this process. 

We want to make sure that we're giving uninterrupted time. As home visitors you want to partner with parents to help them understand that developing problem-solving skills is complicated and it takes time. Giving them uninterrupted time that's not rushed to talk through and support them to thinking through problems. Also, we want parents to feel like they are a coach. When we're talking about being a coach, we're not talking about home visitors coaching parents but what we mean here is that children at a very young age are still developing these skills. 

We want you to work with parents on developing their ability to identify opportunities and support their children through asking questions and helping their children think and share through what maybe these problems and solutions might be. Active listening is a really important part of this process, as parents it can be hard sometimes, we want to throw out our ideas and suggestions but active listening for children is so important. 

Here are some strategies that a home visitor can share with families, and we want you to jot down some notes in your participant guide. Encourage parents to withhold from solving those problems for children, so support them to support children and not solve them for them. Support parents in developing questions that they might ask when problems arise. Help parents to identify when they are, their critical solutions to their child is proposing, so try not to judge the solution. Sometimes they may be silly; let them try it out. Provide that active listening. All those strategies, you can remember those that will support families.

Joyce: Definitely, and we've included all of these tips in a handout, and that's part of your participant's guide as well. You may think, "What's my role in supporting some of these practices?" Rosalia, if you want to give maybe one kind of tip to close us out, what do you think that one thing would be regarding the role of the home visitor?

Roselia: I think the important thing, and I think Sarah has kind of really touched on this throughout, is just really taking the time to listen to the family. Finding out what's important to them, and then just kind of being a facilitator if you will — just kind of really asking some of those haunting questions to get the parent to start thinking about some of those steps that we talked about, like anticipating that behavior, looking at problem-solving as an opportunity for learning, and just helping children to really put words to those emotions that sometimes even we as adults struggle with. 

I think really being that partner, that reflective partner with the parent, and then providing some of these strategies to help them work through that and again just really seeing it as an opportunity and not necessarily as a behavior that challenges us. Just kind of taking that time to explore with their child and just giving them the words for those emotions to kind of help them become more aware as they kind of go out into the world and face some of those social conflicts if you will. That would be my suggestion.

Joyce: I think that's a great one to leave us with today. Thank you, Sarah, so much for joining us. Thank you everyone here. If you have any questions or anything, drop them in the Q and A. Also, feel free to reach out to us, we have to keep this conversation going, and we will see you guys next time. Thank you.

How young children approach and solve problems is critical to their overall development. Problem-solving supports how young children understand the world around them. It can impact their ability to form relationships as well as the quality of those relationships. Supporting the development of problem-solving skills is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Explore strategies and resources home visitors can use to partner with parents to strengthen and nurture these skills and help children cope with challenges as they arise. 

Note: The evaluation, certificate, and engagement tools mentioned in the video were for the participants of the live webinar and are no longer available. For information about webinars that will be broadcast live soon, visit the Upcoming Events section.

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National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning

Age Group: Infants and Toddlers

Audience: Home Visitors

Series: Home Visiting Series

Last Updated: April 5, 2024

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Discovery Play with Littles

2:01 pm ·

15 Powerful Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I looked over to her table and she’s crying. Again. While everyone else is happily working away, she sat there, unable to move, just crying. 

Not asking for help.

Not trying to solve her problem.

Just crying.

I took a deep breath before heading over. We’ve already been at this for several months…isn’t it about time the problem-solving has kicked in yet?

One glance and I could tell what her problem was. She didn’t have her pencil.

Know how I knew?

It laid on the floor beside her. In plain sight.

As a kindergarten teacher, I don’t jump right in and solve problems for kids. It’s good for them to try to solve the problem themselves. This is something she struggled with. 

I reminded myself of the need for patience and empathy as I walked up to her. “What’s wrong, Amanda?” 

“I…can’t…find…my…pencil….” she sputtered out between sobs. 

“Ok, that’s a problem we can solve. What have you tried?” 

“I don’t know.” 

After a long time trying to first, calm her down, and second, come up with some strategies she could try, she finally found her pencil. At that point, everyone else had finished the project. 

What is Problem Solving?

Problem-solving is the process of finding a solution to your problem . This can be quite tricky for some young children, especially those with little experience in finding more than one way to solve a problem.

Why is Problem Solving Important? 

Problem-solving skills are used throughout childhood into adulthood. As adults, we solve problems on a daily basis. Some problems we solve without thinking much- I wanted to make tacos for dinner but forgot to buy the ground beef. What are we going to have for dinner now?

Other problems are significantly more complicated. 

Problems for kiddos can be problems with friendships, the inability to find something that’s needed, or even what to do when things don’t go your way. 

Kids who lack problem-solving skills struggle to maintain friendships or even begin to attempt to solve their own problems. 

Children who lack problem-solving skills are at a higher risk for depression as well.

What Are Problem-Solving Skills?

Problem-solving skills are:

• Breaking Down a Problem into Smaller Parts
• Communication
• Decision-making
• Logical Reasoning
• Perseverance

That’s a big list to teach toddlers and preschoolers. Where do you begin?

