Qian Zhiliang: Smart children are taught this way, with flexible thinking and inferences about other cases from one instance.

Give the children eight small wooden sticks of different lengths and ask them to arrange them neatly according to length. Some children need to constantly switch and take a long time to arrange them. But some children cleverly pointed the game stick upwards and straightened the lower parts, so that the length of the upper parts was clearly visible. Then pick them out according to length and arrange them one by one, quickly and neatly. This is typical thinking flexibility. Flexibility of thinking refers to the degree of flexibility of intellectual activities, specifically including the following aspects of flexibility: 1. Flexible individuals with a starting point of thinking can look at problems from different angles and starting points, and set different \”initial states\” of problems , so that you can be prepared to solve problems flexibly. 2. Flexibility in the thinking process. From analysis to synthesis, and from synthesis to analysis, children can smoothly carry out thinking activities, are good at combination analysis, and have great flexibility. 3. Strong general transfer ability, able to consciously apply learned rules and apply them to relevant aspects from top to bottom. 4. Flexible thinking transformation When operations or game rules change, individuals can quickly adapt to and accept the new rules. The flexibility of thinking activities is a direct determinant of children\’s thinking efficiency, and it also profoundly affects the development of children\’s future numerical abilities and reasoning abilities. In the early childhood transition stage, children\’s thinking development is also in the transition stage, which is a critical period for cultivating thinking flexibility. Since the biggest characteristic of the thinking development of children in kindergarten is transition, the transition period contains two meanings: it means that this period is a critical period. If we seize this critical period, we can effectively promote children to embark on a new thinking development ladder and achieve a leap in thinking potential. This is again a period of crisis. If this period is missed, such a good period of development will never be found again, and the child\’s ability development and social needs will even be broken at the transition from early childhood to primary school, making the child unable to adapt well to the upcoming primary school stage. study. Generally speaking, the cognitive and thinking flexibility of 6-year-old children is developing rapidly. At this stage, appropriate stimulation and training can further promote the rapid development of thinking flexibility. To train children\’s thinking flexibility, we cannot rely solely on preaching, but must rely on scientific methods, clever design, and patient guidance. 01 Cultivate children’s enjoyment of thinking and inquiry. The best way to cultivate children’s thinking and inquiry is to ask children questions. Look at the world around you with a pair of eyes of discovery, and you will find interesting problems hidden everywhere. The questions raised should be ones that children can answer, but the answers must be obtained through thinking. This is conducive to cultivating children\’s habit of using their brains. Regarding the child\’s answer, parents should not be a superior referee and simply judge whether the child is right or wrong. Rather, like peers, we should participate in children\’s exploration and association, encourage them to boldly ask questions and ideas, and at the same time gradually internalize parents\’ experience and knowledge. By playing this kind of inquiry-based question and answer game frequently, children\’s minds will naturally be in an active state. 02 Break the conventional way of thinking. Children have heard stories such as \”The Crow Drinks Water\” and \”Sima Guang Smashed the Vat\”. They all inspire us to solve problems.The idea of ​​​​questions is not the only one, and you can often achieve better results by not taking the usual path. Psychology and education experts believe that children\’s ability to think independently and innovate comes from children\’s thinking flexibility. Children with active thinking have richer creativity and practical abilities. Therefore, never use your own standards to evaluate your child\’s imagination. Affirm and encourage enthusiastically, and even participate in the child\’s associations. 03 Cultivate children\’s ability to solve problems from multiple angles. The main characteristic of flexibility in thinking is the ability to use many different methods and approaches to solve the same problem. Once there are difficulties in thinking about solving problems, you can proactively change your thinking and reconsider the problem from other angles. More and more educators point out that applying knowledge is the purpose of our learning. Only when we encounter practical problems can we apply the knowledge we have learned to solve problems, which is the demonstration of children\’s comprehensive ability. We must not only learn to identify problems, but more importantly, let children analyze problems through their own understanding and solve problems through personal operations and practice. Many children solve straightforward problems. It is very important to learn to think from a transformational perspective. This will not only consolidate what is known, but also reduce the difficulty of new knowledge, so that children\’s knowledge transfer ability and logical thinking ability can be well exercised. 