How to improve your child’s thinking skills

Metacognition is a wonderful word! It simply means ‘thinking about thinking’.

In adult language we use metacognitive words and phrases all the time, like “What do you think…?” or “Imagine…”, “I suppose…”, “What if…?”

The more awareness we have about any subject, the more likely we are to understand it better. This applies to thought and words.

Initially, when children learn to communicate, they are basically operating in a cause and effect level: they do or say something and, as a result, something else happens. As children learn to talk, they will play their games out loud by talking to themselves.

But as they grow older, the words become more and more involved in the thought process. Eventually, they can use words in their heads to work their way through complex thought processes. Some research supports the idea that thinking helps develop language skills.

By the time children finish primary school, they should be able to think about the meaning of words and language, and have some awareness of the thought process. If you teach your child from an early age to think about thinkcan improve this process.

As a speech pathologist, I find that I can improve children’s language skills by increasing their awareness of metacognition.

My top tips for helping children develop good metacognition skills include:

1. Talking about the etymology of words, where words come from. This helps explain weird spelling, when children understand that words come from different languages. So many different languages ​​have influenced English at various times in history.
2. Talk about new words in our language, such as words for foods from other countries (eg, sushi), or invented words for new technologies (eg, megabytes).
3. Looking for homophones: words that sound the same but have different meanings (eg. eight Y ate). They are fun to find and important for children to know which is which and how to spell them. Many, many homophones are everyday words.
4. Making sure children understand non-literal language, when people say something that is not exactly what they mean. This includes idiomatic expressions (eg, “You drive me crazy!”). You can have fun looking them up in everyday language and imagining what would happen if the phrase were literal. Make sure they understand sarcasm too.
5. Introducing your child to poetry full of metaphors. Show how wonderfully words can say more than just words by conjuring up images in your mind. Encourage them to write their own poems.
6. Make sure your child understands the tone of voice. Talk about the difference a tone of voice can make. Try saying the same phrase in different tones of voice, to match different emotions.

English is a language rich in words used to describe thought. It is a language that is colorful and dynamic, and it grows day by day. The love of the complexities of words and language is one of the most precious gifts we can give our children.

And by encouraging their metalinguistic development, we help improve their speaking, writing and thinking skills in the process.