In the classroom, I spend a great deal of time and energy on social and emotional development. A large component of this is dedicated to encouraging problem solving capabilities as these are skills that children will carry with and further develop for the rest of their lives.
Myrna B, Shure wrote an excellent book entitled: Raising a thinking child: Help your young child to resolve everyday conflicts and get along with others. In this book she describes how to utilise her "I Can Problem Solve" or ICPS programme with young children. This book details steps that can be employed that help children develop their problem solving skills. One such step is playing word games.
Using the concept of same/different as outlined in her book, I started to think about ways to incorporate activities in my lessons whilst at the same time integrating areas of learning and acknowledging various learning styles. Exploring the concept of same and different can integrate mathematics (observing similarities and differences in objects, ie: shapes), language and literacy (using their vocabularly to describe similarities and/or differences), social and emotional development (learning how to take turns when playing games, sharing objects and materials), social studies (transferring their knowledge of same and different to a wider, social context). At the same time, activities around this theme can be developed with an appreciation of learning styles: visual - having objects and materials to look at, visual pictorial materials, aural - playing games where children have to listen to descriptions and choose objects that match the description, kinesthetic - playing body movement games such as same, same, different (clap, clap, tap) or (jump, jump, sit).
So how does this all relate to solving problems?! Exploring same/different can yield development in numerous areas of learning, all contributing to problem solving in some way. I believe that when thinking about same and different children are acquiring the skills to recognize similarities and differences in the world around them. Children are already very capable of deducing differences. But one 'problem' that can be seen in the world at large, is the inability to recognise human similarities and the way people are judged based on differences. We can set the foundations of problem solving in the early years, and possibly help develop critical minds that celebrate differences and celebrate diversity.
References
Shure, M.B. (1994). Raising a thinking child: Help your young child to resolve everyday conflicts and get along with others. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc.
