Simple Yet Powerful Questions to Increase Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking Skills

Powerful Questions To Ask Your Child/Student

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You are one of your kids’ most important guides on this journey. So help them expand their thinking. Kids ask the best questions. It is easy to answer, but help them delve deeper with a question. Get curious. Don’t get too attached to the answer. Let your kids explore. Go there with them. Keep asking. Keep being curious. Let the questions lead the way.

Get curious. Don’t just let them say something and leave it there. Help them think critically.

By asking some key open-ended questions you are helping to increase your child[ren]’s emotional intelligence as they get to know themselves and the world better. It’s easy to do. These open ended questions help connect us to our children. Of course we need to ask these questions of ourselves too!

If your child is having a tough time with a peer or teacher you can use open ended questions to help them process their emotions. In this case stay curious. Name their feelings if they are young and help them see that there is a name for that emotion [sad, angry, jealous, etc…]. Just keep the questions open and don’t try to fix the issue. Let your child find the answers they need.

The same questions can be asked if they are struggling on a sports team. Or if you notice them saying something disrespectful or rude.

We went through a phase where my kids said people or things were “retarded”. We started to delve down into what this really means. How it makes people feel. Why it feels like such a powerful word. We let them come to the conclusion that this was hurtful and the word did not really catch the meaning they intended. The questions can be very powerful!

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