SCAFFOLDING BY ADULTS CAN HELP YOUNG CHILDREN DEVELOP PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITIES. SINCE THESE ABILITIES DEVELOP AS CHILDREN MATURE, ADULTS CAN ALLOW THEM TO EXPLORE THE ENVIRONMENT, AND PROVIDE HELP WITH GENTLE OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS, COMMENTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS FOR THE CHILD TO IMITATE, WHERE NECESSARY. COLLABORATING WITH OTHERS CAN ALSO HELP CHILDREN DEVELOP NEW SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS.

In his theory of child development, Lev Vygotsky proposed that learners have a zone of proximal development – a region where they acquire new skills more readily with the assistance of someone more knowledgeable than themselves.

Scaffolding techniques are the means through which the more knowledgeable other, such as a teacher or other adult, guides the learner within the learner’s own zone to reach a greater understanding and mastery of the task. This scaffolding strategy may come in many forms, but the purpose is the same – to help children come up with a correct answer or reach a specific conclusion, and expand the child’s understanding.

Adult scaffolding techniques have been shown to improve a child’s ability to complete a task.

The goal is to provide temporary support that will later be removed as the child acquires and eventually masters new skills.

Problem-solving abilities improve as the child grows older. We know that very primitive problem solving begins before one year of age. By eight to nine months of age, infants will pull a cloth or a string to retrieve an object. Infants may take several weeks to become skilful at more complex motor acts, such as grasping a spoon to self-feed, and this learning does not readily transfer to other tools. Proper adult input can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from one situation to another.

To use such techniques effectively, caregivers need to be aware of a child’s changing developmental status. They need to know when to provide new tasks and structure, and how to help the child learn new skills while still allowing a degree of autonomy.

Three specific scaffolding strategies can help foster problem-solving skills. There are:

(i) Organising the environment (ii) Using appropriate cues to guide behaviours (iii) Modelling.

(i) Organising the environment

The first way to scaffold children’s learning and problem-solving abilities is to organise the environment in a way that promotes independent functioning and success in tasks. Environments that encourage children to interact with their surroundings and materials in ways that will meet their own needs, allowing them to solve their own problems and make their own choices, will help them develop problem-solving abilities. Having the environment ready for the children also decreases frustration levels as they work at their own pace, completing tasks independently.

Environments which are safe and secure for children, and have objects that children can safely interact with, are ideal for promoting problem-solving abilities.4 Babies can develop problem-solving skills if they are provided with opportunities for open-ended exploration with guidance. They can be offered a variety of intriguing items when they are playing or going through their daily routines, such as items they can grasp and suck, and action-responsive toys.

(ii) Giving appropriate cues, such as verbal, visual or gestural cues

Another way caregivers can scaffold children’s learning is through providing verbal instruction. Appropriate scaffolding considers the learner's developmental status, and their understanding of and ability to complete the task. The adult can gently prompt and question to find out what the child understands.

With these verbal instructions from a knowledgeable adult, children can sometimes overcome their first impulse and arrive at the correct solution.

Researchers showed that verbal explanations given by parents helped their three- to eight-year-old children encode scientific information.

Moreover, asking leading questions (such as "Does it fit somewhere else?") and voicing suggestions (such as "Why don’t you try over there?") enhances the learning of two-to four-year-old children.Other kinds of verbal instruction, such as directing attention verbally to distinctive features of the subject matter and verbal prompting, have also been found to help children encode information.

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15. Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

16. Hou, S., & So, W. (2017). Combining gesture with verbal instruction promotes problem-solving skills among young children attempting difficult tasks. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14(1), 87–101.

A study of 93 3 to 4 year-old Chinese children and their caregivers who had to complete difficult jigsaw puzzles suggested that it is effective for adults to incorporate speech and gesture in their instruction as frequently as possible when teaching their children to perform a difficult task.

(iii) Modelling the thought process.

Just as young children talk aloud to themselves to aid learning, we too can voice our thoughts to help children learn to solve problems. For older toddlers, modelling the problem-solving process by verbalising one’s inner speech may help model the problem-solving process to the child.

Children also learn by watching and imitating. Hence, demonstrating the solution, such as how to open a door in a toy vehicle, may also help. During early childhood, children need to have the desired activity demonstrated to facilitate their understanding. Parents can aid them in their acquisition of practical skills by modelling the activity.

When solving more complex problems, breaking down the task into smaller steps and allowing the child to complete some steps may better help the child achieve success. Giving feedback on what the child has done is also crucial to the child’s learning.

After allowing the child to attempt and complete the task, encouraging the child to reflect on her accomplishment may increase the probability that she will successfully attempt and complete the task again.

Adults can promote problem-solving in spontaneous and planned experiences through open-ended questions that encourage children to think and act in new ways.

Effective scaffolding keeps learners within their zone of proximal development.

Adults can help children solve problems and complete tasks that are only slightly above the level of those they can accomplish alone. Caregivers can be mindful of implementing these techniques, remaining attentive to feedback from the child, adjusting our teaching and guiding strategies accordingly. In this way, caregivers can more effectively help children learn to problem solve and perform self-help skills, ushering them into greater understanding, increased mastery of tasks, and ultimately, independent functioning.

Collaboration with adults and other children also helps sharpen problem-solving abilities. Toddlers learn how to problem-solve by imitating others. 2-year-olds don't always respond well to being told what to do. Hence, a more effective way of guiding the child can be forming a partnership with the child and asking open-ended questions, e.g. "Oh, no. The ball is stuck. What do you think we can do?"

Developing the ability to collaborate with adults when children are younger will help them collaborate to sharpen problem-solving abilities when collaborating with other children to solve problems later. A systematic review of older children aged four and above found that collaborative interactions are beneficial for tasks measuring visual perception, problem-solving and rule-based thinking, but not for word-reading and spatial perspective-taking.

Research has also suggested that when children collaborate to solve problems, providing open-ended materials (which encourage divergent thinking) encourages creativity and better problem-solving abilities. While problem-solving, the children also learn social-emotional skills.

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20. Gartrell, D. (2013). Democratic Life Skill 3: Solving Problems Creatively–Independently and in Cooperation with Others. Young Children, 68(3), 90–93.

Research also shows that when adults can respond to children’s attempts with questions and comments, these "serve and return" interactions between the child and adult provide encouragement, build language, and add ideas for problem-solving.