22 Questions to Ask Your Child to Sharpen Critical Thinking Skills

Asking the right questions to children sparks their imagination, conjures their emotions, and creates more questions. The questions help build a robust thinking architecture that enhances critical thinking for kids. Why are critical thinking skills important? Critical thinking gives your child the confidence to power through academic and general life challenges smoothly.

Below is a list of challenging questions that parents can ask their children to encourage them to think for themselves, evaluate evidence, and decide whether to agree or disagree. The good part is that these questions are open-ended, perfect for understanding and innovation, and can be applied to any learning environment. We’ve categorized these questions based on the strategies required for critical thinking: reflection & collaboration, self-reflection; reasoning; analysis, and connections.

So, let’s get to the list right away.

Reflection & Collaboration

1. What are your views about it? 

2. Do you agree or disagree with this?

3. Do you want to add something to the solution?

4. What’s another way to look at this issue?

5. Do you have similar solutions using alternative routes?

6. How can you convince someone your route is the best solution to the problem?

Self-Reflection

7. How did you figure out that this is true?

8. Have you considered a different way to approach the problem?

9. Why does the answer makes sense to you?

10. What if that’s not true?

Reasoning

11. Why do you think this will work?

12. How will you prove your conclusion is correct?

13. What are the assumptions you’re making?

Analysis

14. Why is this a problem?

15. How will you explain the similarities and differences?

16. What might lead you to an alternative solution?

17. How many possibilities can you think of and why?

18. How many results can you predict?

Connections

19. What can this situation teach us about our own lives?

20. How does this relate to daily occurrences or current events?

21. Which ideas are most sensible and why?

22. Can you give me an example of another similar situation?

With time your child’s intellectual curiosity will become more advanced. When this happens, you have to find ways to enhance your child’s critical thinking ability by asking the right questions to get meaningful answers.

The process of enhancing your child’s critical thinking skills works best when we throw a ball of questions at them. Rather than telling them what to think, you can engage them with questions that encourage them to independently arrive at their own conclusions. To sharpen your child’s critical thinking skills, ask these 22 questions – tweak, revise, or refine these questions to challenge your child and get thoughtful well-considered answers.

Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at Planet Spark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on “New Age Skills” like, English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)!