From about the age of 4, children become questioning machines. "What is this? What is that? Why is the sky blue? Why is that man fat?" Whether annoying, adorable, or both, young children ask many questions as they form their vision of the world. They rely on adults around them to fill in the gaps and paint a better picture of life. The quality of answers and responses given can impact children in different ways.

Let’s explore how we can improve the answers we give our children by asking more questions ourselves.

“Studies of classroom talk suggest that the frequency and quality of children’s questions drop as soon as they begin in an early childhood setting. The way educators treat children’s questions influences whether children will continue to pose questions in the classroom,” suggests teacher and author Maria Birbili, from the School of Early Childhood Education in Thessaloniki, Greece.

It is crucial that children feel they are asking relevant questions that complete their understanding of the world. Cursory answers, answers that don’t encourage further learning, or answers delivered with annoyance can cause children to disengage and ask fewer questions, slowing their learning. To help children find the right questions, adults need to encourage their curiosity with more questions.

“Mum, why is the sky blue?” Damn, I ought to have brushed up on my physics, chemistry, and light refraction dynamics, thinks Mum. She pulls out her phone to Google it. No reception. She looks down at the expectant face of her little girl waiting for a response. Have you ever had to answer this type of question? Most of us lack the science knowledge to explain such things in detail. Even if we did, would the child find the scientific explanation relevant to their level of awareness? Likely not.

We can start describing how blue light disperses through the atmosphere and this interaction of light moving into our eye translates as blue, and maybe that explanation is part of what you say to your 4-year-old and that’s ok. It’s definitely better than “I don’t know, ask Siri.” But genuine learning comes from genuinely deep questions and thinking.

Try asking them an open-ended question that gets the child thinking. “Why do you think the sky is blue? Where do you think we might go to find out? What colour do you think the sky ought to be? Have you noticed that sometimes at sunset the sky turns orange and yellow? I wonder why that is?” Open-ended questions encourage creative thinking, curiosity, and force the child to continue thinking, imagining, and exploring their mental space to come up with solutions, rather than having answers served to them as neat facts.

After interviewing nature connection experts Sam Robertson and Kate Rydge from Nature Philosophy, this idea of asking open-ended questions as a mentor really sank home. Sam and Kate described spending time with indigenous groups in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. These groups still lived authentically in accordance with their traditions. Kate and Sam shared that when children in this tribal community were going through the questioning phase, the adults around them would ask lots of questions or even sometimes offer the children silence. Both methods create space and more inquiry for the children. Telling facts reduces the world, condenses it into known items, and can take away some of the magic of exploration and discovery.

So don’t be overly concerned with filling your child’s head full of known, accurate, and scientific facts. Science is awesome, don’t get me wrong. But science is about questioning, experimenting, and testing known ideas. Let children explore and come up with their own answers. They will be more resilient learners and creative thinkers because of it. If a parent or mentor can model the type of curiosity needed to become a good learner, this is more important than having the right answer.“

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REFERENCES:

The importance of asking kids questions – https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/importance-kids-asking-questions/

Supporting Young Children to Ask Productive Questions – Maria Birbili

Kate Rydge and Sam Robertson – Nature Philosophy