examples of problem solving in early childhood

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Mastery Motivation: Persistence and Problem Solving in Preschool

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Mastery motivation is persistence—continuing to do or to try to do something that is difficult—at mastering challenging tasks or activities.

Problem solving is natural for preschoolers. As teachers know, everyday routines can bring difficult challenges, like learning how to zip up a coat or ask for help before frustration sets in. Each challenge builds children’s skills in different areas of development: language, social and emotional, cognitive, and physical. But sometimes a problem can seem too challenging.

You may have seen this scenario play out in your classroom: Two preschoolers are trying to solve the same puzzle. Both make a mistake, but while one child gives up, the other child keeps trying different ways to solve the puzzle. Early childhood researchers call this persistence at mastering challenging tasks  mastery motivation , and it plays a key role in children’s learning and in their later academic achievement. Early childhood teachers are in a great position to help children foster this important skill.

Here are five ways to support mastery motivation:

• Provide lots of different types of challenging activities, like math games that have more than one way to solve a problem.
• Support children’s independence and let them make their own choices in activities or during play.
• Try to resist the urge to fix the problem—it can take away children’s sense that they are capable problem solvers.
• Do provide gentle guidance when frustration starts to set in, such as holding the puzzle board steady while a child adds a puzzle piece or offering a well-timed, “What if you turned that piece the other way?”
• Give children positive feedback by praising the problem-solving process and encouraging them to keep trying.

We know that children who are not provided with challenging activities or who receive negative or harsh feedback tend to show less mastery motivation. The same holds true for children receiving praise like “You’re so smart” and children whose environment is overly controlling.

When teachers appreciate children’s efforts, children learn that working hard and persisting are positive behaviors. As children grow, they will face more and more difficult problems. They need to know that it’s okay to struggle—it’s part of the learning process.

Photo © EDC

Jessica Mercer Young  is a research scientist and developmental and educational psychologist specializing in early learning at Education Development Center.

Kristen E. Reed,  project director at EDC, has worked as a teacher, curriculum developer, professional development facilitator, and researcher. For more ways to make math engaging, challenging, and fun, visit ym.edc.org .  [email protected]

Vol. 11, No. 1

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Ten of our favourite early years problem-solving activities

A lot of the time when we hear the term ‘problem-solving’, our brain jumps back to the tricky maths teasers from our school days, and we immediately recoil a little. However, problem-solving is much more than number conundrums.   

Problem-solving is a key part of early years development and can support learning across many of the My First Five Years streams. The skill of problem-solving starts developing very early in a child's life and stems from the knowledge of the world that they are constantly building.[1]. For instance, your baby may cry when hungry as they know that crying gets the attention of an adult who can feed them.   

Problem-solving is a part of everyday life for children, from being a baby through to their future adulthood. When children learn how to solve problems, it can support them in building resilience, self-confidence and self-esteem. Taking part in problem-solving activities with others can also help children develop social skills, communication and relationships.[2]   

Psychologist Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development also focuses on the importance of problem-solving for early childhood development. In each developmental stage of his theory, the psychologist emphasised the importance of play-based learning for young children when it comes to problem-solving, and in turn building skills across the spectrum.[3]    

Supporting problem-solving  

When thinking about problem-solving activities for your child, it can be difficult to know where to begin.   

To keep children engaged, enabling them to take the lead and follow their interests, is key. Play-based, hands-on learning makes acquiring new skills more interesting and memorable for young children.[4]    

Many activities can support children when developing their problem-solving abilities – the possibilities are wide open. When considering which problem-solving activities are the most effective, it is also important to consider how they can be adapted to multiple interests, abilities and how accessible they are when it comes to using resources and materials.   

To help you out, here are ten of My First Five Years’ favourite problem-solving activities that you can try with your child.   

1) Den-building

Den-building is brilliant for problem-solving as it requires creative and critical-thinking, foresight, and planning. It is also a wonderful way to promote sustained shared thinking with your child. Sustained shared thinking is a way of working together that encourages individuals to evaluate the problem that they are working on and is focused on collaboration, using experiences and prior knowledge.[5]  

When building a den with your child, encourage your child to take the lead. You could provide materials such as boxes and blankets, or you could even ask your child to decide what materials you need before starting, encouraging them to plan out their work. Den-building can also be done both indoors and outdoors and with children from a young age. You may find that people have already started creating these in your local woodland that you can add to, adapt, or just enjoy!  

2) Cooking and baking

Cooking and baking are not only fun activities, but they also focus on mathematical problem-solving. To bring problem-solving into a cooking and baking activity, you can ask your child to count out simple measurements, for instance, cups of flour or sugar. Activities like cooking or baking are great for children to be able to take ownership of what is happening; encourage them to choose what you will make and allow them to do all the elements themselves.   

What’s great about cooking is it really doesn't matter how it turns out! Problems can arise often in cooking or baking, for example, the mixture may turn out too dry, you may be an ingredient short, or your cakes might not rise how you expected them to. If this is the case, talk to your child about what might have gone wrong and how you can rectify it next time! Then when they come to do it again, they can use their prior knowledge to help them.   

3) Playing with patterns

Patterns are a great activity for mathematical problem-solving. You can create patterns of any objects that you can find! For example, with pieces of fruit, pebbles from the garden, building blocks or even snacks! You could encourage your child to continue patterns, fill in the missing pieces or even create their own for you to solve problems with as they grow more confident. 

4) Sorting and categorising

Sorting and categorising objects is an activity that supports children in mathematical problem - solving and can be easily adapted to individual children’s abilities . You could encourage your child to sort by shape, size, colour, or better yet , their interests . For example, if they are a dinosaur enthusiast, they could classify them by wh ich is their favourite or least favourite , or order them by the size of their feet. They may even find enjoyment in helping you with daily sorting such as recycling or washing!  

Puzzles are a fun resource that can be used with children from a very young age. There are a wide variety of puzzles for children to access , such as chunky wooden puzzles or traditional shape sorters. When playing with puzzles, children will have to use their prior knowledge and experience of shape, space and measure whil e also experimenting with different angles and placements. They will use trial and error to find the best way to complete the puzzle and then will use this knowledge in future attempts.  

6) Ice rescue

As well as being a great problem-solving activity, ice rescue enables children to explore seasonal changes, temperatures and develop their fine and gross motor skills using tools. To play ice rescue, freeze toys inside ice overnight. This could be in cake moulds or small bowls. Use toys that will motivate your child, for instance, their favourite small figurines.   

Once frozen, place your blocks of ice in a big bowl or tray, and encourage your child to think about how they can get the items out. You could provide tools, or even get your child to find tools themselves.  

7) Obstacle courses

Obstacle courses are versatile and can be made with a wide variety of resources. When setting up an obstacle course for your child, try to include sections where your child will have to stop and think about how they will have to adapt their body to move through it , for example, something that they must climb over or under, or a section where they have to move differently. You could even include them in trying to create the obstacle course and allow them to make it the most challenging they can.  

8) Filling, emptying and investigation

Many children enjoy filling and emptying during play. Investigating this way helps children to get a sense of size, capacity and explore predicting and estimation. For instance, if your child likes playing with sand, you could ask them to guess how many scoops they will need to fill a container, or if they like water play you could challenge them to find a way to move the water between two containers as quickly as possible , or from one tray to another.  

9) Story problems

Stories are an effective way of introducing problem-solving and they can be a highly engaging way to promote creative and critical-thinking. You could use familiar or traditional stories to help scaffold play opportunities for your child. For example, you could try building a house for the three little pigs that cannot be knocked over. You could test out different methods using materials that you can find around your home.   

If you are feeling creative, you could also make up a little story using your child’s favourite toys. An example of this could be figuring out how to share food between their favourite teddies during a picnic and making sure that everyone gets enough.   

10) Playing with loose parts or open-ended resources

Natural materials such as leaves, conkers, sticks, acorns, and pinecones are all brilliant open-ended play opportunities (if supervised). You can also use household objects like bottle caps, curtain rings, tubes, tins, boxes, buttons etcetera in this sort of play. All it requires is a tray of different objects that you've collected and time to explore them. Your child will have to think creatively about how to utilise the objects and in doing so will be challenging their cognitive capacity by problem-solving to achieve the desired outcomes.   

References 

[1]  Rachel Keen. (2011). The Development of Problem Solving in Young Children: A Critical Cognitive Skill. Available: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.psych.031809.130730#_i22 .  

[2] Sheila Ebbutt. (2009). EYFS best practice - All about ... problem-solving . Available: https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/features/article/eyfs-best-practice-all-about-problem-solving .  

[3] Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget's Theory. In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.  

[4] Unicef. (2018). Learning Through Play. Available: https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2018-12/UNICEF-Lego-Foundation-Learning-through-Play.pd .  

[5] Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford and Brenda Taggar. (2004). The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from Pre-school to end of Key Stage1. Available: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/8543/7/SSU-SF-2004-01.pdf .  

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10 Simple Activities to Teach Your Preschooler Problem Solving

By: Author Tanja McIlroy

Posted on Last updated: 9 May 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.

• Four wooden jigsaw puzzles: a fish, a dog, a cat, and a bird
• 12-piece puzzles

2. Memory games

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

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. 

(Get your own set of printable memory card games here!)

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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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
• Old Classic For A New Generation: Share timeless family games with a new generation of fun, dice rolling...

Card games like Go Fish are also great for teaching young children to think ahead and solve problems.

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• GROWTH THROUGH PLAY: Help your children blossom with our social skills games for kids. Each of our games...

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.

Are you a preschool teacher or working in Early Childhood Education? Would you like to receive regular emails with useful tips and play-based activity ideas to try with your children? Sign up for the newsletter!

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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

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Problem Solving Activities for Preschoolers

Colleen beck otr/l.

• by Colleen Beck OTR/L
• October 22, 2021

It can be frustrating when children act without thinking of the consequences. In this blog post, you’ll learn about the development of problem solving in specific parts of our brain, discover important aspects of executive functioning that impact problem solving abilities, how to teach problem solving to preschoolers, and problem solving activities for preschoolers and young children so they can use words instead of the preschooler’s behaviors  or tantrums.

Best of all, many of our favorite fine motor activities for preschoolers support problem solving skills in early childhood.

Problem Solving Activities for Preschoolers

Before we get into the problem solving activities for preschoolers, and specific strategies to use in early childhood, it’s important to understand the development of the problem-solving process in kids. Supporting small children by giving them the skills to be problem solvers takes time and practice. We’ll get to those specific strategies below.

But first, does this scenario sound familiar at all…

I just don’t understand why Johnny keeps throwing the ball in the house. Doesn’t he realized that he could break the window? Johnny is three and he loves to play with his tennis ball in the house. Even though I have told him over and over again that we don’t throw them in the house, I still catch him sneaking them indoors at least once a week. 

Before we can address problem solving by helping kids look at the big picture and coming up with creative solutions for problem solving issues, we need to understand what is happening developmentally. Self-reflection is a challenging cognitive skill, and for young learners! 

Let’s take a better look at the development of problem solving skills…

Development of Problem Solving Skills

It’s through play, observation of others, and practice that young learners are developing problem solving skills in early childhood .

Problem solving, rational thinking and reasoning are all skills that are controlled by a part of our brain called the prefrontal cortex. Our brains grow exponentially over the first five years of life, but not the part of our brain that helps us with critical thinking and problem solving skills. This part of our brain, called the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully developed until we turn 25 years old! 

As babies, we are exposed every day to new experiences, but at this age we don’t comprehend how these experiences affect us and those around us. If only children could think through their problems. This resource on executive functioning skills offers more information.

Have you noticed that it can be a bit scary when teenagers get their drivers licenses? They don’t always think of “what might happen.” This is due to their prefrontal cortex not being fully developed. 

But what about our three and four year olds? We know they can count, ask questions and get the cookie off the counter in a very sneaky way when we aren’t looking. In the Early Years study of 2011 called Making decisions, Taking action , they describe the prefrontal cortex entering a rapid period of development, making critical interconnections with our limbic system. (link: )

This study states “The prefrontal cortex pathways that underlie these capacities are unique to human brains and take a long time to mature. Early connections begin in infancy. Between age 3 and 5 years, the prefrontal cortex circuits enter a rapid period of development and make critical interconnections with the limbic system. During adolescence and early adulthood, the neural pathways are refined and become more efficient.”

What is so great about this part of the brain anyway? 

As the prefrontal cortex (that is located behind out eyes) develops over the years, we are able to engage with situations differently, assessing our surroundings in a new way. As we develop these new executive functioning skills, we are able to keep ourselves safe, build friendships and become successful in our careers.

Related, these friendship activities for preschoolers offers ideas and strategies to support social emotional development.

This peer reviewed report competed by Merve Cikili Utyun, called Development Period of Prefrontal Cortex, discusses how amazing this part of our brain is, and how each of the three sections control different aspects of our functioning. It states that: 

“ PFC includes the following Broadman Areas (BA): 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 44, 45, 46, 47. “The dorsolateral frontal cortex (BA) 9/46 has been functioned in many cognitive process, including processing spatial information, monitoring and manipulation of working memory, the implementation of strategies to facilitate memory, response selection, the organization of material before encoding, and the verification and evaluation of representations that have been retrieved from long-term memory. 

The mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex (BA 47) has implicated cognitive functions, including the selection, comparison, and judgment of stimuli held in short-term and long-term memory, processing non-spatial information, task switching, reversal learning, stimulus selection, the specification of retrieval cues, and the ‘elaboration encoding’ of information into episodic memory.

BA 10, the most anterior aspect of the PFC, is a region of association cortex known to be involved in higher cognitive functions, such as planning future actions and decision-making. BAs 44 and 45, include part of the inferior frontal and these regions’ functions are language production, linguistic motor control, sequencing, planning, syntax, and phonological processing.

Finally, the orbitofrontal cortex mostly (BA 47, 10, 11, 13) in the orbitofrontal cortex has been implicated in processes that involve the motivational or emotional value of incoming information, including the representation of primary (unlearned) reinforcers such as taste, smell, and touch, the representation of learnt relationships between arbitrary neutral stimuli and rewards or punishments, and the integration of this information to guide response selection, suppression, and decision making.” 

Wow! No wonder it takes so long for this part of our brain to fully develop. Problem solving skills in preschoolers take time to develop!

When Johnny is throwing the ball inside the house, he is thinking about what is happening now, in the present. Not what has happened in the past (when he broke the window at grandmas house a year ago) or that breaking a window might happen in the future. 

What are some problem solving techniques?

Solving problems is a skill that all preschoolers need support with. This critical skill doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and practice to become second nature.

It’s hard for us, as adults, to remember that children ages 3-5 (preschool-aged) don’t yet have the brain capacity to problem solve on their own, or remember what they learned from a situation a week ago. 

Just like when Andrew was painting at the easel and his paintbrush got stuck in the container. Instead of asking for help or trying to “unstick” the brush, he screamed.  Or when Sally and Samantha ran outside to grab the red bouncy ball, Samantha screamed when Sally grabs it first. She didn’t see the other red bouncy ball in the bucket next to the bikes. 

Try some of these problem solving activities for  kids :

Observation- Children need problem solving strategies that they can observe, and then practice in their everyday lives. Let kids see you talk through problems as you “figure out” a solution. This gives children a chance to see a problem-solving approach in real life situations. They get to see problem solving scenarios in action.

Repetition- Repetition supports brain growth in every area of development including problem solving, executive functioning, motor development, language skills and social development.

Multisensory Activities- Children learn best with multi-sensory cues, learning new skills through seeing, touching, hearing and experiencing the skills they are learning. In 2013, the US National Library of Medicine published an article titled  Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat.  stating “The prefrontal cortex acquires information from all of the senses and orchestrates thoughts and actions in order to achieve specific goals.” (link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/)

Creative Activities- Solving problems is a skill that all preschoolers need support with. It’s hard for us, as adults, to remember they don’t yet have the brain capacity to problem solve on their own. The best way to teach children how to problem solve, it to create activities that support these new skills in a positive way, that their developing brain understands. This letter to future self is one activity to work on goal achievement even at a young age. Preschoolers can draw a picture of what they would like to do or be as an older child or as a teenager or adult.