The Problem-Solving Steps

Sometimes kids are so overwhelmed with frustration that it affects their ability to solve problems.

Kids feel safe in routines, and routines help them learn and grow. After a few times of repeating this routine, you’ll find your kiddo starts to do this on their own. 

It’s important not to skip straight to solving the problem , because your kiddo needs to be in a calm state of mind to solve the problem, and also they need to know their feelings are valid. 

• The first thing to do when your kiddo is struggling with problem-solving is to validate their emotions.

In doing this, they will feel more understood and learn that their emotions are okay. There are no bad feelings, and we must learn how to manage our emotions. 

This might sound something like “Oh, I can see you are really frustrated that the block won’t fit on there right. Let’s take some deep breaths to help us calm down before we think about what to do next.”

• Next, work through your calm-down process . This may be taking some deep breaths together, hugging a stuffie, or giving your kiddo some quiet time to calm down their heart and mind.
• Identify the problem . This sounds like something you may have already done (before the meltdown) but it’s important to be very clear on the problem you’re solving. Have the child tell you their problem out loud.
• Move on to solution-finding . When your kiddo is ready, talk about what the problem is and three possible solutions. When possible, let your kiddo do all of the talking. This allows him to practice his problem-solving skills. It’s important to remind him that the first thing he tries may not work, and that’s ok. There’s always another way to solve the problem. If he’s prepared for this, solutions that don’t work won’t be such a frustrating experience. 
• After you’ve done that, test your solutions one by one. See what works. If you haven’t found a solution yet, go back and think of different ways you might be able to solve your problem and try again.

Are you tired of hearing “It’s TOO HARD!” followed by a meltdown?

Using this one simple phrase you’ll get in this powerful lesson, you’ll not only be able to help your kiddo not give up but you’ll:

>Activate their superpower of perseverance so that they can turn around a meltdown and keep trying

>Inspire them to use perseverance …even when it’s hard

>Teach them to recognize the warning signs of giving up , and how to turn it around by taking control of their choices.

Grab your powerful FREE video lesson to teach your kiddo one of the most powerful keys to perseverance.

Powerful Activities that Teach Problem-Solving Skills to Toddlers & Preschoolers

These activities below may look simple, but don’t let that deter you from trying them. A lot happens in little developing brains and these powerful activities help toddlers and preschoolers make connections and develop {many} essential skills-more than just problem-solving.

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Puzzles are fun and a great way to encourage cognitive development in children. They are great for spacial reasoning and strengthening problem-solving skills. They also develop memory skills, critical thinking, and the ability to plan and execute the plan. Toddlers will enjoy the simple puzzles, and preschoolers will do great with floor puzzles with larger puzzle pieces.

Doing Simple Chores

Doing simple chores is a great way to teach children problem-solving skills, and it strengthens responsibility and perseverance as well. 

During the toddler years , you may start with just picking up their toys, or helping you put their dirty clothes in the hamper. 

Preschoolers can take their dirty dishes to the sink (or load them in the dishwasher), collect the trash, dust, wipe baseboards, and do their own personal care items like making their bed, taking care of their dirty clothes, and putting clean clothes away.

Stacking Rings

When watching a toddler play with stacking rings it doesn’t look like much is happening, but playing with these toys is full of ways to encourage development. It helps with visual and spacial perception and planning ahead, but it also with balance control, crossing the midline, creative play, and gross motor skills. Not to mention it’s a great opportunity to practice problem-solving. 

Playing Hide-and-Seek

Hide and seek has many surprising benefits for kids. Playing hide and seek is like a treasure hunt that helps develop gross motor skills and encourages physical development, as well as problem-solving skills. It also helps young children develop visual tracking, working memory, and social-emotional skills.

Imaginative Play

Imaginative play (also called role-play) builds important skills. Through pretending to be in different situations, kids develop social skills, emotional skills, better communication, and problem-solving skills. Imaginative play is a great idea for young toddlers all the way to older children.

Free Play 

Many young children don’t have {enough} time for free play. Free play is important for healthy brain development , not only developing imagination, cooperation, physical skills, and independence but also providing a great opportunity to strengthen problem-solving skills. 

Playing with Wooden Blocks

Building blocks are a fun way for children to develop creative thinking, imagination, problem-solving, fine motor skills, and if working with others, cooperation, communication, and friendship.

Playing Memory

Memory games improve attention, focus, visual recognition, and concentration. It helps children recognize details and of course, strengthens problem-solving skills. 

Ask Questions

When I see my son struggling with something, my first instinct is to give him choices or at least lead him in the right direction. The better thing to do is to ask very open-ended questions that lead his process, not his thoughts.

Questions like “What’s one way to solve your problem?” are much more effective in teaching problem-solving skills than “Well, where did you last see your stuffy?” 

Read Books and Social Stories

Reading books is one of my favorite ways to teach any skill. It’s extremely effective at teaching, and it’s also an amazing bonding time with kids.

When we read stories, our brain reacts as if we’re living in the story. This is why reading books about skills such as problem-solving is so effective. 

