Once they start talking, young children seem to ask a lot of questions. This is mainly because they are curious and there is so much to learn about this great big, amazing world that we live in. Children or anyone for that matter can learn a lot by asking questions. One way we learn is by asking questions.
Apparently studies show that 4-year-old’s can ask as many as 200-300 questions a day. Or children ask about 40 000 questions between age 2 and 5. For a number of reasons children ask less questions as they get older.
However, it’s not just young children who ask questions. In fact I’m sure my 21 year old has never stopped asking questions for about the last 19 years! She always wanted to know “why” or “how come”?
So much so that she got asked to stop asking questions one day in her grade 8 Design Technology (DT) class. My daughter had finished her project but being the curious girl she was/is she kept asking questions. The teacher was trying to help others with their projects so didn’t have time for her questions. She still had at least 1 burning question so she encouraged her friend to ask for her. The teacher realised that it was actually my daughter wanting to know the answer to the question & not her friend. Thus my daughter got into trouble. Fortunately it didn’t dampen her enthusiasm to ask questions too much. Perhaps that’s one reason she’s now an Engineer.
Why do children ask so many questions?
The number one reason that children, particularly young children ask so many questions is because there is so much to learn & so much that they don’t know or are curious about.
Children also ask questions that they already know the answer to. Part of this is just confirming that this particular fact is true or them showing you that they know this already. Or they’re trying to figure out more about what they already know.
Why children learn by asking questions?
So all of this question asking is helping with learning. Children are learning more about the world & how things work as they hear the answers to the questions. They are confirming what they’ve already learnt and adding to that learning.
The questions can show some of what they do know
Recently an almost 5 year old arrived late at church on a day we had a guest minister preaching. She came up to me and pointed to the guest minister and asked “Who’s that Prime Minister?” Apart from laughing, I could determine that this young girl had obviously heard the term “Prime Minister” somewhere. I knew that she knew we have a “minister” at church, as she used this word when asking questions when our previous minister left a few months ago. So of course we had a brief conversation about who the Prime Minister is and then went on to talk about who our new minister was going to be. My question is “Why does the English language have to have so many words with more than 1 meaning?”
However, it is important to listen to the question a child asks, not only so you might be able to answer it but to gauge what they already know or what may be the reason they are asking the question.
Responding to all these questions
The ideal is to answer as best you can right then and there. Whatever they’ve asked is important right now. So, answer the question in language that is appropriate to the child’s age or level & from your knowledge.
However depending on the question this is not always possible. It is okay to say something like “That’s a hard question can we explore it together later”. If you can, be specific about when you’ll come back to the question, for example “I’m concentrating on driving right now, but let’s talk about it when we get home.” And then make sure that you do come back to the question later.
Another option is to ask what the child thinks. With some prompting or guidance children can often work out the answer. This can help them with processing and thinking to reason out things.
Not all Questions need to be answered
Sometimes it is not possible to answer all questions, you may not know that answer or it may be a question that’s hard to answer. It’s okay to say you don’t know the answer, if you’re not sure. You can discover the answer together. Or children can be assisted to work out the answer for themselves, if it’s possible to answer the question. You might wonder together if it’s a harder question and it’s okay to say that no one knows the answer to that question.
Despite the fact that many times my children’s questions were annoying or tricky to answer, I continued to encourage them to ask questions. Every time I’d want to say “Please just stop asking questions”, I’d think to myself “No, let them ask questions because that’s how they learn.” So even though it can drive you nuts when your children keep asking questions or say why to your answer to their why question; remember they are learning by asking questions. Keep encouraging them to ask questions and respond in an age appropriate way.
What’s the most interesting question you’ve been asked or heard lately?
What’s a question you’ve been pondering lately?