Problem Solving Activities for Preschool

Here are 3 Simple Ways to Teach Preschoolers to Solve Problems

1.Teaching executive functioning and problem solving skills in everyday situations will support the growth of a child’s prefrontal cortex. For example, these activities that teach executive functioning at the beach show how much thought and preparation goes into building a simple sand castles.

• Children have to think about how much sand to use, how to keep it standing, how to prevent sand from getting into their eyes and how to create another one if the one they are building falls down.
• They must create, plan ahead, problem solve when things get tough and communicate to adults and peers for help.

What other activities does your child do on a regular basis that requires all areas of the prefrontal cortex to activate?

2.When children become upset, their emotions become so overwhelming that they can’t think. In order to calm down and problem solve, they need to access a multi sensory way to help them remember how to do that.

Soothing Sammy gives children tactile and visual cues that remind them how to calm down and problem solve in a developmentally appropriate way. They can be reminded of this positive reinforcement with two words “Sammy Time!”

By reading the book about the sweet golden retriever, who understands that everyone feels upset sometimes, children are encouraged to use all of the sensory strategies to calm down. They can talk to Sammy about what is happening and think through their problem to create a solution.

Ashlie’s four year old daughter did just this. She reports: “When Molly was having some big emotions about coloring a picture and needed to calm down, she visited Sammy and returned with a solution to the problem she came up with all on her own (well with Sammy’s help).”

Click here for more information on the Soothing Sammy resources .

3.Problem solving requires us to remember what just happened, what is happening now and what do we want to happen next. A preschoolers brain tends to blend all three of these situations together, not able to communicate any of them until prompted by an adult. And as an adult, we are left “guessing” what our children are thinking about. Visual cues are a wonderful sensory communication tool to support both children and adults in the realm of solving problems.

Using tools like “First/Then” cards to support routine and common situations like transitions and completing tasks. Using visuals clearly communicates what needs to be done, especially if using pictures of real children doing these tasks.

A Final note about problem solving skills in preschool

Solving problems are hard for young children, even teenagers, as their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed yet. Using multisensory teaching tools to support brain development, practicing tasks that teach executive functioning skills and using developmentally appropriate tools to help children calm down, will help even the most frustrating moments become a bit less stressful for children and adults. 

As we learn to be more patient with children, understanding that the part of their brain needed to solve problems is just beginning to develop, repeating the same directions over and over again may not be so frustrating. Our children are doing the best they can. It’s up to us to provide them with experiences to help their brains grow and develop. 

Jeana Kinne is a veteran preschool teacher and director. She has over 20 years of experience in the Early Childhood Education field. Her Bachelors Degree is in Child Development and her Masters Degree is in Early Childhood Education. She has spent over 10 years as a coach, working with Parents and Preschool Teachers, and another 10 years working with infants and toddlers with special needs. She is also the author of the “Sammy the Golden Dog” series, teaching children important skills through play.

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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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Mathematical Problem Solving in the Early Years: Developing Opportunities, Strategies and Confidence

• familiar contexts
• meaningful purposes
• mathematical complexity.

• which they understand - in familiar contexts,
• where the outcomes matter to them - even if imaginary,
• where they have control of the process,
• involving mathematics with which they are confident.
• taking some from one doll and giving to another, in several moves,
• starting again and dealing, either in ones or twos,
• taking two from each original doll and giving to the new doll,
• collecting the biscuits and crumbling them into a heap, then sharing out handfuls of crumbs.

• brute force: trying to hammer bits so that they fit,
• local correction: adjusting one part, often creating a different problem,
• dismantling: starting all over again,
• holistic review: considering multiple relations or simultaneous adjustments e.g. repairing by insertion and reversal.
• getting a feel for the problem, looking at it holistically, checking they have understood e.g. talking it through or asking questions;
• planning, preparing and predicting outcomes e.g. gathering blocks together before building;
• monitoring progress towards the goal e.g. checking that the bears will fit the houses;
• being systematic, trying possibilities methodically without repetition, rather than at random, e.g. separating shapes tried from those not tried in a puzzle;
• trying alternative approaches and evaluating strategies e.g. trying different positions for shapes;
• refining and improving solutions e.g. solving a puzzle again in fewer moves (Gifford, 2005: 153).
• Getting to grips:     What are we trying to do?    
• Connecting to previous experience:  Have we done anything like this before?
• Planning:      What do we need?
• Considering alternative methods:   Is there another way?
• Monitoring progress:    How does it look so far?
• Evaluating solutions:    Does it work?  How can we check?  Could we make it even better?

• Construction - finding shapes which fit together or balance
• Pattern-making - creating a rule to create a repeating pattern
• Shape pictures - selecting shapes with properties to represent something
• Puzzles - finding ways of fitting shapes to fit a puzzle
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Problem Solving for Preschoolers: 9 Ways to Strengthen Their Skills

By Carrie Mesrobian on 12/20/2021

As an adult, you likely run into dozens of small issues every day that require problem-solving skills. While you might not give much thought to the process of figuring out the best way to put groceries away or how to run errands without backtracking all over town anymore, these basic problem-solving abilities weren’t always so simple. You refined these skills as a child with practice and guidance from adults.

Building problem-solving skills in preschool-age children is a foundational duty of all parents and early childhood educators. But it can be easy to lose sight of how to incorporate these skills, especially when family life gets hectic or classrooms become busy.

For some fresh perspective on how to look at problem solving from a preschooler lens, we asked several experts in the early childhood education (ECE) field how they teach skills in their own classrooms. Read on for some insight on helping the young ones in your life figure out creative and workable solutions.

9 Tried-and-true ways to develop problem-solving skills in preschoolers

1. use everyday moments.

The handy thing about teaching problem-solving skills at this age is that there are no textbooks, worksheets or special equipment involved. Every day, normal situations provide all the materials you’ll need to practice.

“Parents can help their children develop problem-solving skills through ongoing interactions with their children throughout their day,” explains Paula Polito, owner of Beary Cherry Tree Child Development Center. “At home, in the grocery store and in everyday routines, such as mealtime or bath time.”

Rebecah Freeling, parent coach and child behavior expert at Wits’ End Parenting ®, believes household chores are an excellent way to teach problem solving.

“Housework is a matter of solving one problem after another. All these things go wrong when you’re doing housework,” Freeling explains. “Kids get this idea that problems are no big deal. Problems happen all the time and we just solve them.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean making a chore chart, though Freeling says some kids respond well to them. Instead, she encourages parents to try to integrate kids into the everyday maintenance of the home, and when possible, work alongside them.

“Say, ‘What would you like to be in charge of today?’” Freeling advises. “It’s the difference between getting to do something versus having to do it.”

While a grocery store trip can sometimes be a stressful rush, there are infinite opportunities to practice problem solving, says Dr. Elizabeth DeWitt, senior curriculum and implementation specialist at Learning Without Tears . DeWitt suggests using a list or a recipe of ingredients and asking your child to help you find certain items.

“Say, ‘I have this recipe that says we need chicken, rice and soup. I see chicken and soup in our cart. What are we missing? What could we or should we add?’” DeWitt says.

Taking the time to simply talk children through the thought process—no matter how simple it seems—helps reinforce and show them how you came to that conclusion.

2. Ask open-ended questions

As in the grocery store situation, just asking questions is a powerful way to foster both problem solving and creativity in young children.

“When your child comes across a difficult task, like zipping their coat, it can often be faster and easier to stop what you're doing and zip it for them,” says Becky Loftfield, an ECE teacher at Community of Saints Preschool .

If a child says, “I can't do this,” Loftfield advises asking “how come?” This lets them answer in their own words. “Asking ‘how come’ usually works better than ‘why’ for young children,” Loftfield adds.

Pausing to listen to the child’s explanation of the problem in their own words guides what happens next.

“Perhaps they don't know how zippers line up at the bottom for the mechanism to slide,” says Loftfield. “Maybe the zipper itself is too small for them to grip. Encourage your child to explore what the problem actually is beyond ‘I can't zip my coat.’”

Polito also believes in the power of conversational questions to build problem-solving skills.

“For example, parents can ask a child to explain why they did something a certain way,” Polito explains. “Providing hints to children as opposed to giving them the answer is also another way for children to think deeper about a concept.”

“We promote more learning when we allow them to think through the question,” Polito says.

3. Center emotions

All problem solving involves emotions. In the zipping-up-the-coat situation, a child might act frustrated, get angry or start crying. Handling the emotion is often the key to the child sorting out the situation, as well as learning that they are capable of finding solutions.

“We are not born knowing how to solve problems or having the vocabulary to express our feelings,” says Torri Parker, a pre-K instructor at Aspen Academy . “Often I hear a student telling another child ‘You’re not my friend,’ when what the child is meaning is that they are hurt by something their friend did, or they would like some space.”

Parker suggests picture books that focus on emotions and offer multiple ways to express them can be a powerful way to help kids not only problem solve but also identify emotions in their peers and develop greater empathy.

“By providing the words needed to convey those feelings, a child learns what that feeling feels like and can then have the vocabulary in the future to solve a conflict like that,” Parker says.

4. Read books and tell stories

Sometimes, not having to tackle a problem that’s happening in the moment is a good way to practice these skills. This is where reading books and telling stories come into play.

“Books have the opportunity to build incredible social-emotional skills,” DeWitt says. Not only are kids looking for solutions to the characters’ problems, they’re also building vocabulary, narrative skills and critical thinking as well.

Nicole Evert, a pre-K teacher and ECE trainer at Creating Butterflies, recommends the use of “ social stories ” for preschool problem solving.

“A social story introduces a problem, then shows successful ways to solve the problem,” Evert explains. “Sometimes a social story will include silly pages that show how to not solve the problem.”

Social stories can be especially helpful for children with anxiety about certain activities or routines, as well as kids with disabilities.

“Parents and educators can even make their own social stories using pictures of the specific child and their environment, which can be so powerful,” adds Evert.

5. Take advantage of natural curiosities and interests

One approach to helping young children practice problem-solving skills is in the discovery of something they are authentically interested in learning about. Adam Cole, music director at The Willow School , explains his school’s Reggio Emilia -inspired philosophy where a teacher gives students “provocations.”

“Provocations are opportunities for them to encounter something for which they may then express further interest,” Cole explains. “For instance, a teacher may set up a drawing provocation, and the children may draw buildings. The teacher may pick up on this and talk with the children about buildings, asking how they are built and where they can find more. This may lead to research or trips to see buildings and will continue on until the thread plays itself out.”

Because the focus is centered on topics or activities that already capture the child’s interest, the problem-solving aspect is more meaningful and compelling for many children. Because the teacher works alongside the child to problem solve, it offers space for the teacher to ask questions and encourage further creativity.

“This is an organic way to learn to solve problems, bolstered by the intrinsic desire of the child to learn more,” Cole adds.

6. Model problem solving

Preschoolers are always observing our behavior as parents and teachers.

“Given that 90% of brain development occurs between birth and four years of age, we have an opportunity during these preschool years to set our children up for success,” says Polito.

It may seem obvious, but our strategies and methods provide kids with in-the-moment examples of how to handle life with things go wrong.

“From a teaching perspective, you can think, ‘I’m teaching this child how to be who they are, how to live life,’” says Freeling. “A spill derails you a bit. So, stop and ask the child, ‘How should I clean this up?’”

Loftfield agrees. “Parents and educators can act as guides for a child’s experience, demonstrating how they problem solve and modeling what they want to see.”

This doesn’t mean that the adult must do everything perfectly or without emotions, however. Managing feelings is all part of learning to problem solve. “Allow time for mistakes, time for meltdowns and time for celebration,” Loftfield advises.

7. Look to the child for the solution

This last one might seem counter to number six above, but Freeling believes that parents and teachers can help children learn to problem solve by removing themselves from the process.

“Moving past your instincts to fix or smooth over problems helps a lot,” Freeling says. “Project the kid’s age in your mind. Think of a 25-year-old graduating from college. I want them to be able to ask for a higher salary, to vocalize what they want. You’re not just getting kids to be obedient—you’re teaching them how to negotiate the world.”

This is why Freeling advises adults to try coming into a problem-solving situation with children without a ready-made solution. She offers an example: there’s only one red truck, and two children both want to play with it.

“You’re really looking to the child and trusting their thinking and intelligence for solutions you hadn’t thought of,” Freeling says. She recommends repeating questions until the kids come to a decision and as long as no one’s at risk of injury, standing by the children’s solution.

“They might say, ‘We have to paint all the trucks red, since everyone wants a red truck,’” Freeling says. This might seem odd to an adult. But the point is to make the children a vital part of the creative process instead of just getting them to comply with the adult’s idea.

Developing empathy also factors into this scenario, especially in situations where problems stem from hurt feelings or other emotional conflicts. Freeling believes that finding ways to make restitution to others they’ve hurt is a better practice than forcing kids to apologize. She suggests having a child draw a picture of something the upset child likes as a way to make amends and help them recognize the other’s individuality.

“We don’t want kids to feel guilt for hurting someone; we want them to feel compassion,” Freeling says. “And solving problems in a relationship requires empathy.”

Is an early childhood education career right for you?

Enjoying the process of seeing life through a little one’s eyes? Early childhood education is an exciting, dynamic field full of creativity and potential to positively impact the lives of children and their families. If helping kids learn and grow sounds like something you’d be good at, check out our article “9 Signs You Should Be Teaching Preschool.”

Related Articles: 

Working with Defiant Preschoolers: What Educators Should Know

Wits’ End Parenting is a registered trademark of Wits’ End Parenting, Inc. This program does not prepare students for licensed teaching positions in elementary or secondary schools . A Bachelor’s degree and a state teaching license are typically required to work as a teacher in most school settings; however, states, municipalities, districts or individual schools may have more stringent licensing requirements. Childcare facilities and states establish qualifications for staff who work with children, and often implement guidelines regarding age, education, experience and professional development. Students must determine the licensure requirements for the state and facilities in which they intend to work.

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Heart-Mind Online

5-step problem solving for young children.

• Solves Problems Peacefully

Even young children can be taught to solve their problems peacefully with these 5 steps: 

Step One: How do you feel? Calm down. – Often when we encounter a problem, we feel frustrated or angry. Before we can solve our problem, we need to know how we are feeling and calm down. There are different ways to calm down; we could take a break, take three deep breaths, use " milkshake breathing [ 1 ] ".

Step Two: What is the Problem? – We need to know what the problem is before we can solve it. Why do you feel angry or upset? Remember this problem belongs to you, not other people.

Step Three: Come up with Solutions – It is helpful to think of as many different solutions to the problem as possible. Not every solution will work. A solution might work one time but not another time. The more problems you solve, the easier it is to think of solutions.

Step Four: What would happen? – Think about what would happen if you chose each of the solutions you came up with. Is the solution safe? A safe solution means no one will be hurt or upset. Is the solution fair? How will everyone feel?

Step Five: Try the Solution – Choose a solution. Try your solution. Did it solve the problem? If the solution does not solve the problem, you can try one of the other solutions you came up with.

Lesson Plan: Solving Problems Peacefully

Background & learning outcomes:.

This activity  [ 2 ] is written for children ages 4-6 for a child care setting, preschool, kindergarten or in the home. It can be adapted, however for other ages. By teaching children basic problem solving steps and providing opportunities for them to practice this skill, children can become competent problem solvers.

• Large paper and marker for writing solution ideas

Teaching and Learning Activities:

Introduce the topic of "problems." Ask children to share problems they have had recently. You can add your own examples of problems you have had or problems you have observed in the classroom.

Explain to the children that they can become expert problem solvers by using five problem solving steps.

Introduce and briefly explain each of the problem-solving steps.

Pick an example of a problem the children shared. Work through the problem with the children using the five problem solving steps.

Step 1: How do you feel? Calm down.  Ask the children to identify how they felt or how they might feel if this problem happened to them. Ask them for suggestions to calm down. Practice ways to calm down, like taking three deep breaths.

Step 2: What is the Problem?  Ask children to describe what the problem is. Help children to reframe the problem so it is defined as their problem, not someone else’s problem. For example: “I want to use the red crayon,” instead of, “they won’t share the red crayon.”