Kids of all ages learn from the people they love . (Yes, even those older kids who you don’t think are paying attention.) Often as adults, we’re too busy going through our daily routine to think about talking about the way we solved the problem at work that day.

Talking about how you use skills such as problem-solving, perseverance, and integrity is a great way to set an example, and an expectation that this is how we do things, and it will provide encouragement for your kiddo to do the same.

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are a great group activity that can strengthen your child’s logical thinking and problem-solving skills.

When Your Kiddo is Ready, Add These Activities

Preschoolers would benefit from all of the fun activities on the list above and when they’re ready, feel free to add in the following activities.   

Mazes are great for problem-solving and perseverance, but your kiddo will need to have decent fine motor skills to do these activities. Mazes are one of our favorite activities. We love to take our activity book of mazes in the car with us for road trips. 

Board Games  

Board games are a good way to strengthen problem-solving, teamwork, planning skills, patience, sportsmanship, and communication skills. They also strengthen family relationships by providing some intentional time of connection .

Any board game can also be turned into an academic game with just a deck of cards for whatever skill you’re working on. If you’re working on the alphabet, put one letter on each card. Before each player’s turn, they draw a letter card and say the letter’s name. (You may accidentally forget the name of a letter every now and then to see if your kiddo is really paying attention!) 

Allow Opportunities for Hands-On Investigations

Kids are tactile. They love to touch and explore things with their hands. This is a good activity for toddlers also, as long as they are out of the putting everything in their mouth stage. Hands-on exploration is great for language development, sensory exploration, and problem-solving.

Allowing kids to investigate with their hands allows them to see how the world works up close. It also gives them time and space to try to make things work…and problem-solve when it doesn’t go as they think it should.

The Most Difficult Way (and Most Important Way) To Strengthen Problem-Solving Skills

Watching our kids struggle is hard ! We don’t want to see them having a hard time…and most of the time we don’t want to deal with the impending meltdown. Standing back and giving our kids time and space to work through even simple problems is hard to do. It’s also the most important way to strengthen problem-solving skills. 

As parents, we’re like frogs in boiling water. When our kids are infants, they need us to recognize their needs and solve them immediately. As they get older, they can point to what they want, but we still have a lot of interpreting and problem-solving to do on our own. If we aren’t careful, we stay in this stage and don’t teach our kiddos the steps to problem-solving for themselves. 

The next most difficult thing? Allowing natural consequences to happen. (As long as your child is safe of course.) If your child saves their money for a long time to buy a new toy, but walks down the toy aisle and picks up something you know they’ll be disappointed with, let it happen. It will teach a valuable lesson that will last for years to come.

Another Essential Part of Problem-Solving

Perseverance is a big part of problem-solving. We are rarely able to solve problems the first time, and it’s essential that kids can find more than one solution to a problem. Studies have found that perseverance is actually the biggest predictor of success, even more than aptitude or raw talent. 

An entire module is dedicated to perseverance in our course for kids, Super Kid Adventures . Your kiddo will get 25 teacher-led lessons on character traits (perseverance, empathy, friendship, responsibility, and wellness) and activities that take their learning further. 

Want a free preview? Grab a FREE Perseverance video lesson that teaches your kiddo one of the most important secrets that help them use perseverance.

Want More? 

If you like this, you’ll love: 

The Ultimate List of Books that Teach Perseverance

7 Simple Ways to Encourage Independence in Young Children

How to Help Your Child Develop Self-Help Skills

Your Turn 

What are your favorite ways to teach problem-solving skills?

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a mama of two boys, a former teacher, and the founder of Discovery Play with Littles. Her mission is to make raising kids with character simple and fun. Join us for our best learning through play ideas, character growth activities, and family connection ideas so you can watch your child thrive.

Reader Interactions

As a SLP trying to guide parents as I work with their child. I would like to know what toys to recommend to my parents as I assist in guiding their child’s development in cognition and expressive language.

Perseverance is the biggest predictor of success, even more than raw talent or aptitude.

Grab a FREE lesson to teach your kiddo one of the keys to perseverance...which is how we talk to our brains.

They'll learn what to say when they encounter something difficult, and why it's so important.

PLAY is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. -Mr. Rogers

Trending Post: 7 Simple Emotional Regulation Activities for Kids

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8 Engaging Problem Solving Activities For Toddlers

Learning to problem solve is an important life skill that is learned through years of practice and patience. These 8 problem solving activities for toddlers and preschoolers are proven ways to help give your child a head start with this skill.

We can not always be there to help our little ones solve their problems. We CAN, however, provide them with the right tools and resources to help them learn to solve problems independently.

What is Problem Solving?

Problem solving is essentially the process of finding a solution to a problem. To successfully problem solve, children first have to analyze the problem in detail, think about it critically, figure out what needs to be done, brainstorm different strategies to remediate the issue, and then evaluate if the solution was successful.

For children, this can be a very complex and difficult process simply because of their lack of experience.

