by Gayle Parks

Created on: April 15, 2008

Reasoning skills are one of those things that we all learn without the benefit of being taught how but there are things you can do to help develop and sharpen your toddler's reasoning skills. Allowing plenty of free play, which is play where your toddler can explore and discover cause and effect with a minimum of interference, and giving your toddler opportunities to make reasonable choices for themselves are two effective ways of doing so.

First, let me explain what I mean by reasonable choices. Choices are an important aspect of developing good reasoning skills but offering toddlers choices needs to be done in a reasonable and sensible manner. Giving a small child ten different options at a time is overwhelming and counter productive. A much better approach is to give them two to three choices concerning simple and relatively unimportant things. For instance, you could provide two different dresses for your daughter and let her decide which one to wear. Of course, you would have picked out two dresses that met with your approval. This way, no matter which one she chooses there will be no reason not to allow her to wear it.

There are other ways to offer your little one choices. Try presenting your little boy with a choice of whether to eat at McDonald's or Chucky Cheeses. Of course, be sure you are happy with either because the whole reason behind allowing your child to make choices is to give them the opportunity to use their reasoning skills and to reap the benefits of making their own choices. Allowing them to choose one over the other and then denying them their choice will only thwart their ability to develop good reasoning skills. Do this sort of thing too many times and your child will learn to doubt themselves and their ability to make choices on their own.

Free play is also important in reasoning skills development. Amble time for free play should be provided daily. There should be a minimum of interference from you. For example, allowing your toddler to find out for herself that the square block won't fit into the round hole is beneficial to her. Allow her to find this out for herself. Don't be too quick to intervene.

We all learn to reason by trial and error and reasoning is an inherent human trait but some people are better at it than others. By giving your child opportunities to make choices and to figure things out for themselves will go along way in the development and sharpening of this important skill.

Learn more about this author, Gayle Parks.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.