Ishita Verma | Team QEDRAK Educator
With 30 years of experience in the corporate sector and school education, Ishita is a sociology graduate, PGDCA and a gold medallist in Educational Management. Her true passion lies in being with children, animals and nature. She excelled at designing and implementing innovative and sustainability-driven curriculum for the students of the schools she headed and helped set up. Ishita has conducted several in-service training sessions for teachers and parents; sessions for the Gyan Sarovar Sahodaya Schools (Gujarat); as well as webinars, chapter reviews and chapter frameworks for Collins India.
Quintessential EDucational Resources And Knowledgeware or QEDRAK is an Educational Solutions provider catering to the pressing emergent challenges faced by all stakeholders of the school education arena – Students, Parents, Teachers and School institutions. These form the 4 pillars of the company: QED-WIZ for kids, QED-SYNC for Teachers, QED-TIPS for Parents & QED-HUB for school institutions, providing exact need-specific solutions.
Following the Independence Day celebrations, the idea to put pen to paper around my thoughts on the concept of Independence, gradually crystallised on the concept of Independence to Question! While our country goes through confusing and tumultuous times regarding the pending reformations to the Right to Information Act, my ruminations focussed more on the free spirit and space of children’s insatiable curiosity, and the uncountable, unavoidable WH questions.
From the moment a child is able to move around, s/he is constantly trying to make sense of what is visible, felt and experienced in the environment. If the understanding doesn’t come naturally to the child, the only tool available is to use the WH questions from a familiar adult. According to Harvard-based child psychologist Paul Harris, a child asks around 40,000 questions between the ages of two and five. By the time the child is four, most of the questions asked are explanatory seeking in nature.
So, WHY do children ask so many questions?
At the tender ages, children have limited life experiences and their brains are developing rapidly. In an attempt to make sense of the world they live in; children are naturally very curious about everything. This leads to a thirst to understand, which results in the continual bombardment of quesyions; Qs of all kinds - Whys, Whats, Hows, Whens, Wheres and Which. By conyinually asking ‘wh Qs’ due to their natural interest, children are actually fuelling their learning.
And here is a truth that parents and teachers may not wish to accept! The reason why toddlers and young ones ask so many questions, is not because they wish to annoy you, but because they really want to know more about something. This was clarified in a study conducted at the University of Michigan. Studies indicate that children ask questions for one of the following reasons:
the need to know;
to seek attention; and yes, at times…
to defy authority
Need to know – As little ones grow up, they realise that there are so many amazing things around them, and Qs are a way of finding out more about the world they live in. For little Radha, who is still coming to terms with the world, everything is overwhelming for her; beyond the scope of understanding for her young brain — hence the need to know. Agreed, it may be difficult to answer ALL her questions, and yes; some of her Qs could be quite difficult to answer - “Why is only this flower purple?”. However, by allowing her the opportunity, freedom and space for Qs, we are allowing Radha’s brain to grow and develop, and as we give time to answer her Qs we feed her curiosity.
Kindergarten and primary school years are the best times to promote children’s knowledge and inculcate the curiosity to learn. As we have all seen, children ask fewer questions as they grow up and this often corresponds with less engagement and less meaningful participation in school, as well as, at times, lack of time and patience by adults to answer these Qs.
Seek attention – Mr. Hal Gregerson (INSEAD professor and questioning expert) says that a child asks Qs over and over again, either because adults do not understand their question or because they are not listening to them. Such scenarios can very easily go out of hand and flare up into a nasty altercation, with the adult taking on a tone of authority, anger and power to end the fracas.
Children can behave in the strangest of ways in order to seek attention. Repeatedly asking Qs is just one of them. In such cases, it is often better for the child’s spirit and the adult’s peace of mind, to take a short break from what the adult is doing and give the child time to talk to them. Once the child has undivided attention, time and a plausible answer, the adult can explain that s/he now needs to get back to work.