Since we draw on our knowledge and experience when faced with obstacles, it is important we expose our children to activities that will help give them both the knowledge and experience they need to help face these challenges.

Why Problem-Solving is Important for Young Children

Learning to problem solve is incredibly important during early childhood. Not only does it play a major role in a child’s cognitive development , but it is also a critical component of their academic success and ability to maintain healthy relationships.

When children can effectively solve a problem, it drastically improves their self-esteem and self-confidence. This is especially important when it comes to academics.

Children who can not effectively problem solve tend to get frustrated easily and they may begin showing signs of avoidant behaviors. This can cause children to feel incompetent in school and with relationships which can ultimately lead them to falling behind academically.

Luckily, children learn at an incredible rate, especially during those first couple of years. As you expose your child to different problem-solving activities they will gain the confidence needed to face any challenge they may encounter.

Problem Solving Skills in Early Childhood

Problem-solving skills require the cognitive capabilities to think through a problem and take appropriate action. Some problems may need a simple fix while others may require the use of many of these skills.

Examples of Problem Solving Skills:

• Adaptability and flexibility
• Analytical thinking (being able to break a complex problem down into more manageable parts)
• Communication
• Creativity and innovative
• Critical thinking
• Decision making
• Logical Reasoning
• Negotiation

How to Teach Problem Solving Skills (+ Strategies)

The best way to teach this skill is to expose your child to various activities that will require a bit of critical thinking and problem-solving.

The problem solving activities for toddlers listed below is a great place to start!

While this skill can be learned during free play , children will develop even stronger problem-solving skills if you encourage this type of thinking and reasoning during certain activities.

Strategies For Parents, Caregivers, or Teachers:

1. Model problem solving by talking out loud in front of your child

Since children lack the experience, they may find it difficult to problem solve. Try modeling this skill when you run into daily problems.

For example: ”I ran out of sugar to make my coffee sweet. Since I do not have any more sugar, what can I put in my coffee to make it sweet? I will put some honey because honey is naturally very sweet!”.

2. Ask open-ended questions

When children approach you with a problem, try asking open-ended questions to help them solve the issue on their own.

Here are some example questions:

• Why did your blocks fall over? What can we do next time to make it stronger?
• What other games you can play with your ball?
• What are some other things can you use to make the fort bigger?

Sometimes children just need a little push to help them find creative solutions.

3. Avoid fixing every problem for your child

One of the best things you can do for your child is to avoid fixing every problem for them.

Whether it is a toy-related issue, a difficult math equation, or a social conflict with a friend or sibling. Try to encourage your child to solve some of these issues with as much independence as possible.

8 Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Here are 8 simple problem solving activities for toddlers and preschoolers. While these activities may seem to be very simple and basic, do not let that fool you. Learning through play is the best way to ”teach” our children the skill of problem solving.

Puzzles are a great activity to encourage skills like trial and error, persistence, and patience. Each new puzzle presents a new set of challenges that the children have to work through.

When children are around 2 years of age you can start with plastic or wooden shape sorters. As they get older and their skills develop, you can give them more complex puzzles to complete like 9 or 12-piece puzzle sets.

2. Sorting Activities

This activity is so simple because you can sort anything including toys, clothes, and even fruits and veggies.

Children learn to compare, contrast, and classify based on what they are observing. This helps with logical thinking, analytical thinking, and it gives children a sense of order. This type of systematic thinking is very helpful for problem solving because it teaches children to perform tasks in a structured manner, much like the steps to solve a problem.

3. Board Games

Board games are a great problem solving activity for toddlers and preschoolers! I love that it can be interactive with young children and adults!

When children are younger, it is best to start with simple games like Zimboos . This is a stacking game that requires children to analyze, critically think, and collaborate with others to make sure the pyramid stays balanced.

As children get older you can advance to more complex games like Quirkle . This game includes a puzzle-like component that allows children to develop their spatial recognition, planning, and problem solving skills. 

4. Construction Play

Construction play using mega blocks, wooden blocks, or even train track sets is an amazing way to help support your child’s brain and cognitive development.

Everything from planning what they want to build to figuring out what to do when certain pieces don’t fit together helps children learn the foundational skills for problem solving.

These are the types of toys I would encourage all parents to have readily available for their children.

5. Story Time Questions

There are so many amazing benefits of reading to your child and it is one of the best listening activities for kids !

As you read to your child, try making it an engaging experience. You can start by asking them open-ended questions to really help them think through certain problems and scenarios.

Here are some examples of the types of problem-solving questions that can be asked during a read-aloud:

• What healthy foods should the caterpillar have eaten to not get a stomach ache?
• The Duck and Penguin don’t like each other, what can do they to work it out and become friends?
• If you lost your shoe, how would you try and find it?
• If your kite got stuck in the tree, how would you try and get it down?

6. Fort Building

I remember always building forts as a child and constantly running into problems. The blankets were always too small, or I couldn’t get them to stay in place!

This is why it is such a great activity for problem-solving! Children have to plan, make decisions, analyze, evaluate, and solve problems. The best part is that most kids will persevere through despite all these challenges because the end result is so much fun!