Step 3: Come up with Solutions.  Encourage children think of as many solutions as possible. In the beginning, you may need to help them with solutions. Write down the possible solutions. The focus at this step is just to generate as many solutions as possible, not to evaluate solutions.

Step 4: What would happen?  Ask children to think what would happen next if they chose a solution. Is the solution safe? A safe solution means no one will get hurt. Is the solution fair? How will everyone feel? Have the children go through the solutions they generated and think about what would happen next. Role playing the solutions can help children understand the possible consequences.

Step 5: Try the Solution.  Have the children pick a solution to the problem. Will the problem be resolved? The chosen solution can also be role played.

Adaptations:

• Accompanying each step with a visual cue is helpful, particularly for children with limited verbal skills.
• Depending on the age and attention span of the children, practicing the problem-solving steps using an example problem can be split into different lessons. Start by introducing the five steps in the first lesson, then in each subsequent lesson, practice one step.
• Role play different solutions to problems with children to help them understand the consequences of solutions.

Follow-Up Activities:

Once children have been taught these five steps to problem solving, they need opportunities to practice using them. These follow-up activities reinforce the problem-solving steps and provide practice opportunities:

Post visuals of the problem-solving steps in the room where they are visible for children to refer to on an ongoing basis.

Return to the problem solving steps regularly. Have the children provide other examples of problems they have encountered or create hypothetical problems that are relevant to their lives. Work through these problems as a class, using the problem solving steps.

When problems arise in the classroom, remind children to use their problem solving steps and guide them through the process. As they become more competent problem solvers, they will require less assistance to work through the steps.

Role model effective problem solving for your child.

Select children’s books where the characters encounter a problem. Ask the children how the character in the story could solve their problem. Encourage a variety of solutions. Have the children act out the problem and possible solutions. Book examples include:

A Good Day  (2007) by Kevin Henkes.  Bird, Fox, Dog, and Squirrel are not starting their day off very well. However, with a little patience, they find that they are able to overcome minor setbacks in order to have a very good day after all. Ages 0-6.

Bobby vs. Girls (accidentally)  (2009) by Lisa Yee.  Bobby and Holly have been best friends for years, until a disagreement threatens to break them up for good. However, when their argument accidentally sparks a full-out war between the boys and girls in their fourth-grade class, they must come up with a way to return things to normal. Ages 6-12.  

• Conflict Resolution
• Self-Regulation
• Early Years
• Middle Years

Learn more about "milkshake breathing" and ways to teach children this and other important calming skills.

Adapted from: Joseph, G.E. & Strain, P.S. (2010). Teaching Young Children Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills. Young Exceptional Children, 13, 28-40.

Conflicts and problem-solving: How to help preschoolers help themselves

• AZ Early Childhood Network
• March 31, 2017

Conflicts and problems are normal in early childhood classrooms—but what’s the best way to solve them? Maybe you shouldn’t. When children disagree or grapple with difficult feelings, the teacher’s first instinct is often to suggest a solution so that order can be restored and classroom learning can continue. However, the “quick fix” might not help children in the long run. Problem-solving is an essential skill that becomes more and more important as children grow older and the challenges of life grow more complex.

Giving preschoolers the tools to think problems through (at their level) and suggest possible solutions will lead to greater social success and enhanced independent thinking. Rather than stepping in, teachers can use constructive strategies when children have problems and suggest ways the children themselves can effectively resolve those issues.

Continue reading here.

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Starting the school year off right, google form test, tips for creating strong teacher-parent relationships.

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Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program

Advancing Effective Interactions & Instruction

Problem Solving with Others

Problem solving with others.

The skills needed to solve problems are learned just like academic skills – they don’t develop on their own or overnight

At a Glance

Preschool children are still learning how to effectively resolve disagreements. To do so, they need to take the perspective of another person and understand how their actions impact others. For example, a child is not likely to think about how taking a toy from another child would make that child mad or sad, which stands in the way of finding a safe, fair solution. You can empower children to learn to solve their own problems by helping them to identify the problem, take another child’s perspective, and implement a solution when issues arise.

• Get to Know This Skill

What It Looks Like

A quick glance at how you can help preschoolers develop their problem-solving skills, practice solving problems.

Encouraging children to think about and practice problem solving can prepare them to come up with solutions in the moment.

Problem Solving During Center Time

Promote children’s problem solving skills by having them think and talk about the issue. Then work with them as they explore and agree on a resolution.

Use Solutions Cards

Using solution cards prompts children to find and accept solutions. Supports like this work to build children’s ability to problem solve.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Teach, Model, Support

Young children are still learning how to socialize, collaborate, and negotiate with others. With our support, children can learn these valuable skills and work together to find solutions as challenges arise. Learn key strategies you can use to teach social problem solving in advance and support it in the moment.

TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE

The Power of Play

A brief video from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child explores how play in early childhood can reduce stress (including trauma-related stress) and scaffold problem solving.

• Watch the Video
• Download Guiding Questions

FAMILY CONNECTION

Families as a Resource

In this article from the Center for Responsive Schools, Carol Davis shares how educators can have conversations with families about problems that occur in the classroom.

• Read the Article
• Download the Guiding Questions

CONSIDERING EQUITY

Considering Culture

In this NAEYC webinar, Dr. Isik-Ercan offers transformative yet practical tips educators can use to understand children’s cultural backgrounds and to support children as they encounter and solve social problems.

• Watch the Webinar

PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH BOOKS

Share and Take Turns

Written by Cheri J. Meiners, this book provides many opportunities to talk and think about social situations that young children may encounter in the classroom, such as sharing toys or taking turns.

Activity Cards for Preschool Classrooms

Part of the streamin 3 curriculum, these activity cards provide simple and fun ways you can prompt children to collaborate and solve problems together.

Solve A Problem

Create typical social scenarios that children can use to brainstorm solutions.

Partner Talk

Invite children to turn to a peer and ask them something about their life.

Dance Party

You and children will work together to create a new dance.

People Sort!

Challenge children to sort themselves by patterns or colors on their clothing.

Get Our Resource Guide

Includes questions and activities to guide your use of the videos, book suggestions, and activity cards featured for each of the Core Skills

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Problem Solving in the Moment

Problem Solving in the Moment Highlight Video

Narrator: Welcome to this short module on problem solving in the moment. This video highlights the ways that teachers can support children in learning how to use problem solving to deal with the upsets and conflicts and other social problems that may occur in a preschool classroom.

For many young children, the preschool classroom is a new social experience. They will need to learn how to share space with other children, share toys with other children, and share the teacher's attention. It can be hard. Some problems are bound to occur. Let's find out how to help children learn to problem solve.

Problem solving in the moment can be an effective way to prevent challenging behaviors, and it teaches children useful social skills. Problem solving in the moment is one of a series of in-service suites about behavior guidance. These strategies and practices help teachers create classrooms that are filled with effective and engaging interactions and environments.

That's the foundation of the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning's House Framework for Effective Practice. The other parts of the house are use of research-based curricula and teaching practices, ongoing child assessment, and highly individualized teaching and learning. There are five steps that help teachers guide children's behavior and encourage their problem solving in the moment: Anticipate. Be close. Provide support. Create multiple solutions, and celebrate success. Let's see what these look like.

The first step is to anticipate. As teachers observe their children, they will begin to notice the times and activities where problems are likely to happen. It might be when all the children need to transition to a new activity at one time or when children have to wait their turn. Teachers anticipate and get ready to problem solve.

The second step is to be close. The teacher regularly scans the room or playground. When the teacher has a hunch that something might lead to a problem, the teacher moves toward the action. Then the teacher uses a calm voice to figure out the situation.

Next, the teacher provides support. For the children, learning to solve problems in the moment can be difficult. The teacher needs to remind children how to use words. The teacher might have pictures or signs that remind children how to solve a problem. The teacher can cue the children by saying, "I see we have a problem. What should we do?" Or, "This is a new toy, and everyone wants to play with it at the same time. That's a problem. How can we solve it?"

[Video begins]

Teacher: Uh-oh. Say, "I have a problem."

Girl: I have a problem.

Teacher: Tell her, "I'm using those."

Girl: I'm using those.

Teacher: So, what can we do to solve our problem?

Girl: We'll use something...

Teacher: Claire has an idea. You can share the bin of blocks.

Girl: Here.

Teacher: That was a good idea.

[Video ends]

Narrator: The next step is to generate multiple solutions. There are all sorts of solutions to typical preschool problems. Children can pick a number or flip a coin or use a timer or make another choice. Some teachers create solution kits, solution lists, or solution books that contain ideas for children to try.

Teacher: Do you want to look for an idea in the basket? Grab the book. See what you can come up with. Playing together. So, you would build it together. Do you want to build together, Jamy? Look it. Amy's talking to you.

Narrator: The final step is to celebrate success. Make sure that you let the children know that you appreciate their hard work in figuring out a solution. And give yourself a pat on the back. Problem solving in the moment means that you've taught the children some really important social skills.

There are five steps, so remember to think five. Use these five steps to help children be better problem solvers. These steps will also help prevent little classroom conflicts from becoming much bigger problems. Remember that learning to solve problems takes time and practice. Practice problem solving during circle time or lesson time, so that children will be better problem solvers during the rest of the day.

Thank you for listening.

This module highlighted a behavior guidance strategy that we call problem solving in the moment. Learn more in our longer module. Refer to the Tips and Tools to use problem solving in your classroom.

Teachers can use the problem solving approach of this in-service suite with children in their classrooms. It helps children resolve social problems as they arise "in the moment."

Materials for Trainers

Presentation [PPT, 82MB]

Presenter Notes [PDF, 2MB]

Learning Activity: Problem Solve [PDF, 80KB]

Learning Activity: Anticipating Problem Situations [PDF, 73KB]

Learning Activity: Brainstorming Multiple Solutions [PDF, 483KB]

Learning Activity: Celebrating Success [PDF, 100KB]

Supplemental Videos [PPTX, 130MB]

Supporting Materials

Tips for Teachers [PDF, 104KB]

Tips for Teachers: Dual Language Learners [PDF, 634KB]

Tips for Families [PDF, 297KB]

Teacher Tools [PDF, 488KB]

Tools for Supervisors [PDF, 71KB]

Helpful Resources [PDF, 87KB]

This zip file contains presentation materials including training videos and handouts. To view or use these materials without internet access, download Problem Solving in the Moment 15-minute In-service Suite in advance. Please ensure your browser is updated to the newest version available. If you have difficulty downloading this file, try using a different browser.

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Resource Type: Video

Last Updated: September 26, 2023

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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

• Melanated Montessori
• Dec 14, 2020

Problem Solving Skills in Early Childhood: A Montessori Approach

Posted December 14, 2020

Article by Montessori Academy. Image by

Problem-solving and critical thinking are among the most crucial skills a child can learn. They provide children with the foundations for decision making, logical reasoning, categorizing, analytical thinking, negotiation, and creativity.

Providing children with a caring environment that is rich in appropriately challenging activities is the key to developing problem-solving and higher-order processing skills.

Name the problem

If you can see a child struggling with an activity, give them the language to express what they are finding difficult.

Once you have named the problem, follow up with a prompting question that encourages them to take the next step to solve the problem.

For example, if a child spilled water and can’t find a cloth to clean it up, you could say: “That looks like a big spill of water. What should we do next?”

Answer with a question

When a child asks a question, resist the urge to answer immediately.

Instead, think about how you could use their query to encourage them to take the next step.

For example, if a child asks: “Where are my shoes?” ask them: “What were you doing when you were wearing them last?”

Prompting questions will encourage them to track back, problem-solve, and find the solution on their own.

Use prompting questions such as:

What do you think about that?

What do you think comes next?

Which part are you finding difficult?

Is there another way you could try that?

Have you looked at it this way?

Where could we find the answer?

Set the right level of challenge

Develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills by providing children with activities that are challenging but not impossible.

Activities should be a little out of reach and account for the child’s stage of development, skill level, and interests.

For example, you would introduce a child who is interested in name writing to the developmentally appropriate language materials, as opposed to presenting a counting activity.

A task that is interesting and appropriately challenging will encourage persistence, which ultimately leads to problem-solving and critical thinking skills, as opposed to frustration and discouragement.

Slow down and stand back

Children are often more capable than we think. Sometimes, all it takes is to slow down, stand back, and observe.

Take your cues from the child. Are they asking for help? Are they getting visibly upset? If not, allow them the time and space to persist. They will discover the learning outcome on their own.

If a child asks for help, offer the minimal level of assistance to get them to the next step, without solving the problem for them.

For example, if a child can’t figure out how to put on their jumper the right way, show them that the tag goes to the back and encourage them to try again.

Focus on effort

To encourage the development of problem-solving skills, focus on effort, as opposed to the result.

Using phrases such as “Good job!” and “You got everything right!” praise the outcome as opposed to the meaningful learning that occurred.

It also encourages children to continue to seek external validation as opposed to enjoying the process and seeing learning as its own reward.

Instead, use phrases of encouragement such as “I can see you have been working hard, or “That looks tricky! You worked hard on that. Maybe we can try again tomorrow.”

Focusing on the child’s effort, as opposed to the result, encourages them to try challenging things.

TAGS: Problem Solving Skills in Early Childhood: A Montessori Approach

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Child cognitive development is a fascinating and complex process that entails the growth of a child’s mental abilities, including their ability to think, learn, and solve problems. This development occurs through a series of stages that can vary among individuals. As children progress through these stages, their cognitive abilities and skills are continuously shaped by a myriad of factors such as genetics, environment, and experiences. Understanding the nuances of child cognitive development is essential for parents, educators, and professionals alike, as it provides valuable insight into supporting the growth of the child’s intellect and overall well-being.

Throughout the developmental process, language and communication play a vital role in fostering a child’s cognitive abilities . As children acquire language skills, they also develop their capacity for abstract thought, reasoning, and problem-solving. It is crucial for parents and caregivers to be mindful of potential developmental delays, as early intervention can greatly benefit the child’s cognitive development. By providing stimulating environments, nurturing relationships, and embracing diverse learning opportunities, adults can actively foster healthy cognitive development in children.

Key Takeaways

• Child cognitive development involves the growth of mental abilities and occurs through various stages.
• Language and communication are significant factors in cognitive development , shaping a child’s ability for abstract thought and problem-solving.
• Early intervention and supportive environments can play a crucial role in fostering healthy cognitive development in children.

Child Cognitive Development Stages

Child cognitive development is a crucial aspect of a child’s growth and involves the progression of their thinking, learning, and problem-solving abilities. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget developed a widely recognized theory that identifies four major stages of cognitive development in children.

Sensorimotor Stage

The Sensorimotor Stage occurs from birth to about 2 years old. During this stage, infants and newborns learn to coordinate their senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) with their motor abilities. Their understanding of the world begins to develop through their physical interactions and experiences. Some key milestones in this stage include object permanence, which is the understanding that an object still exists even when it’s not visible, and the development of intentional actions.

Preoperational Stage

The Preoperational Stage takes place between the ages of 2 and 7 years old. In this stage, children start to think symbolically, and their language capabilities rapidly expand. They also develop the ability to use mental images, words, and gestures to represent the world around them. However, their thinking is largely egocentric, which means they struggle to see things from other people’s perspectives. During this stage, children start to engage in pretend play and begin to grasp the concept of conservation, recognizing that certain properties of objects (such as quantity or volume) remain the same even if their appearance changes.

Concrete Operational Stage

The Concrete Operational Stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 12 years old. At this stage, children’s cognitive development progresses to more logical and organized ways of thinking. They can now consider multiple aspects of a problem and better understand the relationship between cause and effect . Furthermore, children become more adept at understanding other people’s viewpoints, and they can perform basic mathematical operations and understand the principles of classification and seriation.

Formal Operational Stage

Lastly, the Formal Operational Stage typically begins around 12 years old and extends into adulthood. In this stage, children develop the capacity for abstract thinking and can consider hypothetical situations and complex reasoning. They can also perform advanced problem-solving and engage in systematic scientific inquiry. This stage allows individuals to think about abstract concepts, their own thought processes, and understand the world in deeper, more nuanced ways.

