Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: Develop your imaginative thinking skills
• Method 2 of 2: Help Your Child Think Logically
• Tips

Human imaginative thinking is his ability to mentally represent, understand and work with non-verbal information. While children are growing up, it is very important to develop imaginative thinking, which is especially evident in mathematics. Do you want to improve your child's imaginative thinking? Then start at step 1 of this article.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Develop your imaginative thinking skills

1. 1 Train compliance. Matching games can enhance perceptual reasoning by developing children's ability to recognize and compare visual information. There are almost endless ways to practice matching, but first, try:
   • Color matching. Challenge the children to find as many blue things as possible, then as many red things as possible, and so on. You can ask them to find objects or things in the room that are the same color as their shirt or eyes.
   • Correspondence of shapes and sizes. Take cubes and blocks of various shapes and sizes and ask the children to assemble them in accordance with the shape or size, and if the children are already sufficiently developed, then in two parameters at once.
   • Write letters on cards or paper and ask the children to find the matching ones. Once this skill is mastered, you can move on to shorter and longer words.
   • Challenge the children to find a match between a word and a picture. This game strengthens the connection between the written word and the visual image. You can find similar cards and games on the market designed to develop this skill, but you can also make them yourself.
   • Encourage children to find objects or things that start with a certain letter. This game strengthens the bonds between a specific letter or sound and objects and people whose name or name begins with them.
   • Play memory training games. Memory games develop both matching and memory skills. For such games, paired cards with different symbols are usually used. The cards are turned face down (after being examined) and the players must find the matching cards in the new deck.
2. 2 Work on your ability to spot differences. Part of figurative thinking includes the ability to distinguish on the fly and determine what belongs to a certain group of objects and what does not. There are many simple exercises that can help children develop these skills. For example:
   • Try to use the pictures "Find the extra". They are in magazines, books and on the Internet. The objects in the picture may be similar, but children need to look closely and find these small differences between them.
   • Encourage children to find objects that do not belong to them. Combine a group of elements - say, three apples and a pencil - and ask which object does not belong to them. As you progress, you can come up with more difficult tasks: use an apple, an orange, a banana and a ball, for example, then an apple, an orange, a banana and a carrot.
3. 3 Train your visual memory. Show the children the pictures, then hide all or part of them. Ask them to describe what they saw. Alternatively, show the children a number of objects, put them aside, and ask them to name as many as they can.
   • Encourage the children to talk about the pictures they saw.After they have described them, tell them stories about the objects depicted, compare with other pictures.
4. 4 Cultivate attention to detail. Show the children a picture with words or images and ask them to find as many as they can.
5. 5 Add puzzles. Playing with various puzzles, children train their visual perception: they turn the puzzle pieces, connect them and present the picture as a whole. This is a key skill in mathematics.
6. 6 Teach the children where the right is where the left is. Orientation of where is right and where is left is part of perceptual and visual perception. Explain the difference between the left and right sides in the child's arms, based on the one he writes. Reinforce knowledge, ask your child to take an object in his left hand or wave his right hand - use whatever comes to mind.
   • It is helpful for children at an early age to explain the concept of direction arrows. Show the children the left and right arrow pictures and ask them to identify the direction.
7. 7 Develop the concept of depth. Understanding depth is part of figurative thinking. Play children's versions of darts, basketball, and tennis to develop depth perception. You also can:
   • Put some items in the box (sticks, blocks, or glass marbles, for example) and ask the children to take the items only from the top.
   • Ask the children to close one eye and place the glass upside down on the table. Rotate your finger around the glass, pointing down; ask the children to say “stop” to you when your toe hits the bottom.
8. 8 Start developing your math skills. As children grow up, they can begin to practice their numeracy skills. Have the children connect a number of objects with the numbers that describe them (two balls, three apples, four cups, etc.). When the children are ready, start developing their other math skills.

Method 2 of 2: Help Your Child Think Logically

1. 1 Emphasize the importance of concentration. From an early age, children can be taught to focus on a specific task or idea for a short period of time; but as they grow, they can learn to focus their attention for much, much longer. Reassure the children that this concentration is very important.
   • Help the children focus by limiting distractions such as street noise, televisions, electrical appliances, people, and other distractions.
2. 2 Stimulate your logical thinking skills. Logical thinking is difficult to develop, as it mainly depends on the level of development of the child. However, you can help if you give the opportunity to think about what will happen next in a given situation and why. You can ask your child these questions as you read stories or do your normal daily activities.
3. 3 Ask extended questions. Asking questions with the words “why” and “how” encourages the child to think more logically than asking questions that should be answered “yes / no” or to choose an answer from the proposed options.

Tips

• Figurative perception is considered to be one of the aspects of general intelligence. It is an essential skill that plays a major role in the success of children.
• Stick to activities and games that children enjoy. You will not make much progress by forcing children to do exercises that are boring for them, and there is no need for this - you can train imaginative thinking and have fun at the same time.