7. Simple House Chores

If there is one thing I have learned since becoming a mom is that kids love to help! I really enjoy involving my toddler when I am doing work around the house.

To encourage practice with problem-solving, ask your child questions so they can think of solutions to your problems. If your child is still young, this is a great opportunity to model problem solving by simply talking out loud.

Here are some examples:

• These clothes are really dirty, what should we do?
• How can we make our clean-up time faster?
• There are so many toys on the floor, how can we sort and organize them?

8. Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are an incredible learning activity for kids. Since kids learn best through play , it is important to make learning an enjoyable experience for them.

I love scavenger hunts because of how many different skills are involved. Children have to use their observational skills, critical thinking skills, and imagination to solve the problem and complete the tasks.

These are also very customizable. You can use words, pictures, or even descriptions depending on your child’s skill level.

I hope can incorporate some of these problem solving activities for toddlers into your daily routine to help your child become a master problem solver!

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Understanding Childhood Trauma Can Help Us Be More Resilient

I n 2022, the World Health Organization estimated that 1 billion children were maltreated each year around the globe. Maltreatment such as neglect and abuse are types of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs . But they often say little about how children respond, which can either be traumatic or resilient. Now, revolutionary new findings in the sciences help us understand how different dimensions of adversity can leave different signatures of trauma and how we can use this knowledge to help children recover and build resilience against future harms.

Consider Ethan and Kevin (their names are pseudonyms to protect their privacy), two children that I worked with as an educator and researcher of trauma in schools. Ethan was abandoned by his mother at birth and placed in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, his home for the next six years. He was deprived of the fundamental needs of safety, nutrition, and human contact. He had books, but there was no one to read to him. He had caretakers, but they rarely comforted him when he was upset.

Kevin, on the other hand, witnessed his father physically and emotionally abusing his mother for the first ten years of his life. Around his sixth birthday, Kevin directly experienced his father's abuse. For entertainment, and to teach him that life is tough, Dad put Kevin and his older sister Joani into the outdoor dog cage, threw food in, and forced them to compete for their nightly dinner. If they refused, he beat them until they entered the dinner arena.

Ethan and Kevin were both traumatized by their maltreatment, but that doesn't capture what was happening inside of them. Ethan had no motivation, was numb to rewards, struggled with school and couldn't maintain social relationships. Kevin was an emotional maelstrom, frightened, hypervigilant, running away from unfamiliar men and hurting himself when he heard noises. Ethan and Kevin presented different traumatic responses or “signatures”—unique identifiers of the mental distortions created by their adverse experiences. Identifying these traumatic signatures enables caretakers, teachers, doctors, and counselors to sculpt a path to resilience that is specific to the child's harms and needs and gives them the best hope for recovery, whether in childhood or later in life.

Read More: How Traumatized Children See the World, According to Their Drawings

The idea of traumatic signatures is only a few years old , but the scientific evidence leading to it is not. We have known for decades that different environmental experiences shape development, including how and when our emotions, thoughts, and actions mature. When the environment is harsh and unpredictable, threatening survival, the timing of development tends to speed up, leading to individuals who mature quickly—recognizing and responding appropriately to danger as youngsters. In contrast, when the environment is impoverished, with individuals deprived of essential experiences and resources, development tends to slow down, resulting in delays in the attainment of independence, dedicated social roles, and sexual behavior.

Ethan and Kevin, like millions of other children, experienced two of the core types of ACEs — deprivation and abuse, respectively — during different time periods of development. These differences in experience shaped their traumatic signatures.

Deprivation is typified by a delay in the development of the brain’s executive functions —attention, short-term working memory, self-regulation, and planning. The executive functions form the bedrock to all learning and decision-making, but they are also essential in supporting more specialized cognitive functions such as language, social thinking, math, music, and morality. Children with weak executive functions fare poorly in school, and are socially and physically unhealthy. Such was Ethan’s traumatic response.

Abuse is characterized by warp speed development of a nervous system that detects threats, accompanied by hypervigilance, emotional turbulence, and out of control behavior. The root cause is a hyperactive amygdala, a brain region that plays an essential role in emotional processing, and its connection to a frontal lobe region that controls our feelings, thoughts, and actions. This constellation of changes to the nervous system leaves the child in a heightened state of fear, either fleeing or fighting to cope with an unsafe world . Such was Kevin's traumatic response.

The signatures penned by these types of adversity are further modified by their timing. In studies of orphans living in austere, institutionalized settings — such as the orphanage that Ethan grew up in—those deprived of essential experiences for more than the first few years of life showed deficits in executive functioning, social relationships, and attachment. In contrast, orphans who were placed in foster care by their second birthday, largely recovered from their deprivation in the years that followed. Children who are abused earlier in life , typically before puberty—such as Kevin—show greater emotional dysregulation, weaker control over their thoughts and actions, and more rapid biological aging.