By understanding these stages of cognitive development, you can better appreciate the complex growth process that children undergo as their cognitive abilities transform and expand throughout their childhood.

Key Factors in Cognitive Development

Genetics and brain development.

Genetics play a crucial role in determining a child’s cognitive development. A child’s brain development is heavily influenced by genetic factors, which also determine their cognitive potential , abilities, and skills. It is important to understand that a child’s genes do not solely dictate their cognitive development – various environmental and experiential factors contribute to shaping their cognitive abilities as they grow and learn.

Environmental Influences

The environment in which a child grows up has a significant impact on their cognitive development. Exposure to various experiences is essential for a child to develop essential cognitive skills such as problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking. Factors that can have a negative impact on cognitive development include exposure to toxins, extreme stress, trauma, abuse, and addiction issues, such as alcoholism in the family.

Nutrition and Health

Maintaining good nutrition and health is vital for a child’s cognitive development. Adequate nutrition is essential for the proper growth and functioning of the brain . Key micronutrients that contribute to cognitive development include iron, zinc, and vitamins A, C, D, and B-complex vitamins. Additionally, a child’s overall health, including physical fitness and immunity, ensures they have the energy and resources to engage in learning activities and achieve cognitive milestones effectively .

Emotional and Social Factors

Emotional well-being and social relationships can also greatly impact a child’s cognitive development. A supportive, nurturing, and emotionally healthy environment allows children to focus on learning and building cognitive skills. Children’s emotions and stress levels can impact their ability to learn and process new information. Additionally, positive social interactions help children develop important cognitive skills such as empathy, communication, and collaboration.

In summary, cognitive development in children is influenced by various factors, including genetics, environmental influences, nutrition, health, and emotional and social factors. Considering these factors can help parents, educators, and policymakers create suitable environments and interventions for promoting optimal child development.

Language and Communication Development

Language skills and milestones.

Children’s language development is a crucial aspect of their cognitive growth. They begin to acquire language skills by listening and imitating sounds they hear from their environment. As they grow, they start to understand words and form simple sentences.

• Infants (0-12 months): Babbling, cooing, and imitating sounds are common during this stage. They can also identify their name by the end of their first year. Facial expressions play a vital role during this period, as babies learn to respond to emotions.
• Toddlers (1-3 years): They rapidly learn new words and form simple sentences. They engage more in spoken communication, constantly exploring their language environment.
• Preschoolers (3-5 years): Children expand their vocabulary, improve grammar, and begin participating in more complex conversations.

It’s essential to monitor children’s language development and inform their pediatrician if any delays or concerns arise.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication contributes significantly to children’s cognitive development. They learn to interpret body language, facial expressions, and gestures long before they can speak. Examples of nonverbal communication in children include:

• Eye contact: Maintaining eye contact while interacting helps children understand emotions and enhances communication.
• Gestures: Pointing, waving goodbye, or using hand signs provide alternative ways for children to communicate their needs and feelings.
• Body language: Posture, body orientation, and movement give clues about a child’s emotions and intentions.

Teaching children to understand and use nonverbal communication supports their cognitive and social development.

Parent and Caregiver Interaction

Supportive interaction from parents and caregivers plays a crucial role in children’s language and communication development. These interactions can improve children’s language skills and overall cognitive abilities . Some ways parents and caregivers can foster language development are:

• Reading together: From an early age, reading books to children enhance their vocabulary and listening skills.
• Encouraging communication: Ask open-ended questions and engage them in conversations to build their speaking skills.
• Using rich vocabulary: Expose children to a variety of words and phrases, promoting language growth and understanding.

By actively engaging in children’s language and communication development, parents and caregivers can nurture cognitive, emotional, and social growth.

Cognitive Abilities and Skills

Cognitive abilities are the mental skills that children develop as they grow. These skills are essential for learning, adapting, and thriving in modern society. In this section, we will discuss various aspects of cognitive development, including reasoning and problem-solving, attention and memory, decision-making and executive function, as well as academic and cognitive milestones.

Reasoning and Problem Solving

Reasoning is the ability to think logically and make sense of the world around us. It’s essential for a child’s cognitive development, as it enables them to understand the concept of object permanence , recognize patterns, and classify objects. Problem-solving skills involve using these reasoning abilities to find solutions to challenges they encounter in daily life .

Children develop essential skills like:

• Logical reasoning : The ability to deduce conclusions from available information.
• Perception: Understanding how objects relate to one another in their environment.
• Schemes: Organizing thoughts and experiences into mental categories.

Attention and Memory

Attention refers to a child’s ability to focus on specific tasks, objects, or information, while memory involves retaining and recalling information. These cognitive abilities play a critical role in children’s learning and academic performance . Working memory is a vital component of learning, as it allows children to hold and manipulate information in their minds while solving problems and engaging with new tasks.

• Attention: Focuses on relevant tasks and information while ignoring distractions.
• Memory: Retains and retrieves information when needed.

Decision-Making and Executive Function

Decision-making is the process of making choices among various alternatives, while executive function refers to the higher-order cognitive processes that enable children to plan, organize, and adapt in complex situations. Executive function encompasses components such as:

• Inhibition: Self-control and the ability to resist impulses.
• Cognitive flexibility: Adapting to new information or changing circumstances.
• Planning: Setting goals and devising strategies to achieve them.

Academic and Cognitive Milestones

Children’s cognitive development is closely linked to their academic achievement. As they grow, they achieve milestones in various cognitive domains that form the foundation for their future learning. Some of these milestones include:

• Language skills: Developing vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.
• Reading and mathematics: Acquiring the ability to read and comprehend text, as well as understanding basic mathematical concepts and operations.
• Scientific thinking: Developing an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships and forming hypotheses.

Healthy cognitive development is essential for a child’s success in school and life. By understanding and supporting the development of their cognitive abilities, we can help children unlock their full potential and prepare them for a lifetime of learning and growth.

Developmental Delays and Early Intervention

Identifying developmental delays.

Developmental delays in children can be identified by monitoring their progress in reaching cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social milestones. Parents and caregivers should be aware of developmental milestones that are generally expected to be achieved by children at different ages, such as 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 18 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, and 5 years. Utilizing resources such as the “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program can help parents and caregivers recognize signs of delay early in a child’s life.

Resources and Support for Parents

There are numerous resources available for parents and caregivers to find information on developmental milestones and to learn about potential developmental delays, including:

• Learn the Signs. Act Early : A CDC initiative that provides pdf checklists of milestones and resources for identifying delays.
• Parental support groups : Local and online communities dedicated to providing resources and fostering connections between families experiencing similar challenges.

Professional Evaluations and Intervention Strategies

If parents or caregivers suspect a developmental delay, it is crucial to consult with healthcare professionals or specialists who can conduct validated assessments of the child’s cognitive and developmental abilities. Early intervention strategies, such as the ones used in broad-based early intervention programs , have shown significant positive impacts on children with developmental delays to improve cognitive development and outcomes.

Professional evaluations may include:

• Pediatricians : Primary healthcare providers who can monitor a child’s development and recommend further assessments when needed.
• Speech and language therapists : Professionals who assist children with language and communication deficits.
• Occupational therapists : Experts in helping children develop or improve on physical and motor skills, as well as social and cognitive abilities.

Depending on the severity and nature of the delays, interventions may involve:

• Individualized support : Tailored programs or therapy sessions specifically developed for the child’s needs.
• Group sessions : Opportunities for children to learn from and interact with other children experiencing similar challenges.
• Family involvement : Parents and caregivers learning support strategies to help the child in their daily life.

Fostering Healthy Cognitive Development

Play and learning opportunities.

Encouraging play is crucial for fostering healthy cognitive development in children . Provide a variety of age-appropriate games, puzzles, and creative activities that engage their senses and stimulate curiosity. For example, introduce building blocks and math games for problem-solving skills, and crossword puzzles to improve vocabulary and reasoning abilities.

Playing with others also helps children develop social skills and better understand facial expressions and emotions. Provide opportunities for cooperative play, where kids can work together to achieve a common goal, and open-ended play with no specific rules to boost creativity.

Supportive Home Environment

A nurturing and secure home environment encourages healthy cognitive growth. Be responsive to your child’s needs and interests, involving them in everyday activities and providing positive reinforcement. Pay attention to their emotional well-being and create a space where they feel safe to ask questions and explore their surroundings.

Promoting Independence and Decision-Making

Support independence by allowing children to make decisions about their playtime, activities, and daily routines. Encourage them to take age-appropriate responsibilities and make choices that contribute to self-confidence and autonomy. Model problem-solving strategies and give them opportunities to practice these skills during play, while also guiding them when necessary.

Healthy Lifestyle Habits

Promote a well-rounded lifestyle, including:

• Sleep : Ensure children get adequate and quality sleep by establishing a consistent bedtime routine.
• Hydration : Teach the importance of staying hydrated by offering water frequently, especially during play and physical activities.
• Screen time : Limit exposure to electronic devices and promote alternative activities for toddlers and older kids.
• Physical activity : Encourage children to engage in active play and exercise to support neural development and overall health .

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key stages of child cognitive development.

Child cognitive development can be divided into several key stages based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development . These stages include the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), preoperational stage (2-7 years), concrete operational stage (7-11 years), and formal operational stage (11 years and beyond). Every stage represents a unique period of cognitive growth, marked by the development of new skills, thought processes, and understanding of the world.

What factors influence cognitive development in children?

Several factors contribute to individual differences in child cognitive development, such as genetic and environmental factors. Socioeconomic status, access to quality education, early home environment, and parental involvement all play a significant role in determining cognitive growth. In addition, children’s exposure to diverse learning experiences, adequate nutrition, and mental health also influence overall cognitive performance .

How do cognitive skills vary during early childhood?

Cognitive skills in early childhood evolve as children progress through various stages . During the sensorimotor stage, infants develop fundamental skills such as object permanence. The preoperational stage is characterized by the development of symbolic thought, language, and imaginative play. Children then enter the concrete operational stage, acquiring the ability to think logically and solve problems. Finally, in the formal operational stage, children develop abstract reasoning abilities, complex problem-solving skills and metacognitive awareness.

What are common examples of cognitive development?

Examples of cognitive development include the acquisition of language and vocabulary, the development of problem-solving skills, and the ability to engage in logical reasoning. Additionally, memory, attention, and spatial awareness are essential aspects of cognitive development. Children may demonstrate these skills through activities like puzzle-solving, reading, and mathematics.

How do cognitive development theories explain children’s learning?

Piaget’s cognitive development theory suggests that children learn through active exploration, constructing knowledge based on their experiences and interactions with the world. In contrast, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes the role of social interaction and cultural context in learning. Both theories imply that cognitive development is a dynamic and evolving process, influenced by various environmental and psychological factors.

Why is it essential to support cognitive development in early childhood?

Supporting cognitive development in early childhood is critical because it lays a strong foundation for future academic achievement, social-emotional development, and lifelong learning. By providing children with diverse and enriching experiences, caregivers and educators can optimize cognitive growth and prepare children to face the challenges of today’s complex world. Fostering cognitive development early on helps children develop resilience, adaptability, and critical thinking skills essential for personal and professional success.

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Home > Learning & Development

Learning and Development

Maths problem-solving – Activities for Early Years settings

• Written By: Judith Dancer
• Subject: Maths

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Critical thinking doesn’t have to be a daunting prospect. There are simple, effective and exciting ways to encourage children’s maths problem-solving skills, says Judith Dancer…

Maths is a subject many adults lack confidence in. Having struggled with it at school they often avoid it, wherever possible, when grown up.

But if maths seems scary for some people, then maths problem-solving can cause even more anxiety. There is no ‘safety net’ of knowing the ‘correct answer’ beforehand. This is because maths problem-solving lends itself to investigation and exploration with lots of possible tangents.

Understandably this is often the area of maths where many practitioners feel least confident. However, young children, who are not restrained by right answers, feel the most enthused and animated.

The non-statutory  Development Matters Guidance , as part of ‘creating and thinking critically’ in the Characteristics of Effective Learning, identifies that practitioners need to observe how a child is learning, noting how a child is:

• thinking of ideas;
• finding ways to solve problems;
• finding new ways to do things;
• making links and noticing patterns in their experience;
• making predictions;
• testing their ideas;
• developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect;
• planning, making decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and reach a goal;
• checking how well their activities are going;
• changing strategy as needed;
• reviewing how well the approach worked.

All of these elements are, at one time or another, part of the problem-identifying and solving process – although not at the same time and in the same problem.

Role of the adult

Maths problem-solving for young children involves them understanding and using two kinds of maths:

• Maths knowledge – learning and applying an aspect of maths such as counting, calculating or measuring.
• Maths thinking skills – reasoning, predicting, talking the problem through, making connections, generalising, identifying patterns and finding solutions.

The best maths problems for children are the ones that they identify themselves. They will be enthused, fascinated and more engaged in these ‘real’, meaningful problems.

Children need opportunities to problem-solve together. As they play, they will often find their own mathematical problems.

One of the key roles of practitioners is to provide time, space and support for children. We need to develop situations and provide opportunities in which children can refine their maths problem-solving skills and apply their mathematical knowledge.

Supporting maths problem-solving

You can effectively support children’s developing maths problem-solving strategies through:

• Modelling maths talk and discussion – language is part of maths learning because talking problems through is vital. Children need to hear specific mathematical vocabulary in context. You can promote discussion through the use of comments, enabling statements and open-ended questions.
• Providing hands-on maths problem-solving activities across all areas of the setting. Children learn maths through all their experiences and need frequent opportunities to take part in creative and engaging experiences. Maths doesn’t just happen in the maths learning zone!
• Identifying potential maths learning indoors and outdoors. Provide rich and diverse open-ended resources that children can use in a number of different ways to support their own learning. It is important to include natural and everyday objects and items that have captured children’s imaginations, including popular culture.

Maths problem-solving possibilities

Spell it out.

This experience gives children lots of opportunities to explore calculating, mark making, categorising and decisions about how to approach a task.

What you need to provide:

• Assorted containers filled with natural materials. This includes leaves, pebbles, gravel, conkers, twigs, shells, fir cones, mud and sand. Include some ‘treasure’ – sequins, gold nuggets, jewels and glitter.
• Bottles and jugs of water, large mixing bowls, cups, a ‘cauldron’, small bottles, spoons and ladles.
• Cloaks and wizard hats.
• Laminated ‘spells’ – e.g. “To make a disappearing spell, mix 2 smooth pebbles, 2 gold nuggets, 4 fir cones, a pinch of sparkle dust, 3 cups of water”.
• Writing frameworks for children’s own spell recipes and a shiny ‘Spell Book’ to stick these in.
• Temporary mark-making opportunities such as chalk on slate.

The important thing with open-ended maths problem-solving experiences like this is to observe, wait and listen. Then, if appropriate, join in as a co-player with children, following their play themes.

So if children are mixing potions, note how children sort or categorise the objects. What strategies do they use to solve problems? What happens if they want eight pebbles and they run out? Observe what they do next.

When supporting children’s maths problem-solving, you need to develop a wide range of strategies and ‘dip into’ these appropriately. Rather than asking questions, it is often more effective to make comments about what you can see. For example, say, “Wow, it looks as though there is too much potion for that bottle”.

Acting as a co-player offers lots of opportunities to model mathematical behaviours. This might include reading recipes for potions and spells out loud, focusing on the numbers – one feather, three shells…

Going, going, gone

We all know that children will engage more fully when involved in experiences that fascinate them. If a particular group has a real passion for cars and trucks , consider introducing maths problem-solving opportunities that extend this interest.

This activity offers opportunities for classifying, sorting, counting, adding and subtracting, among many other things.

• Some unfamiliar trucks and cars and some old favourites. Ensure these include metal, plastic and wooden vehicles that can be sorted in different ways.
• Masking tape and scissors.
• Sticky labels and markers.

Mark out some parking lots on a smooth floor, or huge piece of paper using masking tape. Lining paper is great for this. Line the vehicles up around the edge of the floor area.

Encourage one child to select two vehicles that have something the same about them. Ask the child, “What is the same about them?”.

When the children have agreed on what is the same – e.g. size, materials, colour, lorries or racing cars – the child selects a ‘parking lot’ to put the vehicles in. So this first parking lot could be for ‘red vehicles’.