Defy authority – At times, children come up with Qs that we adults think warrants no answer and it may appear stupid or annoying, to say the least, like – “Why should I have a bath?” Such Qs are actually just a way of being defiant. This can often be frustrating, especially when it comes at the end of a long, tiresome day. But losing one’s cool and taking off with a volley of angry words is just going to make the situation worse. Rather than saying, “Don’t ask stupid Qs. You need to because I tell you to!” it would be better to explain what happens if the child doesn’t bathe; even if it means you are repeating an answer explained many times over.
Handling the Questions
Listening to and responding to the unending ‘wh’ questions can be time-consuming and exhausting. Also, there isn’t a single prescription that parents and teachers can generically apply to all the curious creatures in our homes and schools. Having said that, here are a few tips that we have collected from those who have been able to handle the Qs sessions quite well:
Answer the Qs: Sometimes, all a child needs is a straight answer to the question asked. Instead of ignoring the question, “Why should I wear my pants?” answer it with something like, “Because you may feel cold or get bitten by mosquitoes.” If your child is satisfied with the answer, chances are s/he will stop repeating the Qs and may allow you to get back to work. If a question needs a longer explanation, try to elaborate on the answer in a way that the child will understand.
Turn the question back: At times, countering a question by asking it back to the child, fishing for what the child thinks could be the answer, works like magic and opens the door for more discussion and quality time. Like, “What do you think? …What do you feel?” could help to develop the child’s critical thinking skills by self-reflecting upon the Qs, rather than getting a ready-made reply. This will encourage the child to figure out what’s on his/her mind. It’s quite a treat (rib-tickling) listening to imaginative answers kids often come up with.
A word of caution here: the kind of tone you use will make a lot of difference. If you seem annoyed while using the counter Qs, it may have the opposite effect of what you were aiming to achieve.
Answer simply: At the tender ages, children don’t need a long explanation. For example, your child might ask, “Why do you wash my huggy-blanket?” The simple answer could be, “To make it clean and smell nice.” Children at this age aren’t able to understand abstract concepts such as germs they can’t see.
Accept that you don’t know: We aren’t walking encyclopaedia, right? So, when caught with Qs that we have no idea about, it is OK to say, “I don’t know. Let’s see if we can find the answer together”. That is because children observe and analyse so much more than we adults do. You can take out an encyclopaedia and figure out the answer together or do some web browsing research together, or you can read up on the topic when you have time and explain it in a language the child understands. This helps further develop a child’s quest for learning. And of course, as a bonus, the researching (alone or together) helps us to brush up our general knowledge while feeding our child’s curiosity and natural desire to learn things. If children see us looking up something that we do not know, they will feel encouraged to do the same.
Setting aside a regular ‘let’s know some more…’ time: Some parents at home and teachers in class (for the first 5 mins) make it a point to regularly spend some time with a picture-filled encyclopaedia, or share some new facts through PPT or watch a short video film. With the really little ones, one may end up going to the same familiar pages at first, but the process of exploring knowledge together opens doors for seeking new information and further fuels inquisitiveness in children.
Patience, patience, patience: And last but not the least, in order to make any sort of progress with curious, inquisitive, answer-seeking kids, one needs patience – tonnes and tonnes of it. Patience and persistence help most of the time; as well as the ‘sure, I can be approached’ disposition. When these don’t, just grit your teeth, ignore and keep at it!
Handling children’s innate and insatiable desire to seek answers, at times with Qs that aren’t even age-appropriate, can be very challenging. Remember, no matter how age-inappropriate they may seem, not giving any answer to such Qs can be dangerous. The question they are asking are the doubts they have in their mind. If known and familiar adults don't answer them, the doubts will remain in their mind or in the worst case, kids will ask their questions to someone else. No one knows better how to answer them than parents and familiar teachers.
And remember, you are not alone in this! So, embrace the unending ‘WH’ Qs and use them to spend me, nurture the children; and expand your own GK.
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