Read More: How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Premature Aging

Different types of adversity, including different combinations, pen different signatures. But ultimately, they also define how we help children recover and sculpt their resilience. Each child's genetic architecture positions them somewhere on a spectrum of responses to adversity that runs from vulnerable to resilient . Those who land on the resilient end are handed greater immunity to adversity because of stronger executive functions that tamp down emotions and maintain focused attention. Those who land on the vulnerable end are handed greater sensitivity to adversity, dominated by emotional turbulence and inflamed autoimmune systems that heighten illness . Environmental experiences can displace individuals onto different sections of this spectrum, either enhancing their resilience or magnifying their vulnerability.

At age six, Ethan's tenure of deprivation ended and a rich life of loving care started with Julie, his adoring adoptive mother. At age 10, Kevin's father was incarcerated and his parents divorced, thereby ending his tenure of exposure to abuse and starting a more promising life with his mother Kate who desperately tried to provide for him despite her own struggles with mental health. Ethan and Kevin were both on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that documented their disabilities and guided the work carried out in their schools. Both of their schools were trauma-informed, meaning that they adhered to the 4Rs : r ealizing that traumatic experiences are common, r ecognizing that traumatic experiences are associated with specific symptoms or signatures, r esponding to a child's trauma by integrating knowledge of what happened with what can be done to help, and r esisting re-traumatizing both students and staff. Both schools were also aware of Ethan's and Kevin's life experiences and recognized that they would require different approaches for aiding recovery and building resilience.

Ethan, like other children who have been deprived of essential experiences in the early years of their lives, required an approach that reassured him of receiving unwavering, predictable care while providing strategies to enhance his ability to learn and develop healthy relationships. His care included access to a visual schedule that showed the timing of activities, including when meals and snacks were provided. Predictable access to meals and snacks, both at home and in school, rapidly helped reduce his obsession and hoarding of food. The unwavering support provided by Julie as well as the school staff, eventually melted away Ethan's distrust of others, enabling healthy relationships to grow. The visual schedule helped reduce the load on his short- term working memory, while helping him prepare and plan for transitions between activities. Stubbornly resistant to change, however, was Ethan’s capacity to associate or link actions with consequences. For Ethan, as for other children who have been severely deprived of experiences early in life, associative learning was heavily compromised, awaiting the addition of new tools to the trauma-informed toolkit.

Kevin’s signature of abuse was initially treated by a psychiatrist with Tenex—a medication for aggression, impulsivity, and hyperactivity—along with cognitive behavioral therapy to help him find alternative ways of thinking about and coping with his trauma. His teachers intervened further, providing him with frequent breaks to manage his frustration and burn off some energy. These approaches reduced Kevin’s outbursts and violent attacks on peers and staff, but he was still highly impulsive and fidgety. Kevin’s team decided to start him on neurofeedback , a method that enabled him to consciously modify the pattern of brain activation, shifting toward greater calm, focus, and control over his emotions. Eventually, Kevin developed good friends, healthy relationships with teachers, and an after-school job where he was learning to be a car mechanic. He also learned to trust other men, including me, one of his teachers, who deeply cared about him and cheered on his successes.

Ethan and Kevin walked off their landscapes of harm and onto paths of hope, equipped with skills to manage future adversity. Both lucked out with relatively resilient genetic architectures that were joined by nurturing environments, ones filled with people who cared for them. Many other children, perhaps the majority of the 1 billion who are maltreated each year, are less fortunate, more vulnerable by nature and nurture. While it is highly unlikely that we will ever flatten the landscape of harm, we can do far more to nurture recovery and build resilience if we recognize how traumatic signatures unfold—and how to create action plans to work through them.

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The 2 Skills You Need for a Great Life

Get inspired by others to unlock your true potential from within..

Posted April 4, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• Self-regulating emotions and problem-solving are essential skills,
• Being mindful of these skills and keeping them sharp makes a huge difference in the quality of our lives.
• It helps to be inspired by those who remind us how to be calm and problem-solve.

I would happily debate with anyone that life comes down to these two crucial skills: 1. The ability to calm down and 2. problem-solving in the face of inevitable challenges. If you are reading this and feel like what I am saying is obvious, guess what? You are right.

Yet please consider the following:

• As you read these words, Bill is losing his cool with his kids and will later regret what he said.
• Kelly won't be going to work tomorrow because she just got fired for not being able to navigate work demands.
• Brian is now single (and wishes he wasn't) because he did not calm himself with his newfound ex-partner.
• Kim is using substances to self-soothe because healthy ways to do so are elusive to her.
• Sean blames others and the world as a whole for their disappointments and consequent dissatisfaction because of their inability to manage their emotions and problem-solve.

Now that we have looked at some examples of problematic coping, let's turn to draw inspiration from the experiences of people who exemplify healthy self-soothing and problem-solving.

Emily Focuses on Staying Calm When Facing Multiple Demands

Consider the story of Emily, a busy professional juggling multiple responsibilities at work and home. When faced with tight deadlines and mounting pressure, Emily has learned to incorporate mindfulness practices into her daily routine. By taking short breaks for meditation and deep breathing exercises, she manages to stay centered and composed even during the most stressful situations. This ability to calm down not only enhances her productivity but also fosters a positive work environment where she can effectively collaborate with her colleagues to tackle complex projects.