Another child chooses two more vehicles that have something the same. Do they belong in the same ‘parking lot’, or a different parking lot? E.g. these vehicles could both be racing cars.

What happens when a specific vehicle could belong in both lots? E.g. it could belong in the set of red vehicles and also belongs in the set of racing cars.

Support the children as they discuss the vehicle. Make new ‘parking lots’ with masking tape and create labels for the groups, if you choose.

Observe children’s strategies

It’s really important to observe the strategies the children use. Where appropriate, ask the children to explain what they are doing and why.

If necessary, introduce and model the use of the vocabulary ‘the same as’ and ‘different from’. Follow children’s discussions and interests. If they start talking about registration plates, consider making car number plates for all the wheeled toys outdoors.

Do the children know the format of registration plates? Can you take photos of cars you can see in the local environment?

Camping out

Constructing camps and dens outdoors is a good way to give children the opportunity to be involved in lots of maths problem-solving experiences and construction skills learning. This experience offers opportunities for using the language of position, shape and space, and finding solutions to practical problems.

• Materials to construct a tent or den such as sheets, curtains, poles, clips and string.
• Rucksacks, water bottles, compasses and maps.
• Oven shelf and bricks to build a campfire or barbecue.
• Buckets and bowls and water for washing up.

Encourage the children to explore the resources and decide which materials they need to build the camp. Suggest they source extra resources as they are needed.

Talk with the children about the best place to make a den or erect a tent and barbecue. During the discussion, model the use of positional words and phrases.

Follow children’s play themes. This could include going on a scavenger hunt collecting stones, twigs and leaves and going back to the campsite to sort them out.

Encourage children to try different solutions to the practical problems they identify. Use a running commentary on what is happening without providing the solution to the problem.

Look for opportunities to develop children’s mathematical reasoning skills by making comments such as, “I wonder why Rafit chose that box to go on the top of his den.”

If the children are familiar with traditional tales, you could extend this activity by laying a crumb trail round the outdoor area for children to follow. Make sure that there is something exciting at the end of the trail. It could be a large dinosaur sitting in a puddle, or a bear in a ‘cave’.

Children rarely have opportunities to investigate objects that are really heavy. Sometimes they have two objects and are asked the question, “Which one is heavy?” when both objects are actually light.

This experience gives children the chance to explore really heavy things and measures (weight). They also need to cooperate and find new ways to do things.

• A ‘building site’ in the outdoor area. Include hard hats, builders’ buckets, small buckets, shovels, spades, water, sand, pebbles, gravel, guttering, building blocks, huge cardboard boxes and fabric (this could be on a tarpaulin).
• Some distance away, builders’ buckets filled with damp sand and large gravel.
• Bucket balances and bathroom scales.

With an open-ended activity such as this, it is even more important to observe, wait and listen as the children explore the building site and the buckets full of sand and gravel.

Listen to the discussions the children have about moving the sand and the gravel to the building site. What language do they use?

Note the strategies they use when they can’t lift the large buckets. Who empties some of the sand into smaller buckets? Who works together collaboratively to move the full bucket? Does anyone introduce another strategy, for example, finding a wheelbarrow or pull-along truck?

Where and when appropriate, join in the children’s play as a co-player. You could act in role as a customer or new builder. Ask, “How can I get all this sand into my car?”. “How much sand and gravel do we need to make the cement for the foundations?”.

Extend children’s learning by modelling the language of weight:

• heavy/heavier than/heaviest
• light/lighter than/lightest
• about the same weight as/as heavy as
• balance/weigh

Judith Dancer is an author, consultant and trainer specialising in communication and language and mathematics. She is co-author, with Carole Skinner, of  Foundations of Mathematics – An active approach to number, shape and measures in the Early Years .

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Social Problem-Solving in Early Childhood: Developmental Change and the Influence of Shyness

Olga l. walker.

1 University of Maryland, Department of Human Development

Kathryn A. Degnan

Nathan a. fox, heather a. henderson.

2 University of Miami, Department of Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine developmental change and the influence of shyness on social problem-solving (SPS). At 24, 36, and 48 months, children (N=570) were observed while interacting with an unfamiliar peer during an SPS task and at 24 months, maternal report of shyness was collected. Results showed that across the full sample, children displayed low but stable levels of withdrawn SPS and increasing levels of SPS competence over development. In addition, results showed that 24-month shyness was associated with high-increasing and high-decreasing withdrawn SPS trajectories compared to the low-increasing withdrawn SPS trajectory. Shyness was also associated with the low-increasing compared to the high-increasing SPS competence trajectory. Findings demonstrate the development of SPS competence over early childhood, as well as the influence of early shyness on this developmental course, with some shy children showing improvement in SPS skills and others continuing to show SPS difficulties over time.

Social problem-solving (SPS) skills are important for children’s everyday social functioning, as well as their academic achievement in school ( Dubow & Tisak, 1989 ; Dubow, Tisak, Causey, Hryshko, & Reid, 1991 ; Walker and Henderson, 2012). There are, however, a wide range of individual differences in the ways children approach socially challenging situations. These individual differences in SPS skills may be attributed in part to a child’s shyness. Shyness refers to wariness and anxiety in response to novel social situations ( Coplan & Armer, 2007 ). Shy children approach socially challenging situations more passively than their peers and experience less success in attaining their social goals during elementary school ( Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ). Furthermore, shy children are at risk for social and emotional adjustment problems including poor peer relations, depression, and anxiety ( Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2009 ; Hirshfeld et al., 1992 ; Rubin, Stewart, & Coplan, 1995 ). Given that individual differences in shyness are evident in early childhood and that poor social interactions may lead to a number of poor outcomes including a cycle of peer rejection, reinforcement of poor social skills, and/or fewer opportunities to learn the scripts that guide social play, research on the origins of difficulties in peer interactions at young ages may significantly add to our understanding of these predictive links. The current study extends previous research with older children by examining developmental changes in SPS abilities and the influence of shyness on individual differences in patterns of change in SPS abilities between 24 and 48 months of age. Findings of the current study increase our understanding of the development of SPS behaviors and affect across early childhood, identify some temperamental origins of peer difficulty, and may help inform intervention efforts aimed at improving shy children’s SPS abilities.

In the current study, we focused specifically on the influence of shyness, a form of social withdrawal ( Rubin & Asendorf, 1993 ; Rubin Coplan, & Bowker, 2009 ) that is moderately stable over the toddler and preschool years ( Lemery, Goldsmith, Klinnert & Mrazek, 1999 ). Social withdrawal is defined as behavioral solitude that originates from factors internal to a child such as strong physiological reactions to novelty (i.e., shyness) and social disinterest, as opposed to solitude that results from being actively rejected by one’s peers ( Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009 ). Shy children appear motivated to interact with others, however, the fear and distress associated with novelty leads to avoidance of the social situation ( Crozier, 2000 ), making peer interaction during problem situations particularly difficult. In addition, maternal reports of shyness are relatively stable across development, especially between 24 and 48 months ( Lemery et al., 1999 ). This stability is also evidenced by the fact that children rarely change from one extreme of observed social withdrawal versus sociability to the other ( Fox et al., 2001 ; Pfeifer, Goldsmith, Davidson, & Rickman, 2002 ), and when assessed in toddlerhood, they are likely to respond similarly within a few years of assessment and even into adulthood ( Caspi & Silva, 1995 ; Caspi et al., 2003 ; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000 ). Therefore, it is important to identify the associations between shyness and social difficulties early on.

The development of competent SPS skills is important for children’s everyday social functioning and may influence the quality of their social experiences. SPS skills likely develop from various within-child characteristics (e.g., temperamental reactivity) and environmental factors (e.g., socialization with parents and peers; see Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992 for review). In a cross-sectional study, Rubin and Krasnor (1983) found that both preschoolers and kindergarteners were more likely to suggest using prosocial strategies than aggressive strategies as a means of resolving hypothetical social problems. Another cross-sectional study using a hypothetical-reflective measure of SPS found that children in first and second grade suggest fewer aggressive and more cooperative strategies compared to preschool age children ( McGillicuddy-Delisi, 1980 ). Taken together, these studies suggest that children may use competent SPS strategies as early as preschool and that the frequency of these strategies increase while the frequency of poor SPS behaviors decrease over early elementary school. While these studies examined age-related differences in SPS, longitudinal studies are needed to track individual differences in developmental trajectories of SPS behaviors and affect and predictors of these individual differences. In one longitudinal study of SPS abilities from preschool to first grade, Youngstrom et al. (2000) found that, on average, children reported fewer forceful and more prosocial solutions to hypothetical problems from preschool to first grade. Interestingly, they also found little to no stability of SPS from preschool to first grade, which was attributed to rapid gains in SPS abilities that allowed children who reported relatively poorer SPS skills in preschool to report similar SPS to their peers by first grade.

Based on findings showing that children report using more prosocial competent strategies with age, we hypothesized that children would display more competent SPS (i.e., verbal strategies, success, positive affect, prosocial initiations) and less withdrawn SPS (i.e., passive strategies, time unengaged, and neutral affect) over time.

Individual Differences in SPS

Crick and Dodge (1994) developed an information-processing model that describes the steps involved in SPS. Effective problem solving, according to their model, involves noticing and interpreting social cues, formulating social goals, generating possible strategies to solve the problem, evaluating the possible effectiveness of the strategy, and enacting a response. Emotion, in addition to cognition, influences social information-processing at all steps of the model ( Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000 ), emphasizing the importance of incorporating measures of affect into SPS coding. For shy children, the experience of uncertainty in unfamiliar or challenging social situations may lead to distress, which results in emotional flooding ( Ekman, 1984 ; Thompson & Calkins, 1996 ), or hypervigilance, which may result in blunted affect. Both distress and hypervigilance may interfere with shy children’s ability to enact socially competent responses during challenging situations with peers ( Fox et al., 2005 ). Indeed, withdrawn children are able to generate competent social goals comparable to comparison children, however, they report that they would be less likely to use assertive strategies and more likely to use avoidant strategies compared to comparison and aggressive children ( Wichmann, Coplan, & Daniels, 2004 ). Thus, it is important to observe children’s SPS during actual social situations with peers.

Shy children, specifically, react to challenging social situations with sadness, fear, and lessened positive affect ( Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997 ; Eisenberg, Shepard, Fabes, Murphy & Guthrie, 1998 ; Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Rieser, 2002 ; Rothbart & Bates, 2006 ), possibly disrupting the enactment of competent SPS behaviors. A recent study found that during a structured task requiring friendly competition and negotiation between target children and their friend, socially withdrawn, anxious 10- to 12-year-old children displayed relatively more neutral affect in comparison to control children ( Schneider, 2009 ). The expression of neutral affect in withdrawn children reflects a somber expression, which may lead to increased hypervigilance and limit others’ desire to interact with them. That is, anxious expressions may serve both functional and social purposes, where functionally they may lead to increased scanning and processing of the environment to identify ambiguous threat, while socially these expressions may serve to convey messages about emotion to social partners ( Perkins, Inchley-Mort, Pickering, Corr, & Burgess, 2012 ). In contrast, uninhibited or highly sociable children approach unfamiliar people or objects with minimal avoidance and with positive affect ( Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2002 ; Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1998 ), which may facilitate the translation of strategy ideas into actions during SPS and function to initiate and maintain social interactions with peers. Thus, while positive affect may facilitate social interaction and competent problem solving, neutral and negative affect may limit these social skills.

Because behavior and emotion may both influence the course and outcomes of peer social interactions, it was important to examine the combination of both SPS behavior and affect. Thus, in the current study, we included both SPS behaviors and displayed affect during the SPS task in composites and expected neutral or negative affect to be associated with withdrawn behaviors (i.e., time unengaged and passive SPS) while positive affect would be associated with competent SPS behaviors (i.e., verbal SPS, prosocial interactions, success). In addition, we expected these composites of behavior and affect would be associated with early report of shyness. Socially withdrawn children display more passive SPS during elementary school ( Rubin, Daniels-Beirness, & Bream, 1984 ; Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ). Therefore, whereas some children with poor SPS may report similar SPS compared to their peers by first grade ( Youngstrom et al., 2000 ), shy children may not follow the same developmental trajectory. Since shyness and social withdrawal are associated with avoidant SPS at later ages, we hypothesized that shyness would be associated with more withdrawn SPS over time. Furthermore, previous findings suggested growth in SPS competence across all children. Therefore, we hypothesized that shyness would be associated with increased SPS competence over time, such that children rated higher in shyness will show a typical increase over development. However, we expected that the trajectory associated with shyness would remain lower in SPS relative to the other trajectory at all ages.

In summary, the first goal of the current study was to examine patterns of developmental change in behavior and affect during SPS (i.e., withdrawn SPS and SPS competence). The second goal was to examine whether there was significant variability in these patterns of change and to examine the role of early shyness in predicting these patterns of change. Overall, given normative increases in language, social cognition, and self-regulation, we hypothesized that all children would develop better SPS skills over the period of study (i.e., less SPS withdrawal and more SPS competence), however, superimposed on these developmental changes, we hypothesized that shyness would be associated with individual differences in SPS trajectories over time (i.e., greater withdrawn SPS and less SPS competence).

The current study extended previous research in two ways. First, it is a downward extension of Stewart and Rubin (1995) as it is of interest to understand the origins of peer difficulty at the earliest age possible to intervene or prevent poor peer interactions. Specifically, it extended previous findings by prospectively following the same sample of children from 24 to 48 months, younger ages than have previously been examined. Second, the current study employed direct observations to assess children’s SPS behavior and displayed affect during challenging social situations. In contrast to hypothetical-reflective measures of SPS that ask children to reflect on how they would solve a social problem during hypothetical situations, direct observations allow for the assessment of the actual enactment of social goals and strategies used by children and the evaluation of the outcomes (i.e., success vs. failure) of SPS behavior ( Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992 ). The key difference between these types of measures is that hypothetical-reflective interviews measure how children think and reason about social situations while behavioral observations measure how children actually behave when in those situations ( Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992 ). Moreover, while behavior coding captures what children do in challenging situations, affect coding indexes how they express their emotion to their social partners, providing a more complete picture of the motivations and outcomes of differences in SPS. Therefore, in contrast to previous studies using hypothetical scenarios or behavioral observations, we examined both children’s behavior and affect to better understand children’s reactions to challenging social situations.

Participants

Six hundred and fourteen (295 boys, 319 girls) children and their mothers participated in a longitudinal study. Child ethnicity was as follows: 64% Caucasian, 15% African-American, 14% multiracial, 3% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 1% as other. Mothers participating in this study represented a highly educated sample. Fourteen percent of the mothers graduated from high school, 44% from college, 37% from graduate school, 4% from other educational programs, and 1% did not report. Two hundred and ninety-one children were originally selected to participate at the age of four months as part of a longitudinal study of temperament and social development (see omitted for peer review ). Three hundred and twenty-three additional children were recruited from the community during toddlerhood to form same-sex, same-age unfamiliar peer dyads. Of these, 570 children (277 boys, 293 girls) participated at least once across 24 ( M = 25.92 months, SD = 2.30), 36 ( M = 37.27 months, SD = 1.59), and 48 months of age ( M = 49.32 months, SD = 1.41) and therefore were included in the current analyses.

Participants were recruited by mailing letters to parents in the community using commercially available mailing lists. Therefore a non-clinical community sample was recruited for participation in the current study. Interested parents contacted the laboratory to schedule a visit for their child. Children from the two groups were randomly paired at each age in order to ensure that the peer pairs were equally unfamiliar to each other at each age of assessment. The pairing was random rather than based on temperament in order to mirror the natural variation in peer characteristics typical of social settings in early childhood. There were no differences between children recruited in infancy and children recruited as toddlers on sex χ 2 (1, N = 614) = .61, p = .44, ethnicity χ 2 (5, N = 614) = 1.92, p = .86, maternal education χ 2 (3, N = 607) = 5.41, p = .14, or shyness at 24 months t (472) = 1.15, p = .25, suggesting that the two groups were comparable to one another.

