This photo was retrieved on January 16th, 2021, from https://www.confessionsofadrmom.com/2010/09/nurturing-your-childs-curiosity/.

What is Curiosity?

Curiosity is defined as "a multidimensional concept involving a motivation to explore, discover, question and seek wonderment" (Dietze & Kashin, 2016, p.204).  Children are born curious. From the moment they take their first breath, they are learning and discovering new things. We may not think of it this way, as when they are first born, they are unable to vocalize their curiosity; however, it is there. As children grow and develop, their level of curiosity increases. However, curiosity does not come on its own but through the influence of the environment, rich materials, and people who surround them. To develop and learn to their fullest extent, they need to seek wonderment, ask questions, discover, and explore. 

Why is curiosity important for your child's learning and development? 

Tracy Turner (2017), in her article, Developing Curiosity in the Young Child's Brain, states, "When children become curious, the brain becomes a fast-moving, information gathering tool that encourages learning"(para.2). When children are curious, they tend to ask how, where, why, and how? questions, allowing them to learn about the materials and environment that surrounds them. When they become more aware and educated in these things, they can grow both in knowledge and developmentally. But how might you ask? The reasons are both complicated and straightforward. When children ask and receive answers to questions like Why is the sky blue? Why does it rain?; How does it snow in the winter? How do flowers grow?; they are not only becoming more educated in their environment, but they are also increasing developmentally in all four domains: cognitively, socially, linguistically, and physically. When children are curious, they explore their surrounding environment, allowing them to socialize with their peers, develop new language skills, and test their physical abilities. Curiosity gets children involved in their world, seeking answers to the many questions that they have. 

Curiosity is also essential for optimal learning and development because when children are curious, they experiment, explore, ask questions, and manipulate. Through experimentation, children will learn what things are, how they work, and their purpose. This not only expands their knowledge but also encourages the growth of cognitive development. Through experimentation and through conversation, children are expanding on their language development. While experimenting with different materials/objects, children will begin to learn and discover the materials' language and ask questions based on their findings. By asking both the adults that they are surrounded by and children close by, they are learning how to engage in proper conversation. Furthermore, by conversing with those around them, they are not only receiving answers to their questions, but they are also forming relationships with those close to them, which encourages growth in their social development. Their emotional development is also influenced due to curiosity. When children can work together with adults and children their age to experiment, explore, discover, and problem-solve, they learn more about those around them, beginning to see things from the point of view of others. Because of these reasons and many others, curiosity is so important for the learning and development of children.

Three ways that families can support their child's curiosity

There are many ways in which you, as parents and family members, can support curiosity in not only your child but others as well. The list of ways is quite lengthy, so I have chosen three that I believe are important to highlight. 

1. Ask open-ended questions and allow your children to do the same. 

According to Beverlie Dietze and Diane Kashin (2016), "Adults who observe children and engage with them are better able to understand children's questions or pose questions that will support the children in taking their exploration to the next level. Children require adults who will listen to them and extend opportunities for them to be introduced to new ideas, resources, or experiences"(p.209). To foster curiosity in your child, try being curious yourself. Ask questions out-loud about different things in the environment. Whether it be while you are out for a walk and you ask, "I wonder how these flowers grow?" or "Why is the sky blue?" you are giving your child opportunities to engage in deep thinking, exploration, and wonderment. 

2. Provide your children with open-ended activities

This photo was retrieved on January 17th, 2021, from https://theeducatorsspinonit.com/spring-stem-activities-for-kids/ 

You may be asking, What are open-ended activities? The answer is quite simple. Open-ended activities/materials are things with no direct purpose. This means that they provide endless opportunities for children, allowing them to exhibit their creativity and imagination. Examples can include but are not limited to: boxes, pots, pans, rocks, art materials, blocks/planks of wood, etc. These materials/activities allow the children to be creative and develop their form of play/exploration, asking questions like "How can I use these materials?, If I do this with the wooden planks, what will happen? What happens if I mix the color red with the color blue?

As you can see, open-ended materials are quite different from closed-ended materials/activities such as books and puzzles. In my opinion, open-ended activities are essential for the optimal growth and development of children, and here is why. As I briefly stated before, open-ended activities/materials allow children to use their imagination, explore, and discover. They have no direct purpose, allowing children to use/play with them endlessly. This allows children to be curious and seek answers to questions through exploration and trial and error. However, as adults, we mustn't direct the child in how to use the material. The whole idea of it being 'open-ended' is to allow children to explore and discover themselves. 

3. Encourage exploration, discovery, and wonderment! 

As parents, you must create environments within your home that support exploration, discovery, and wonderment for your children. This can mean allowing them to spend time outdoors, exploring nature and all that it entails, or providing them with a large collection of books that allows your child to learn and discover about the world around them. Curiosity occurs when children cannot make sense of things. The goal is to allow children to find the answers to their unending questions. Books such as encyclopedias, or informative based reads, allow children to begin to make sense of the world and how things work. When children are surrounded by an environment filled with rich learning opportunities and experiences, they are more likely to become curious. 

References 

Dietz, B., Kashin, D. (2016). Empowering pedagogy for early childhood education: Materials for sparking children's curiosity and play. Pearson Canada, 203-227.                 https://www.pearsoncanada.ca/media/highered-showcase/multi-product-showcase/dietze-ch09.pdf 

Trautner, T.(2017). Developing curiosity in the young child's brain. Michigan State University. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/developing_curiosity_in_the_young_childs_brain