John Strategizes With Problem-Solving to Stay on Course

Similarly, let's look at the example of John, an entrepreneur who has encountered numerous setbacks on his path to success in his start-up company focused on solar applications in drone technology. Rather than allowing failures to deter him, John approaches each challenge as an opportunity for growth and innovation .

Through strategic problem-solving, he identifies the root causes of setbacks, adapts his strategies accordingly, and perseveres until he achieves his goals . By remaining resilient and resourceful in the face of adversity, John has built a thriving business and earned the respect of his peers in the industry.

Sarah Models Patience and Self-Regulation

Moreover, the intersection of calming down and problem-solving is evident in the story of Sarah, a devoted mother navigating the challenges of parenthood . When confronted with tantrums or conflicts among her children, Sarah relies on her ability to stay calm and composed.

By modeling patience and emotional regulation , she creates a harmonious environment where her children feel safe to express themselves and resolve conflicts amicably. Through open communication and collaborative problem-solving, Sarah fosters strong bonds within her family and instills valuable life skills in her children.

Alex Mobilizes His Community

Furthermore, consider the example of Alex, a community leader dedicated to advocating for social change regarding homelessness-related challenges in his city. In the face of systemic injustices and entrenched obstacles, Alex remains steadfast in his commitment to effecting positive change.

Through grassroots organizing and coalition-building, he mobilizes community members to address pressing issues such as poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. By combining the power of collective action with strategic problem-solving, Alex empowers marginalized voices and catalyzes meaningful transformation within society.

Closing Thoughts

In each of these examples, you can see the transformative power of calming down and problem-solving in action. Whether it's navigating professional challenges, overcoming personal setbacks, fostering harmonious relationships, or driving social change, these skills are indispensable for a fulfilling and impactful life. By drawing inspiration from individuals like Emily, John, Sarah, and Alex, we can cultivate these skills within ourselves and embrace the journey toward personal growth and self-discovery.

Jeffrey Bernstein, Ph.D. , is a psychologist and the author of seven books, including 10 Days to a Less Defiant Child.

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15 Childhood Games That Unexpectedly Prepared Us for Adulthood

Posted: March 8, 2024 | Last updated: March 8, 2024

Childhood games aren’t just about fun and entertainment. They often teach valuable life lessons. From learning to cooperate with others to developing problem-solving skills, many childhood games offer valuable experiences that we carry into our grown-up lives. Let’s explore 15 childhood games that unexpectedly prepared us for adulthood.

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek, a childhood favorite, offers more than just entertainment; it provides valuable lessons for adulthood. The game instills strategic thinking, as players must find clever hiding spots and stay out of sight. This teaches us the importance of planning and adapting to unforeseen challenges. Additionally, staying hidden requires patience and perseverance, essential traits when facing obstacles in adult life. 

Tag, a timeless childhood game, demands agility, quick thinking, and the ability to react swiftly to changing circumstances. As children, we learn to persevere and think on our feet, skills that prove invaluable in the fast-paced environment of adulthood. Tag teaches us the importance of resilience and adaptability, which help us navigate life’s challenges.

Simon Says, a classic childhood game, offers more than just entertainment. The game enhances our ability to follow instructions attentively and think quickly on our feet. These skills are crucial in professional settings where listening and responsiveness are highly valued. Additionally, Simon Says encourages discipline and focus, traits that are essential for success in adult life. 

Board Games (Monopoly, Scrabble, etc.)

Board games such as Monopoly and Scrabble teach strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and decision-making abilities, all essential for adult life. Monopoly, for example, teaches us about financial management and investment strategies, while Scrabble enhances our vocabulary and critical thinking skills. 

Puzzle Games

Puzzle games, whether jigsaw puzzles or Sudoku, offer more than a mental challenge. These games enhance our problem-solving abilities, patience, and persistence, which are essential for tackling complex challenges in adult life. Solving a puzzle requires focus, attention to detail, and the willingness to try different approaches, skills that prove invaluable in various professional and personal situations. 

Building Blocks (LEGO)

Building blocks like LEGO encourage creativity, spatial awareness, and the ability to envision and construct something from scratch. Through building with LEGO, children learn problem-solving skills as they experiment with different designs and solutions. Additionally, building blocks foster teamwork and collaboration, as children often work together to bring their ideas to life. 

Role-Playing Games (Pretend Play)

Role-playing games, or pretend play, through imagination, let children explore different roles and perspectives. They help foster empathy, communication skills, and the ability to work collaboratively with others. Pretend play encourages creativity and innovation, as children create scenarios and solve problems using their imagination. 

Sports (Soccer, Basketball, etc.)

Participating in sports like soccer and basketball provides more than physical exercise. Team sports teach us about leadership, cooperation, resilience, and the importance of discipline and dedication in achieving goals. Through sports, children learn to work together towards a common objective, overcoming challenges and celebrating victories as a team.