The analyses presented below were conducted using maximum likelihood estimation. Maximum likelihood estimation utilizes all cases with complete or partial data on the dependent variables (i.e., SPS composites). The first goal of the study was to examine developmental change in SPS over time. Forty-four children were excluded from analyses for this goal due to missing data on all SPS outcomes, thus, analyses included children with complete or partial SPS data ( N = 570). There were no differences between children included in this analysis and children excluded from the analysis on sex, χ 2 (1, N = 614) = .97, p = .33 or ethnicity χ 2 (1, N = 614) = 1.11, p = .29 however, there were differences on maternal education, χ 2 (3, N = 607) = 11.98, p = .007, such that children whose mothers reported completing educational programs other than high school, college, or graduate school were more likely to have missing data. The second goal of the study was to examine the influence of shyness on SPS trajectories. Maximum likelihood utilized all cases with at least some data on the SPS dependent variables as mentioned above, however, it also excludes all cases with missing data on the independent variable (i.e., shyness). Therefore, in addition to the 44 children excluded from the developmental analyses mentioned above, 115 children were excluded from the second set of analyses due to missing data on shyness. Therefore, analyses examining associations between shyness and the development of SPS included data from 455 children. There were no differences between children included in this analysis and those missing shyness data on sex, χ 2 (1, N = 570) = .1.14, p = .29, ethnicity χ 2 (1, N = 570) = 1.98, p = .16, or maternal education, χ 2 (3, N = 563) = 3.93, p = .27, suggesting that the sample included in the first analyses is comparable to the sample included in the second analyses.

Informed consent was signed by the children’s mothers at each visit. Children were randomly paired with a different same-sex, same-age, unfamiliar peer for each visit to capture their SPS behavior and displayed affect during novel social interactions. At all three dyad visits, children were placed in a room with two one-way mirrors. Cameras were used to record the sessions from behind the mirrors.

Children engaged in several activities together. Of interest to the current study was the participants’ behavior during the special toy session, which occurred after approximately 15 minutes of interacting during a freeplay session and a clean-up task. Similar to Stewart and Rubin (1995) , the experimenter entered with the special toy and set it down in the middle of the room. Before leaving, the experimenter told the children they only had one toy so they must share and take turns. The experimenter then informed the children that he or she would return in a few minutes and walked out of the room.

Toys used during the visits were carefully selected at each age to be age-appropriate and comparable in terms of eliciting independent play. A stationary tricycle was used as the special toy introduced to the participants during the 24-month visit. The toy looked like a tricycle in that it had three wheels and pedals but it could only be used to rock back and forth. During the 36 month visit, a stationary car was used as the special toy. The toy had a seat, steering wheel, pedals, and a gear shift. The steering wheel had buttons that played animal noises and a screen to track driving. At the 48-month visit, a movable vehicle was used as the special toy. The child was able to sit in the middle of the toy and use handle bars on the wheels to steer around the room. Participants were given a total of 5 minutes to play with the special toy.

At the 24- and 36-month visit laboratory visits, mothers of the participants sat in separate chairs in two different corners of the room. Mothers were told not to initiate interactions with the children but to respond as they normally would if the child interacted with them. At the 48-month visit, mothers sat in an adjacent room that allowed them to see their children through a one-way mirror. Mothers filled out the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (TBAQ; Goldsmith 1996 ; Goldsmith, Rieser-Danner, & Briggs, 1991 ) at the 24-month visit.

The Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (TBAQ; Goldsmith 1996 ; Goldsmith, Rieser-Danner, & Briggs, 1991 ), a 108-item parent report measure of temperament, was collected at 24 months of age. The TBAQ is a valid and reliable questionnaire for use with 16- to 36-month-old children and measures 5 dimensions of temperament: Activity level, pleasure, social fearfulness, anger proneness, and interest/persistence, using 7-point Likert scales ( Goldsmith 1996 ; Goldsmith et al., 1991 ). Of particular interest in the current study was the dimension of social fearfulness, which is composed of 10 items that assess children’s reactions to unfamiliar adults and contexts ( Goldsmith, 1996 ). Sample items include, “If a stranger came to your house or your apartment, how often did your child ‘warm up’ to the stranger within 10 minutes?” and “When your child knew her/his parents were about to leave her/him at home, how often did your child cling to her/his parents?” Internal consistency estimates for the social fearfulness scale were .83 and .87 across different samples of toddlers ( Goldsmith, 1996 ). In the current sample, the internal consistency estimate for social fearfulness was .78 at 24 months.

SPS Behavioral coding

Behavioral coding was based on the scheme used by Rubin and Krasnor (1983) and Stewart and Rubin (1995) . The total time of the task, latency to first get the toy, and the amount of time engaged with the toy were recorded in seconds.

Children’s neutral , positive and sad/fearful affect were assigned a global code for the entire special toy activity. Each affect dimension was coded using a scale of 1–5 (1 = did not display; 5 = displayed the majority of the time or very intensely). Neutral affect was coded when the child displayed little to no emotional expression. Positive affect was scored based on the frequency and intensity of smiling, laughing, talking in excited tones, excited movements, and overall expressions of joy. Sad/fearful affect was scored based on the frequency and intensity of whining, crying, and fearful avoidance when approached by the other child and/or complaining to their mother in a sad or fearful voice that they wanted to play with the toy. Affect codes were not mutually exclusive as each type of affect was coded on a separate 5-point scale based on the frequency and intensity of displays of each affect type.

Event-based codes were used to classify each social initiation made by each child. Each social initiation was classified as (1) an attempt to get the toy , or (2) a prosocial initiation . An attempt to get the toy was defined as an attempt made by the child not in possession of the toy to gain control and/or make it clear to the child on the toy, that he or she wanted a turn. Prosocial initiations were defined as any initiation made to the peer about topics unrelated to getting the toy (e.g., “What school do you go to?”), initiations made by the child playing with the toy to offer the peer a turn (e.g., “Your turn to play”), and initiations made by the child playing with the toy to share with their peer (e.g., “Let’s play with this toy together”). Initiations to share the toy were only coded as prosocial initiations if the initiation was made by the child in possession of the toy. Therefore, prosocial initiations were always positive initiations that were not in regard to getting the toy from the peer.

Each attempt to get the toy was then further classified by the type of strategy used: Passive (i.e., pointing or hovering), active (i.e., touching, shoving, hitting, grabbing, or taking), or verbal (i.e., asking or telling). Strategies were not mutually exclusive, thus if a child used more than one strategy at a time (e.g., asking while pointing), all strategies were recorded. Each attempt to get the toy was also coded in terms of the outcome, such that an attempt to get the toy was coded as unsuccessful when a child made an initiation and did not get the toy.

Teams of two trained research assistants coded the children’s behaviors during the special toy episode using the same coding scheme at each time point. Specifically, one team of two coders coded children’s behaviors at 24 months. Another team of two coders, composed of one of the 24-month coders and a new coder, coded both the 36- and 48-month behaviors. In order to assess inter-rater reliability, coders overlapped on 17–26% of total coded cases at each of the three time points. Disagreements on these double-codes were resolved through discussion. Intra-class correlations (ICC’s) for the codes used in analyses at each age (24, 36, 48 months respectively) were .87, 1.00, and .99 for the total time of the task, .97, .99, and .98 for time engaged , .99, 1.00, .99 for latency to first get the toy, .66 .92, .76 for neutral affect, .70, .87, .78 for positive affect, 84, .97, .97 for get toy , .66, .92, and .86 for prosocial initiations, .72, .92, and .82 for passive strategies, .71, .91, and .76 for verbal strategies, and .86, .96, and .87 for unsuccessful attempts.

A proportion score was created for time engaged by dividing children’s time engaged with the toy in seconds over the total time of the task. Latency and the proportion of time engaged (reverse scored) were standardized and averaged to represent time unengaged with the toy. Proportion scores were also created for passive, verbal, and unsuccessful attempts by dividing the frequency of each variable over the total number of attempts to get the toy . The proportion of unsuccessful attempts was reverse coded to reflect success. Skewed variables were dichotomized at each age as 0 if the behavior was not observed or 1 if the behavior was observed at least once and continuous variables were standardized.

To reduce the number of dependent measures, composite scores were created based on theory and confirmed through principal components analysis to reflect withdrawn and competent SPS behavior and affect. Withdrawn SPS was composed of passive strategies based on findings with socially withdrawn elementary school-aged children, which showed that withdrawn children make fewer attempts to obtain toys from unfamiliar peers and when making attempts, they use more indirect strategies compared to their peers ( Rubin, Daniels-Beirness, & Bream, 1984 ; Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ). Furthermore, because withdrawn children are less successful than their peers ( Rubin, Daniels-Beirness, & Bream, 1984 ; Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ), we expected that they would take longer to get the toy (latency) and spend less time playing with the toy, which reflected time unengaged with the toy. Last, we also expected shy children to display more neutral affect since withdrawn/anxious early adolescents are more likely to display neutral affect compared to control early adolescents ( Schneider, 2009 ). Due to low frequency, sad/fearful affect was not included in the composite scores. Thus, the withdrawn SPS composite scores at each age consisted of passive strategies, time unengaged , and neutral affect, and was confirmed through principal components analyses at 24 (eigenvalue = 1.56; avg loading = .72), 36 (eigenvalue = 1.21; avg loading = .61), and 48 months of age (eigenvalue = 1.22; avg loading = .63). A composite of SPS Competence was created based on displays of verbal strategies, positive affect, prosocial initiations , and success. Social competence was formed to reflect positive social behavior, as seen in the displays of prosocial initiations and displayed positive affect. Furthermore, the use of verbal strategies reflects competence ( Eisenberg et al., 1994 ). Success was also included as it was expected that the use of competent and positive behavior and affect would also result in greater peer compliance. The competent SPS composite scores were confirmed through principal components analyses at 24 (eigenvalue = 1.23; avg loading = .49), 36 (eigenvalue = 1.88; avg loading = .68), and 48 months of age (eigenvalue = 1.66; avg loading = .62). Composite variables were all normally distributed. Active strategies were not thought to be theoretically associated with the constructs of interest in the current study, thus a ctive was not included in the composite scores.

Data Analyses

The first goal of the current study was to identify patterns of developmental growth of withdrawn and competent SPS for all children from 24 to 48 months of age. To examine developmental growth patterns, latent growth analyses (LGA; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002 ), also called hierarchical linear modeling, were conducted. LGA estimates individual trajectories across repeated measures. Overall model fit was examined by reviewing the following fit indices: model χ 2 , RMSEA with 90% confidence intervals, SRMR, and CFI. The second goal of the current study was to examine whether there were individual differences in these patterns of change in withdrawn and competent SPS and to examine whether early shyness predicted these patterns of change. Latent Class Growth Analyses (LCGA; Jones, Nagin, & Roeder, 2001 ) were conducted to identify multiple trajectories of withdrawn and competent SPS from 24 to 48 months of age. LCGA is a type of growth mixture model which combines LGA with latent class analysis (LCA; Muthén, 2001 ), providing multiple growth trajectories associated with unmeasured class membership. Shyness was included as a predictor of membership in the trajectories. The Baysian Information Criteria (BIC) and the Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT) fit indices were examined ( Nylund, Asparouhov, & Muthén, 2007 ) along with interpretability in order to determine the number of trajectories to retain from each series of models ( Muthén, 2004 ). Specifically, each model examined one more trajectory than the previous model. Once it was determined that the addition of another trajectory was not a better fit than the previous model, the previous model (i.e., one less trajectory) was selected as the final model. All analyses were conducted in M plus 6.12 ( Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2011 ).

Development of SPS

For the first goal of the study, LGA was used to examine average patterns of development in displayed SPS behavior and affect from 24 to 48 months of age. The first LGA model examined the development of withdrawn SPS over time and found evidence for good model fit: χ 2 (1) = .36, p = .55, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .00 with CI 90% from .00 to .09, and SRMR = .01. Results showed that children displayed consistent levels of withdrawn SPS at all ages (i.e., non-significant slope, p =.19). The second latent growth model examined the development of SPS competence over time and found evidence for poor model fit: χ 2 (3) = 13.08, p = .005, CFI = .34, RMSEA = .08 with CI 90% from .04 to .12, and SRMR = .06. Thus, the growth model was reexamined while freeing the time score for the 48-month data to be estimated using a latent basis model ( McArdle, 2004 ). This model resulted in good model fit, χ 2 (2) = 2.23, p = .33, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .01 with CI 90% from .00 to .09, and SRMR = .03. Results showed that children displayed greater SPS competence over time (i.e., positive slope, p <.001), with more growth between 36 and 48 months than between 24 and 36 months of age. Taken together, findings show that, on average, children display stable levels of withdrawn SPS and increasing SPS competence over time.

Superimposed on these average developmental changes, we expected that shyness would be associated with displayed SPS behavior and affect over time. Therefore, for the second goal, LCGA models were conducted to examine the relation between early shyness and trajectories of withdrawn and competent SPS. First, LCGA models were conducted with shyness at 24 months as the predictor of the probability of membership in 1 through 4 classes of withdrawn SPS over time. The BIC was 3203.91 for one withdrawn SPS trajectory, 1639.45 for two withdrawn SPS trajectories, 1637.29 for three withdrawn SPS trajectories, and 1648.76 for four withdrawn SPS trajectories. The BLRT showed that the two trajectory model was better than the one trajectory model ( p < .001), and the three trajectory model was better than the two trajectory model ( p < .001), but the four trajectory model was not better than the three trajectory model ( p = .09). Based on the lowest BIC, significant BLRT and interpretability, the three trajectory model was retained. See Figure 1 for the estimated means of displayed withdrawn SPS at each age for the 3-trajectories.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Withdrawn SPS.

The high-increasing trajectory was composed of children (17% of the sample, n = 77) who displayed high withdrawn SPS at 24 months and continued to increase in withdrawn SPS across time (i.e., had a significant positive slope, p = .001). The high-decreasing trajectory was composed of children (25% of the sample, n =113) who displayed high withdrawn SPS at 24 months and decreased in withdrawn SPS across time (i.e., negative slope, p < .001). The low-increasing trajectory was composed of the majority of children (58% of the sample, n = 265) who showed a slight increase over time (i.e., positive slope, p = .049). Children in this trajectory displayed lower levels of withdrawn SPS at 24 months than children in the high-increasing and high-decreasing trajectories, and maintained these low levels of withdrawn SPS over time (see Figure 1 ). Shyness significantly predicted the probability of membership in the withdrawn SPS trajectories such that children in the high-increasing (B=.81, z =3.44, p =.001) and high-decreasing trajectories (B=.88, z =4.24, p <.001) were more likely to be rated high on shyness at 24 months than children in the low-increasing withdrawn SPS trajectory. That is, for every one unit increase in shyness, the odds of being in the high-increasing withdrawn trajectory were 5.06 and the odds of being in the high-decreasing withdrawn trajectory were 5.81 times the odds of being in the low-increasing withdrawn trajectory.

Second, LCGA models were conducted with shyness at 24 months as the predictor of probability of membership in 1 through 3 classes of SPS competence over time. The BIC was 2237.87 for one SPS competence trajectory, 795.28 for two SPS competence trajectories, and 804.70 for three SPS competence trajectories. In addition, the BLRT showed that two trajectories were significantly better than one trajectory ( p <.001), but three trajectories were not significantly better than two trajectories ( p = .07). Thus, the two trajectory model was retained based on a combination of the lowest BIC, significant BLRT and interpretability. See Figure 2 for the estimated means of displayed SPS competence trajectories at each age.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Competent SPS

The high-increasing trajectory was composed of children (47% of the sample, n =214) who displayed high SPS competence at 24 months and continued to increase in SPS competence across time (i.e., significant positive slope, p < .001). The low-increasing trajectory was composed of children (53% of the sample, n =241) who displayed low SPS competence at 24 months and increasing SPS competence across time (i.e., significant positive slope, p < .001). Shyness significantly predicted the probability of membership in the trajectories, such that children in the low-increasing trajectory were more likely to be rated high on shyness at 24 months than children in the high-increasing trajectory (B=1.02, z =4.33, p <.001). That is, for every one unit increase in shyness, the odds of being in the low-increasing SPS competence trajectory were 7.67 times the odds of being in the high-increasing competence trajectory.

