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The Secrets to Raising a Smarter Child
- By Inderbir Sandhu, Ph.D

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Raising Independent Thinking Children

By Andrew Loh



..."The process of being able to think on your own, without someone else guiding you." - NDT Resource Center

Independent thinking is an intricate method of creating meaning of the ambience around us, based on both internal and external observations and experiences. This occurs without relying on other people's help or opinion. Independent thinking provides you an innate ability to depend on your own judgments and inferences. You can do this even though they are dissonance with what others will say or feel.

Independent thinking signifies performing something according to your own beliefs and opinions. To develop independent thinking, one must act and do. Just reacting to a certain situation may not suffice. It takes some time for your child to build independent thinking skills. When you children grow and reach teen age, they will be very curious to inquire and challenge the systems and beliefs they once actively used. They used to live in a world that created everything for them especially from their parents; in fact, parents were their sole support for satisfying all needs and requirements.

With an increasing age, your children may need to start thinking on their own because they will not have their parents' support when they go to their schools. Outside their home, children need to act on their own, work with their own efforts and respond to differing situations with their own conviction. Children should develop their own ideas and cool-headed while solving different problems. Independent thinking is highly advantageous to children because it can protect them from apparently dangerous situations.

The right type of independent thinking skills are necessary as skewed or flawed independent thinking skills could be counter-productive. Being an independent thinker will lead to road of many opportunities. The act of being an independent thinker is encouraged by several factors. Very high self-esteem or self-image is the two characters that separate an ordinary thinker from an independent one.

The characteristics of an independent thinker

Some of the positive characters of an independent thinker are as follows:

Persistence: Independent thinkers will never leave un-finished tasks. In other words, he or she will show utmost dedication to finish any given task. In essence, independent thinkers are workhorses with a focused mind.

Self-belief: Independent thinkers believe in themselves and in their abilities to perform to the best of skills and effort. Self-belief comes from their mind and it is often very strong.

Confidence: The level of confidence is very high between independent thinkers. High confidence also means an ability to tackle any critical situation with a stout mind.

Determination and motivation: Independent thinkers are examples of determination and motivation. They display very high levels of determination, when they are working on any type of classroom projects or assignments.

Self-awareness: Independent thinkers are aware of what goes on around them. This self-awareness quality will protect them from unforeseen dangers and emergencies.

Above all, independent thinkers can achieve the most difficult tasks as they can separate good from the bad, and bad from the worst. Independent thinking will also help children score better in their classroom. They tend to perform better in quizzes, discussions and debates while their independent nature will assist them in help others in learning in an efficient manner.

Children are constant learners. They keep learning new concepts, hone new skills and absorb new knowledge throughout the day. However, learning could become more productive when children use their power of reasoning to relate information and facts together or solve problems by using their power of imagination and deduction.

Children need independent thinking to perform better both in their classroom and out of it. Independent thinking is a governed by a new domain that provides children many opportunities to design and create a new set of ideas and standards on how one can perceive the world around them. This mode of thinking also provides time and dimension to evaluate any given situation, crisis or challenge.

Children can realize a number of benefits from thinking on their own and in an independent manner:

  • Assess positive and negative sides to any situation.

  • Make an analysis why a given choice is not always the best.

  • How to say no and veer away from a given scenario.

  • Step out of the box and think in a different manner.

  • Think out of the box by taking control of the mind.

Independent thinking is a norm for the modern world that is extremely competitive. If you want your child to succeed in a problematic world, then you will need to try hard to make your child think in an independent manner. Continue to read Raising Independent Thinking Children - Tips and Suggestions



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