1. In other words, language is the expression of thinking. This method can cultivate children\’s thinking flexibility and responsiveness. For example: \”I love mom\” \”Mom loves me\”… 2. Frequently ask questions. When moving freely or going out for a walk, you can ask children: \”The badminton is placed on a branch. What are some ways to get it off?\” 3. Continued When making up a plot in a language class, show a picture and ask the children to describe it in different languages; tell the children the beginning of a story and ask the children to continue the development of the plot. 4. Continuing the story ending method: leaving a tail when telling the story, allowing children to guess and imagine on their own, which not only arouses children\’s interest in listening to the story, but also stimulates children\’s enthusiasm for thinking and bold imagination and creation. 04 Help children to flexibly set the starting point of problems. The flexibility of thinking can be improved through various forms of exercise, especially the transition from early childhood to childhood, which is the peak development of this ability. It is recommended to use more game formats that children like to hear and see to mobilize children\’s enthusiasm for participation. You can add more content in the activities that expands thinking or requires changing perspectives to come up with answers. In play, children do not have to worry about whether a certain goal can be achieved, so they can try many new and unusual behaviors that they would never try under the pressure of a successful goal. Once children explore these new behaviors in play, they can use them to solve real-life problems. Therefore, play promotes children\’s plastic development by increasing the number of behavioral options. The following recommended games are very effective in enhancing children\’s thinking flexibility: 1. Match Matches Arrange the matches to form a pattern, and ask the children to move a certain number of matches to change the direction of the pattern. 2. Chess games and chess activities can help children learn to look forward and backward, look at problems comprehensively, and learn to use retreat as attack and flexibility from victories and mistakes.The ability to deal with problems flexibly. 3. The complex classification of playing cards presents a variety of cards of different categories and asks children to quickly classify them. Can be classified according to different categories such as color and shape. 4. Language recall Language is the expression of thinking. After the children go out, report what they have seen and heard. While helping the children to sort out their thoughts, provide the necessary words to let the children speak out what they have seen and heard. 05 Help children flexibly convert rules 1. In the tall and dwarf game, the teacher speaks different words and asks the children to imitate them. The children should respond quickly: tall people (raise hands high, stand on tiptoes); dwarfs (squat down, hold knees and lower head) ; Fat people (stand with hands and feet spread out); thin people (hands and feet close to the body). 2. \”Mr. Right\” and \”Mr. Wrong\” The teacher shows two different color finger puppets. Green represents Mr. Right and red represents Mr. Wrong. Children are asked to quickly answer the questions according to which color they see. For example, the teacher raised a red finger puppet and asked: \”How many eyes do you have?\” When the children saw Mr. Red, they gave the wrong answer, such as \”3.\” 3. Antonym Game The teacher names different actions and asks the children to respond quickly and make the opposite action. For example, the teacher says to raise the left hand, and the child raises the right hand; the teacher says to raise the left foot. The child lifts his right foot. 4. Say a number with different mouth and fingers, and let the children stretch out fingers with a different number. For example, the teacher says \”3\” and the child holds out 5 fingers. 5. Big spider children are divided into groups of 3, and each group is named according to different body parts of the spider, such as spider head, spider legs, and spider body. The teacher quickly calls out the names of different groups, and the children in that group quickly stand up and sit down when they hear the corresponding names of the groups. 06 Cultivate divergent thinking 1. Continue the story Half of the story can be continued and ended by children, taking into account various factors in the storyline, so that the ending of the story conforms to the law of development of things and is logical. 2. Conjunctions are used to form sentences using several existing words to say a sentence or a paragraph. Children are required to have logical language organization and be able to express their cognition clearly. Adjectives or pronouns can be added appropriately according to the child\’s actual level. 3. Competition or time-limited game in which words of the same category are said in a relay or individually within a specified time. For example, 2-character fruit vocabulary and 4-character idioms, see who speaks more. More practice can cultivate flexibility and agility in thinking. 4. Brainstorm and try to let children name the \”uncommon\” uses of several items, away from common uses. The more the better. Such as glass, cans, cartons, plastic bags, books, bricks, wire…