This is one of the first studies to use a longitudinal design to document developmental changes and individual differences in children’s SPS behaviors and emotion in the early childhood years. The goals of this study were to document developmental growth and examine the longitudinal associations between shyness and the types of SPS behaviors and emotions displayed when a child encounters a challenging social situation with an unfamiliar peer, using a non-clinical community sample of children. Results of the current study extend the literature by examining these questions longitudinally during early childhood and by using observational measures of SPS behavior and affect expression to capture children’s actual behaviors during challenging social situations. Results revealed that, on average, children displayed low stable levels of withdrawn SPS, while competent SPS increased over the toddler and preschool years. In addition to these general developmental findings, there was evidence suggesting that early shyness affects children’s SPS style and their trajectories of change in SPS in response to challenging social situations. Specifically, shyness was associated with a greater likelihood to display more withdrawn SPS and less SPS competence at age 2. However, there were individual differences in developmental patterns stemming from these initial levels. That is, some shy children displayed improvement in SPS skills over time (i.e., decreased withdrawn SPS and increased SPS competence), and some shy children continued to display poor SPS skills (i.e., increased withdrawn SPS over time). These findings highlight the predictive influence of early reports of shyness on initial SPS behaviors and affect and suggest multiple potential outcomes for early shyness, including both continuity and discontinuity in withdrawn SPS over the early childhood years.

Developmental Change in SPS

Contrary to hypotheses, children, on average, expressed consistent levels of withdrawn SPS across ages (i.e., neutral affect, passive SPS, and time unengaged with the toy). Consistent with this, individual trajectories showed that the majority of children displayed consistently low levels of withdrawn SPS over time. These results show that withdrawn SPS is not a predominant style of interaction for most children, even during the early childhood years. Consistent with the hypotheses, children displayed higher levels of SPS competence over time, showing that children were increasingly likely to use verbal strategies, display positive affect, initiate prosocial interactions, and were more successful in their attempts to get the toy. The increased use of verbal strategies reflects increasing competence as verbal initiations are considered the foundation for social play and competent peer interactions ( Eisenberg et al., 1994 ). Displays of positive affect may help keep children and their peers engaged in social interaction longer, which may support persistence and flexibility in approaching the problem situation. Increased use of verbal SPS strategies and approaching the challenging social situations with positive affect likely accounts for more success over time, showing that the use of competent strategies may result in more compliance from peers. Furthermore, the increased use of prosocial initiations and verbal strategies in general likely reflects a combination of children’s gains in social motivation, understanding of others, expressive vocabulary, and pragmatic language during early childhood ( Bloom, 1998 ; Ganger & Brent, 2004 ; Pan & Snow, 1999 ; Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992 ). Interestingly, findings from the SPS competence growth model showed that there was particularly rapid growth in the display of competent SPS between 36 and 48 months than during 24 and 36 months of age. These greater increases may also reflect the development of language skills, social motivation, and understanding of others at these later preschool ages. Taken together, results suggest that both the quantity and quality of children’s competent SPS skills increase from 24 to 48 months of age.

Individual Differences in Shyness and SPS

Results of the LCGA showed individual differences in SPS trajectories over time. Consistent with developmental findings, the majority of children displayed consistently low levels of withdrawn SPS over time; however, there were two additional trajectories defined by high levels of withdrawn SPS at 2 years of age. Further, maternal ratings of shyness predicted membership in these two trajectories compared to the consistently low trajectory. These findings are consistent with hypotheses and previous research on older children that shy children displayed neutral affect, were less likely to use socially assertive strategies and more likely to use subtle, indirect strategies compared to children of average sociability ( Schneider, 2009 ; Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ). Shyness is associated with an approach-avoidance conflict ( Asendorpf, 1990 ; Coplan et al., 2004 ). That is, shy children would like to join in play with others (approach), but fear and anxiety interfere with their ability to easily initiate and engage peers in play, resulting in social withdrawal.

The expression of neutral affect by shy children appeared to reflect their wariness and uncertainty about the social situation. Schneider (2009) also found that socially withdrawn/anxious early adolescents displayed relatively more neutral affect, whereas control children displayed relatively more positive affect while interacting with friends. Interestingly, few instances of sad/fearful affect were displayed during the tasks at all ages. Prior work by Perkins et al., (2011) found evidence for the distinguishability of fearful and anxious expressions of emotion. They suggest that fear may be displayed during situations of clear threat while anxious expressions, reflecting scanning and processing of the environment, may be displayed during ambiguous situations. Shy children’s expression of neutral affect likely reflects their uncertainty and hypervigilance, consistent with the expression of anxious affect.

Interestingly, one of the two trajectories that showed initially high withdrawn SPS showed decreased withdrawn SPS over time, while the other trajectory showing initially high withdrawn SPS increased in withdrawn SPS over time. These findings indicate that some children rated high on shyness showed improvement in SPS skills, while for other children early shyness has an enduring influence on social development, in part, through effects on SPS skills. An important future direction is to identify the factors that moderate the relations between early shyness and these different trajectories of withdrawn SPS. For example, temperament and specific socialization experiences with parents and peers influence patterns of continuity and discontinuity in behavior over time ( Degnan, Almas, & Fox, 2010 ; Degnan & Fox, 2007 ) and thus moderate the associations between early shyness and later social functioning (e.g., Almas et al., 2011 ; Degnan, Henderson, Fox, & Rubin, 2008 ; Rubin, Burgess, & Hastings, 2002 ). The quality of social experiences with peers is particularly important for shy children in learning how to competently initiate interactions with peers to join social play. Furthermore, within-child characteristics, such as the development of self-regulation, may also interact with shyness to influence trajectories of SPS behavior and affect over time. It is possible that a well-regulated shy child may display SPS skills similar to less shy peers, while shy children displaying poor self-regulation are the ones in most need of intervention. For example, the flexible allocation of attention and the ability to shift attention serves as a protective factor for behaviorally inhibited and shy children, decreasing the risk for social adjustment difficulties and anxiety ( Henderson, 2010 ; White, McDermott, Degnan, Henderson, & Fox, 2011 ). Future studies should examine both within-child and environmental factors that moderate the associations between shyness and SPS trajectories. Identifying the moderators that lead to discontinuity is important for the design of intervention and prevention efforts aimed at improving SPS skills for shy children showing increased withdrawn SPS over time, who may be at most risk for the development of anxiety and poor social interactions with peers.

SPS competence LCGA analyses suggest that shy children’s SPS behaviors and affect are developing over the toddler and preschool years in parallel form to their less shy peers. That is, they begin and end with fewer competent SPS interactions than their peers, at least between 24 and 48 months of age. Early shyness continues to relate to less SPS competence as initial differences are maintained over the toddler and preschool years. These results are consistent with findings from other studies showing that inhibited and shy children speak less during unfamiliar situations in school and are less likely to talk or volunteer answers in large group teacher-guided activities ( Asendorpf & Meier, 1993 ; Rimm-Kaufman & Kagan, 2005 ; Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2002 ). In addition, it has been shown that pragmatic language influences the association between shyness and adjustment outcomes ( Coplan & Weeks, 2009 ), suggesting the importance of shy children’s verbal abilities for social development. Shy children’s lack of assertiveness may be due to shy children not knowing how to approach peers and the effect of distress and hypervigilance on their ability to enact a planned behavioral response. As shy children develop, the tendency to initially refrain may be reinforced and strengthened and this, in turn, may lead to a fear of negative evaluation from peers at later ages ( Bruch & Cheek, 1995 ), as well as unfamiliarity with the social scripts guiding cooperative play.

Youngstrom et al (2000) suggest that children with SPS difficulties report similar SPS to their peers by first grade. However, there are multiple origins to difficulties in SPS. Children with poor SPS skills that are not socially withdrawn may learn the skills necessary for effective SPS during the first few years of formal schooling and thus improve their SPS skills. As evidenced by the high decreasing withdrawn SPS trajectory, some shy children also show improvement in their SPS skills. However, other shy children showed increased withdrawn SPS over time. Furthermore, social withdrawal is associated with poor SPS through elementary school ( Stewart & Rubin, 1995 ). Therefore, while many children with poor SPS skills show comparable SPS skills to peers during early elementary school, some shy children in particular may continue to experience limited social interaction during the school years which may interfere with their ability to display competent SPS skills comparable to those of their less shy peers. Additionally, competent SPS behavior mediates the relations between shyness and academic achievement (Walker & Henderson, 2012). Taken together, previous and current findings suggest that some shy children have fewer opportunities to engage with peers and materials in both formal and informal learning environments which results in poor SPS skills and academic achievement.

Identification of characteristics predictive of later SPS skills may aid in the design of interventions for shy children with SPS difficulties to improve later social and academic success. Such programs might focus on identifying early SPS difficulties and reducing the distress felt by some children placed in unfamiliar situations to promote better adaptation and social competence during early childhood. Interventions targeted at increasing shy children’s SPS skills might also include less shy peers. Given that shy children usually want to play with others, having less shy peers initiate interactions might help lessen their distress and provide examples of competent ways to initiate peer play. This may also promote positive social interactions, which are associated with discontinuity in wary behaviors ( Almas et al., 2011 ). Prevention efforts could begin as early as the toddler years given the current study findings showing that shyness is associated with SPS difficulties as early as 24 months of age.

Limitations & Future Directions

One of the strengths of the current study is that we observed SPS behaviors and affect at 24 months of age and continued to follow the same children until 48 months of age. With this comes the challenges of observing behaviors at this very young age (i.e., 24 months of age), when children have a limited repertoire of behaviors and their verbal skills are just beginning to emerge. As such our inter-rater reliability for some of the coded behaviors and loadings for the SPS competence composite were lower at age 2 than at later ages.

Although we speculate above that changes in SPS trajectories were consistent with other aspects of development (e.g., theory of mind, language development, and social motivation), longitudinal studies should examine how the different aspects of development are related to SPS and the direction of these effects. Future studies should also examine the potential moderators (e.g., self-regulation, maternal behavior, peer interactions) that lead to continuity and discontinuity in SPS trajectories associated with shyness. In addition, future studies should examine the inter-relations between shyness and SPS over time to determine the direction of effects and how temperament and SPS covary over time.

Over the 24 to 48 month period, there were changes in children’s SPS competence; however, shy children experienced particular difficulty during social interactions across the toddler and preschool years. One protective factor for shy children may be engaging in positive peer interactions early on. Recent work suggests that early exposure of temperamentally fearful children to same age peers is associated with discontinuity in displays of wariness from infancy through toddlerhood ( Almas et al., 2011 ). Prevention programs might focus on identifying early social deficits to reduce the distress felt by shy children to promote positive peer interactions and SPS skills during challenging social situations.

Correlations and Descriptive Statistics for temperament and SPS variables.

Note: SPS = Social problem solving; SD = Standard Deviation

• Competent social problem solving increased for all children during early childhood.
• There were multiple trajectories of withdrawn and competent social problem solving.
• Some shy children display improvement while others show poor social problem solving.

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Early Years Careers

Problem solving in Early Years Settings

5th January 2016 by Kelly Leave a Comment

  The role of the practitioner in supporting children’s problem solving skills

Some early years practitioners struggle with the definition of problem solving. It is all about the process of working through ideas to reach a solution. It is also about processing information and evaluating ideas and concepts.

As children are constantly learning new ideas, skills and concepts, these will all help them develop their problem solving skills.  For those working in childcare it is important to remember that problem solving is not an activity it is the process in which children go through to find a solution.

Children need to be able to use their thinking skills and practitioner should encourage children think creatively. As well as all this learning the development of children’s language is fundamental as they need to be able to vocalise their thoughts. The development of language allows children interact with other s and share those ideas to help find the right solution

How can adults help support children’s problem solving skills

• Asking questions- adults need to use their skills to ask the right questions as these questions may hold the key to helping children solve that problem.
• Breaking down the task – Adults can help children break the task up to help them solve the problem in smaller steps.
• Scaffold the child’s learning – be careful not to answer the child’s questions yourself, questions should be open ended this will allow the children think, plan, predict, explain and recall as well as ask questions back.
• Listen attentively – practitioners should listen to children’s answers as this will show to the child that what they are thinking is important.
• Try not to overuse questioning.

Acting as an effective model is a key factor when supporting children’s problem solving skills, as children will look to adults for support and guidance.

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PERSPECTIVE article

Problem solving is embedded in context… so how do we measure it.

• 1 Language Variation and Academic Success (LVAS) Lab, School of Education, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
• 2 Science of Learning (SoL) Lab, School of Education, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
• 3 Culture and Social Action Lab (CaSA), Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, United States

Problem solving encompasses the broad domain of human, goal-directed behaviors. Though we may attempt to measure problem solving using tightly controlled and decontextualized tasks, it is inextricably embedded in both reasoners’ experiences and their contexts. Without situating problem solvers, problem contexts, and our own experiential partialities as researchers, we risk intertwining the research of information relevance with our own confirmatory biases about people, environments, and ourselves. We review each of these ecological facets of information relevance in problem solving, and we suggest a framework to guide its measurement. We ground this framework with concrete examples of ecologically valid, culturally relevant measurement of problem solving.

1 Introduction

As of writing this perspective piece, there exist pockets of the world with ubiquitous internet, fingertip access to generative artificial intelligence, and engagement with global news and commerce, while other humans grapple more regularly with local subsistence farming, climate change, and family social relationships. These are abstracted points of comparison among the incredibly varied social and cultural contexts in which human reasoners must draw from information in their environments to notice problems that need resolution, find relevant information from which to make inferences, and execute problem solutions. This wide variance highlights the deep theoretical and practical challenges of characterizing and measuring problem solving as a pragmatically-grounded, cognitive construct.

In this perspective piece, we focus on measurement theory for gathering data on the complex cognition that governs humans’ everyday lives, focusing on problem solving in specific. Problem solving broadly encompasses human goal-directed behaviors ( Newell and Simon, 1972 ). Though problem solving may include a variety of goal structures in everyday living (from solving a mathematical problem in a formal educational setting to identifying the need for housework in one’s family context), it is often measured with highly abstracted tasks that attempt to decontextualize problems from the specific in favor of the universal ( Jukes et al., 2024 ).

We posit that measurement of problem solving with recognition of the deeply intertwined nature of reasoning with one’s context necessitates that we must center (a) the experiences and perceptions of the problem solver, (b) the context in which problem solving is being observed, and (c) the lens through which we as observers are interpreting problem solving. Each of these ecological facets influences our interpretations of problem-solving behavior, and each is socioculturally bound. Without situating problem solvers, problem contexts, and our own experiential partialities as researchers, we risk intertwining the research of information relevance with our own confirmatory biases about people, environments, and ourselves. We review each of these ecological facets of information relevance in problem solving, and we suggest a framework to guide ecologically valid, culturally relevant measurement.

2 Centering the relevant experiences and perceptions of the problem solver

We naturally use our problem-solving resources to attend to experientially relevant information, and thus, problem-solving tasks are socioculturally bound to problem solvers ( Oyserman, 2011 , 2016 ). Our measures of problem solving broadly reflect different attentional patterns that are based on prior developmental experiences which differ depending on socialization ( Newell and Simon, 1972 ; Ericsson et al., 1993 ). Broadly speaking, this means that the measurement of problem-solving tasks is closely tied to the particular experiences of problem solvers.

Consider, for example, the famous marshmallow experiment ( Mischel, 1961 ; Mischel and Metzner, 1962 ; Mischel and Ebbesen, 1970 ). In this lab-based experimental task, children are given a marshmallow and told that they may eat the treat immediately or wait an unspecified amount of time and receive additional marshmallows as a reward. Performance on the marshmallow task has typically been interpreted to indicate ability to delay gratification, (i.e., inhibitory control), and it has been linked to later academic performance, self-confidence, likelihood of subsequent substance abuse, and a variety of other outcomes ( Mischel et al., 1988 , 1989 ; Shoda et al., 1990 ; Ayduk et al., 2000 ). Thus, the researcher-identified problem of the marshmallow task is (1) the identification of the marshmallow as a reward, (2) the decision to engage in a desired goal-oriented behavior (waiting) to obtain the reward, and then (3) the execution of the desired goal-oriented behavior (engaging inhibitory control in order to wait).