Climbing Trees

Climbing trees may seem like a simple childhood pastime, but as children navigate branches and heights, they develop physical strength, coordination, and risk-taking abilities. Climbing trees also fosters problem-solving skills as children carefully assess their surroundings and plan their ascent. These skills translate into adulthood, where confidence, assertiveness, and the willingness to take calculated risks are essential for personal and professional growth. 

Through dress-up, children explore creativity, self-expression, and confidence as they experiment with different outfits and personas. Dress-up games encourage imagination and role-play, fostering empathy and understanding of different perspectives. Children develop the foundation for effective communication and presentation skills that serve them well in their future endeavors by engaging in dress-up play.

Card Games (Uno, Poker, etc.)

Card games like Uno and Poker teach strategic thinking, probability assessment, and risk management. Card games also encourage social interaction and communication skills as players negotiate rules and strategies with one another. 

Memory Games (Memory, Concentration)

Memory games such as Memory and Concentration improve cognitive abilities, attention to detail, and information retention as players try to match pairs of cards or remember the location of hidden objects. Memory games also encourage focus and concentration, as players must stay attentive to the game board and recall information quickly.

Hopscotch, a classic outdoor game, teaches balance, coordination, and agility as players hop on one foot while navigating a series of squares. Hopscotch also encourages focus and concentration, as players must remember the sequence of squares and avoid stepping on lines. Adulthood requires skills like multitasking and managing competing priorities. This game teaches us to require balance, coordination, and the ability to focus on the task.

Telephone (Chinese Whispers)

Telephone, also known as Chinese Whispers, teaches the importance of clear communication and active listening, as players pass a message from one person to another, often resulting in miscommunication or distortion of the original message. Telephone encourages participants to pay attention to details and clarify information, skills essential for effective communication in adulthood. 

Building Forts

Building forts, whether with blankets and pillows indoors or sticks and branches outdoors, fosters creativity, resourcefulness, and teamwork as children collaborate to construct a shelter or hideout. Building forts also encourages adaptability, as children adjust their plans based on the materials available and the environment around them. 

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Home & Family

• April 3, 2024
• Posted by: Silvia L. Vilches
• in Home & Family
•     PDF Download (Opens in a new window)

This publication is the second in the early childhood development Let’s Play series. Child care providers and parents can learn to design spaces that promote play.

Universal design means that play spaces are accessible to children of all abilities. As an adult caregiver, you can help young children enjoy play for their best physical and social development. Here we focus on how adults can use universal design principles to encourage young children of all abilities to enjoy play.

What is UDL?

Universal Design for Learning is about creating everyday physical learning opportunities for all children. This inclusive approach involves design and guidance.

Adults play a role by helping enable unstructured (child-directed) play as well as structured, adult-led opportunities.

What Can Adults Do?

Adults can plan movement and activities while keeping each child’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and interests in mind. Inclusive activities and movement should be in keeping with social expectations and consistent with local language and culture.

Why Is UDL Important?

What Is the Outcome?

Children gain knowledge of the world around them. Play helps them connect basic skills to more advanced skills. As they play with others, they also learn important social skills. They become comfortable in the natural environment.

Adult Roles

• Narrator. Introduces and reinforces the child’s movement vocabulary.
• Responder. Acknowledges the child’s abilities and intelligence.
• Extender. Adds to play by asking questions or providing props to build connections to previous learning.
• Supporter. Specifically acknowledges a child’s persistence and achievement, especially in a problem-solving scenario.
• Collaborator. Joins play while modeling joy in movement and follows the child’s rules while respecting their play choices.
• Integrator. Reinforces and extends emerging skills in play.
• Includer. Supports social interactions among children.

As parents/caregivers, it is valuable to learn how play helps children’s development and how important it is to give children time for play.

Children should be encouraged from a young age to enjoy physical activity at a level and type that challenges them and helps them develop.

• Narrator role: “Whee!” The parent or caregiver mirrors the young child’s excitement by making noises to emphasize movement.
• Supporter role: The parent/caregiver helps the child extend momentum by shifting balance as the swing rocks.
• Collaborator role: The parent/caregiver shares joy in movement, appropriate to the child’s ability and encourages the child, following their desire.

Are there more ways this parent/caregiver is helping to facilitate play and learning?

Additional Resources

Extension resources.

• Parents Get Ready! FCS-2557
• Children Get Ready! FCS-2558
• Overview, FCS-2556
• Important topics for supporting preschoolers
• Todos los materiales están también en español www.jitp.info/es. (These materials are also available in Spanish.)

FOR EDUCATORS

• Read more about creating inclusive play spaces for all children from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children: Environment: Promoting Meaningful Access, Participation and Inclusion

New February 2024, Let’s Play: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)–Adult Roles , FCS-2750

This publication was supported by an Auburn University Research Grant for the SaPHIRE project (Starting Physical Health Intervention Really Early).

Download this article as a PDF

• Let’s Play: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)–Adult Roles, FCS-2750 (Opens in a new window)
• Let’s Play: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)–Adult Roles
• Parenting and Family

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