However, some researchers have raised concerns about the interpretation of performance on the marshmallow task, in particular, questioning what we might reasonably infer about the relevant pieces of information that children use to execute decision-making about whether or not to wait. For example, Kidd et al. (2013) found evidence that children’s rational decision-making about the reliability of the experimental environment (and by implication, their prior experiences with reliable and unreliable environments) may also influence their decisions to delay gratification comparably to their individual differences in capacity for self-control.

Other researchers have noted that the “The Marshmallow Test” may simply be a culturally loaded problem-solving task with narrow expectations about children’s behavior and ways of solving the problem. For example, Yucatec Maya children are often engaged in real-life productive activities, are motivated to contribute, and allowed to take the initiative to solve problems they encounter ( Gaskins, 2020 ; Cervera-Montejano, 2022 ). When encountering novel problems, they are expected to be attentive and learn by observing others and not just by listening to verbal instructions ( Alcalá et al., 2021 ). However, when Gaskins tried to replicate this study with Yucatec Maya children, she found that none of the six children she tested earned the second marshmallow ( Gaskins and Alcalá, 2023 ). Two of them ate the treat, and four of them left the room. Gaskins attributes their marshmallow task performance differences to the cultural assumptions in the methodology, such as the expectation that children will obediently attend to and follow adult’s instructions. The children who left the room did not leave because they were tempted to eat the marshmallow – which assumes poor self-regulation – but they left because “they saw no ‘good reason’ to sit alone in a room for a long time doing nothing, rejecting the basic premise of the task.” (p. 8). Gaskins and Alcalá (2023) results illustrate that participants’ perceptions about adult authority, expectations for child compliance, and familiarity with verbal instructions are also relevant and often overlooked aspects of the marshmallow experiment.

The marshmallow task illustrates that the same contextual cues may be interpreted very differently by different experimental participants because prior experiences influence our expectations, beliefs, and ultimately, our mental representations of the problems we are solving. Lab-based problem-solving tasks like the marshmallow task have the advantages of being tightly controlled, but they are also decontextualized, adult-generated, and assume child compliance based on the lived experiences and rules familiar to White, middle-class children ( Jukes et al., 2024 ). Examining psychological constructs and tasks across contexts can help illuminate characteristics of problem-solving tasks that may be reflecting culturally-derived experiences and socialized expectations.

3 Centering the sociocultural context in which problem solving is being observed

The sociocultural context in which problem solving is being observed helps define the parameters of the problem being solved, which in turn influences the pieces of information that may be relevant to its effective solution. Consider, for example, the sociocultural norms that contextualize children’s helping behaviors in their homes and communities. Helping behaviors are also goal-oriented, problem-solving behaviors that are prosocial in nature – they require the identification of a social problem (the need for help to occur), the formulation of a solution (selecting the kind of help that will remedy the identified issue), and the execution of a solution (engaging in helping until a desired goal has been reached). In many Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, children are viewed as the recipients of help rather than as independent, helpful agents in their communities ( Ochs and Izquierdo, 2009 ). However, in communities where children are socialized to provide substantial contributions to their families, taking the initiative to help with complex household tasks and to assist during community celebrations, the contextual expectations around problem solving might be quite different ( Rogoff, 1990 ; Chavajay and Rogoff, 2002 ).

During a visit to Yucatan, Alcalá (2023) observed how children are given extensive amounts of autonomy to decide how to spend their time, including helping with household work and engaging in unstructured play activities. In this context, children are expected to notice when there is a problem and act accordingly to find the appropriate solution ( Alcalá and Cervera, 2022 ). Mothers state that children need to learn to be autonomous because they might not always be with adults or others that can help them, and need to learn to solve the problems they encounter.

Alcalá et al. (2021) asked children why they help at home and the majority of them reported that they help because helping is a shared responsibility of all family members, they help because they like to help, or they help because they notice work that needs to be done. The cultural expectations to be attentive to their surroundings, to be autonomous and self-directed in choosing activities, and to notice work and problems in need of solution is key in how children in this community learn to solve problems. For example, children notice that there are some dirty dishes and will go and wash the dishes, or they might notice that the plants need to be watered.

The shared responsibility to help and solve problems, opens other opportunities for children to identify and solve problems in their communities. For example, children might notice or hear about a family member who is ill, and they volunteer to help with chores that would normally be done by the ailing adult as illustrated by “ Soledad ” (Chan Cah, age 10) “my mom’s foot hurt and that is why I help” ( Alcalá et al., 2021 , p.).

Furthermore, when asked what would happen if they do not help, about half of the participants responded in a way that reflected a community-minded way of solving problems. Children indicated that if they do not help, for example with washing the dishes, then the pile of dirty dishes will get bigger and then someone else would have to wash the dishes. Likewise, if a child does not help with the milpa (corn field) there might not be enough corn for the family.

In this context, where children are allowed to be present and observe almost all of the activities of the household and community, children are expected to become interested and notice when someone needs help ( López Fraire et al., 2024 ). Children are trusted enough to solve certain problems on their own, or know when to find help, as they are becoming competent members of their communities.

The sociocultural context helps to dictate what is a problem, who is affected by the consequences of the problem, and who is allowed, expected, and empowered to solve the problem. Importantly, the sociocultural context also determines the level at which problems exist - Not all problems belong to the individual as is often assumed in highly individualistic societies ( Oyserman et al., 2002 ; Arieli and Sagiv, 2018 ). In many problem-solving contexts across the world, problems, their consequences, and the responsibility for solving them belong to groups and communities of problem-solvers ( Lasker and Weiss, 2003 ).

4 Discussion

4.1 how do we measure problem solving: considering the lens of the research observer.

For many researchers, the measurement of problem solving may appear to be a primarily methodological issue at first glance ( Messick, 1981 ). We create tasks, observe individual differences in task performance, and assign interpretations for those differences. The measures are assumed to be objective, empirical, quantitative metrics of performance – Child X ate marshmallow Y after Z minutes of waiting, therefore failing to delay gratification with additional marshmallows (see Mischel et al., 1988 ). However, without the guidance of strong theoretical postulates about constructs, and without clear links between theoretical postulates and the measures designed to capture constructs of interest, we are asking our measures to do the work of specifying larger theoretical models ( Borsboom, 2005 ).

Our measures reflect our theoretical dispositions, and our theories reflect ourselves. The lens through which we generally interpret cognitive development is culturally misaligned with the majority of the world’s problem solvers and problem-solving contexts, and our measures of problem solving reflect that epistemological misalignment. As researchers who are primarily from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies, our lens for understanding and measuring human behavior is WEIRD ( Henrich et al., 2010 ). Problem solving is no exception and has traditionally been measured in WEIRD ways with WEIRD problem solvers, which can misrepresent developmental phenomena that may not replicate with children from other sociocultural backgrounds or lived contexts (e.g., for evidence of this in the above marshmallow task, see Watts et al., 2018 ). These traditional measures of problem solving do not account for potential sociocultural differences in information processing that can derive from the nature of the task requirements to the cultural context of how children should speak with adults. For problem solving measures, one must step back to consider that even the definition for what constitutes a problem that a participant has the authority to solve is cultural, with measures tending to be based on WEIRD researchers’ known context, which can lead to bias then in solution rates and participants’ engagements. Thus, it is unsurprising that children who are not from WEIRD communities or who are marginalized within WEIRD societies may perform differently on traditional measures of problem solving (see for example, Miller-Cotto et al., 2022 ).

If our aim is to capture problem solving in ways that have meaningful implications for the real world information processing, we need to measure problem solving in ways that are culturally relevant for broad populations of children. This aim is critical for problem-solving research, and it necessitates an epistemological (and possibly an ontological) recentering of our measurement of problem solving.

4.2 Framework for ecologically valid, culturally relevant measurement

There is a growing push to measure human problem solving “in context,” in ways that are ecologically valid (see for example Burgess et al., 2006 ; Miller and Scholnick, 2015 ); however, contextualized tasks can still evidence the same biases that create validity issues for traditional, abstract, decontextualized tasks. The field has a pressing need for a framework that helps researchers to evaluate problem-solving tasks in ways that consider their relevant features from the perspective of diverse learners. To support an evolution in the fields of reasoning and problem solving that better centers tasks and measurement on the abilities executed by reasoners in their everyday worlds, we propose a set of questions that researchers can ask when developing a task to better ensure relevance and alignment between test participants, researchers, and the interpretation of empirical data.

4.2.1 Understanding problem solvers’ relevant experiences

4.2.1.1 how are reasoners perceiving the problem.

✓ Assume that the problem solver’s solution is predicated on the kind of mental representation she has formed about the problem.

⃠ Avoid assuming that problem solvers perceive the same goal-structure, have the same mental representation of the problem, or have the same reasoning and approach to solving the problem. Problem solvers are NOT necessarily attending to the researchers’ desired matrix of information when thinking about the problem.

★ Forexample, Rhodes et al. (under review) research on the mathematical problem solving of African American children who use African American English dialect (AAE; a cultural dialect of American English) explored the types of errors that children make on various arithmetic problems as a function of both item formatting and the density of children’s AAE dialect usage. The very exploration of this research question runs counter to the assumption that word formatting and children’s home language would have no impact on African American children’s mental representations of problems and strategic approaches to solving them. Results suggested that children’s strategic errors occurred as a complex interaction between word problem formatting and children’s AAE dialect density, effectively challenging the assumption that word problems would elicit language neutral mental representations with African American children whose home and community language systems were linguistically distanced from them.

4.2.1.2 What does unexpected or “non-normative” task performance mean?

✓ Assume that divergence from a normative expectation is not necessarily indicative of pathology or lack of skill.

⃠ Avoid assuming that we manage attentional resources during problem solving in one, normative way. In particular, avoid the assumption that problem solving is maladaptive – instead, look for the adaptive response in the way that you interpret the problem solving.

★ Forexample, a child who does not concentrate fully on a problem solving task they have been given, but instead is also directing attention toward monitoring the experimenter’s actions and conversations with another child, may be exhibiting highly culturally appropriate and intentional resource allocation to ensure they are not missing a need to learn new relevant information or assist the experimenter (e.g., Correa-Chávez et al., 2005 ). Challenging the assumption that the management of attentional resources should happen in one, normative, culturally-sanctioned way, creates the opportunity for researchers to recognize important sources of cultural variance in otherwise invisible aspects of task construction (i.e., prosocial attentional engagement as a means of identifying information relevance).

4.2.2 Considering socio-cultural contexts of problem solving

4.2.2.1 where do problems occur.

✓ Assume that there are no neutral contexts for problem solving. The “lab” (a tightly controlled experimental context) is not, in fact, neutral.

⃠ Avoid assuming that the most meaningful problems we solve occur in formal educational settings or in tightly controlled experimental settings.

★ Forexample, in his landmark study of Brazilian child candy sellers, Saxe (1988) used a multimethod paradigm to observe and query the naturalistic mathematical behaviors of children in- and out-of-classroom mathematics problem-solving contexts. In challenging the assumption that normative mathematical problem solving only develops in formal educational contexts, he observed that the skills children used in their street vending activities did not necessarily transfer to their school contexts and vice versa, and importantly, that children who were quite adept at using mathematics in their real-world vending activities were not necessarily able to translate their skills toward high-achievement on formal educational tasks ( Saxe, 1988 ).

4.2.2.2 For whom is the problem consequential? and relatedly, who is empowered to solve the problem in this context?

✓ Assume that problem solving is not necessarily an individual sport - individuals, groups, and communities may identify problems, problem consequences, and problem solvers very differently.

⃠ Avoid assuming that problem solving should only be conceptualized and measured at the individual level. Similarly, avoid the assumption that cultural expectations for problem solving converge around efficiency (i.e., quickly and accurately; careless mistakes may have important consequences beyond an individual).

★ Forexample, when asked why they help with household chores, most Yucatec Maya children mentioned that if they did not do the chore, this would create more work for their parents or cause harm to others including younger siblings or aging adults ( Alcalá and Cervera, 2022 ). In challenging individualistic assumptions about measuring problem solving, these researchers were able to capture children’s mental representations of problems and problem consequences as belonging to the entire household, rather than assigning the responsibility for problem solving to a household’s individual members.

4.2.3 Evaluating researchers’ perspectives of problem solving

4.2.3.1 how does the observer’s positionality influence the evaluation of problem solving.

✓ Assume that positionality is something we can and should acknowledge, particularly if we are evaluating the problem-solving abilities of others.

⃠ Avoid assuming that researchers have the same positionality as research participants or groups to whom research is generalized (see for example, Bilgen et al., 2021 ; Patton and Winter, 2023 ).

★ Forexample, Patton and Winter (2023) provide a detailed and reflexive account of researcher positionality and decision-making in engaging in an observational study with preschool-aged children. These researchers consider the use of a teddy bear named “Ted” as an elicitation tool for gathering information about children’s perspectives and contextual experiences of early childhood educational settings. In examining their own positionalities, the authors were able to interrogate the inherent power structure between adults and children in traditional research participation paradigms. This consideration of positionality helped inform the researchers’ decision to embed “Ted” into children’s preschool contexts in meaningful ways that allowed children to engage with him as a peer, including him in activities and songs, helping him, or even explaining mistakes to him in the role of experts.

4.2.3.2 What can we infer from a reasoner’s problem-solving actions?

✓ Assume that the interpretation of problem-solving actions will be influenced by the problem solver, the context for problem solving, and the research observer.

⃠ Avoid assuming that a particular measurement instrument is contextually neutral or culturally unbiased. It is critical that we acknowledge the fact that measurement instruments are also NOT free of positionality. They exist in the context of larger epistemologies that influence their design, application, and interpretation.

★ Forexample, many laboratory tasks assume that children are familiar with and willing to follow adults’ instructions, even if the tasks do not accomplish readily apparent goals such as care or feeding. These tasks then may yield biased conclusions when used with children from communities which value autonomy over decision-making, specifically where respect for children’s ability to decide about their participation in activities means they are not required to obey adults; such children may perform poorly on these types of tasks or refuse to follow the researcher’s instructions ( Jukes et al., 2024 ).

5 Conclusion

We argue that problem solving is fundamentally and inextricably tied to deeper, often implicit, questions of epistemology, which need to be made explicit to facilitate its meaningful measurement. This philosophical work cannot be undertaken during methodological decision-making alone. Rather, if we hope to validly and reliably measure problem solving, we must also formulate strong theoretical positions about what it is, how it operates across various contexts of interest, and how we may observe it – all of which must be integrated and mapped onto specifications of our models of measurement. For as illustrated by the difficulties in interpreting performance on the marshmallow task, children with various prior experiences, in various sociocultural contexts, may have vastly different experiences of problem-solving the same task.

To be clear, rigorous measurement of information relevance in problem solving does not require that we abandon the empirical tenets of modern measurement theory. Nor does it require the rejection of the thoughtful positionality critiques of critical theorists. Rigorous research of problem solving requires the careful consideration of these seemingly irreconcilable epistemologies and, where possible, the integration of them in research design and interpretation.

Measuring problem solving “in context” does not necessarily remedy the issue of culturally biased measurement because contextualized for one group may be decontextualized (and biased) for another group. The wide variance in our experiences and contexts may necessitate admission that there may not be a perfect, unbiased measure of human problem solving, and the best measure for one’s particular research perspective will likely have shortcomings. Still, rigorous measurement of information relevance in problem solving demands that we acknowledge these shortcomings and interpret performance with sensitivity to them. The authors recognize that this process is not easy. We grapple with this in our own work; however, we believe that the process of grappling with these epistemological issues is central to the evolution of our research.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

KR: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. LR: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. LA: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. NSF 2141411.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Suzanne Gaskins, Ella Rose, and Lina Brodsky for substantive conversations that supported the development of these arguments.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: problem solving, measurement, information relevance, ecological validity, cultural relevance

Citation: Rhodes KT, Richland LE and Alcalá L (2024) Problem solving is embedded in context… so how do we measure it? Front. Psychol . 15:1380178. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1380178

Received: 01 February 2024; Accepted: 26 April 2024; Published: 17 May 2024.

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Copyright © 2024 Rhodes, Richland and Alcalá. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Katherine T. Rhodes, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.