CHILDREN HAVE DIFFERENT WAYS OF EXPRESSING CURIOSITY BASED ON THEIR DIFFERENT TEMPERAMENTS. ADULTS CAN FUEL CHILDREN'S CURIOSITY BY BUILDING CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEM, SO THAT THEY FEEL SECURE TO EXPLORE THEIR INTERESTS, AND OBSERVE WHAT MAKES THEM CURIOUS. ADULT-CHILD INTERACTIONS WHICH ENCOURAGE THE CHILD TO ASK QUESTIONS AND EXPLORE ALSO HELP TO SUSTAIN THEIR CURIOSITY.

Researchers have found that children have different temperaments and styles of expressing their curiosity. Some may want to explore with only their minds, while others explore in more physical ways by moving, touching, smelling, tasting, and climbing. Some children are timid, while others are comfortable with new things and physical exploration.

Yet, even the timid child will be very curious, though he may require more encouragement and reinforcement to leave safe and familiar situations. These differences are related to temperamental differences in the way children explore. Therefore, it is helpful for adults to recognise individual differences in children's styles of curiosity, and continue to encourage them.

Infants with secure attachments to responsive caregivers tend to score higher in curiosity measures. A longitudinal study of 26 children found that children who had been securely attached as infants scored higher on curiosity measures. They were followed from 18 months to 4 to 5 years old. The researchers discovered that those who were securely attached to responsive caregivers were more likely to use the caregivers as a secure base and move freely to explore the environment around them.

Furthermore, these same high curiosity children were concurrently more ego resilient. In other words, they had the ability to respond flexibly, persistently, and resourcefully, especially in problem situations, at 4 to 5 years old.

Supportive and secure relationships with adults, including teachers and other caregivers, foster academic success and positive social outcomes for young children, as they are more secure to explore and ask questions.

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3. Hyson, M. (2005). Enthusiastic and Engaged: Strengthening Young Children's Positive Approaches to Learning. Young Children, 60(6), 68–70.

To sustain curiosity in young children, caregivers can encourage them to follow their interests during exploration. Careful observation through verbal and non-verbal means encourages them to remain curious, continue exploring, and sustain an enquiring mind. Caregivers can observe what makes children curious and offer them choices to pursue what they are curious about. Responsive care and sensitivity to children's needs encourages them to explore in safe environments.

Providing novelty through new stimulus and experiences helps sustain children's curiosity.

An influential study demonstrated that infants' visual attention to a familiar, repeated image will decrease relative to their attention to a novel image. Infants show a novelty preference from very early on, meaning that they prefer new items to items they have already encountered. As infants explore an item, they habituate and the item becomes less novel. If a further new stimulus appears during habituation, that stimulus is more novel than the current item. Hence, infants abandon the habituated item in favour of the new.

Novelty and curiosity are linked. Though increases in novelty elicit increased attention, excessive novelty can lead to a decrease in attention

as children generally sustain curiosity when there are new things to explore compared to familiar things.

Studies have also found that when children are anxious, their response to novelty declines.

Hence, caregivers should provide secure environments with lessened anxiety for children to remain curious and explore. Caregivers can provide a safe outlet for children to explore by affirming and encouraging their efforts in play, while simultaneously watching and monitoring children's curiosity and interests.

When children are given the time and freedom to make play choices, they are more likely to engage in play activities for longer periods and sustain their curiosity. Studies have found that children exhibit increased curiosity outside of academic contexts and in the absence of explicitly given explanations.

During an experiment, children were given a novel toy to explore, either prefaced or not, with partial instructions on how the toy works. Children played for longer and discovered more of the toys' functions when given partial instructions. Hence, allowing opportunities for free exploration in safe environments were more likely to promote curiosity and exploration.

Young children look at the faces of trusted adults to judge how they should react to new experiences, events, and other people. A toddler's visual "checking in" with an adult is called social referencing.

Toddlers also point at objects with their index fingers when they want to learn and gain more information about an object or event. Pointing means that the toddler wants to engage another person through shared attention to the object or event. This behaviour and shared attention indicates advancements in toddlers' cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional development.

When caregivers respond to toddlers' social referencing, pointing, and gazing, caregivers are engaging in joint attention with the child. Joint attention is a cognitive understanding between the caregiver and child that they are both interested in the event.

Responding to toddlers with joint attention is a powerful learning tool as it shows them that you are cognitively in tune with their interests, discoveries, and learning.

Encouraging questioning or inquiry also helps sustain curiosity. Developmental psychologist Chouinard observed that when children between 1 and 5 years old were actively engaged with an adult, they asked an average of 76 questions an hour.

Chouinard concludes that "question-asking is not something that children occasionally do. It is a central part of what it means to be a child." Preverbal children who are not yet asking linguistic questions can seek information via gestures, expressions, and vocalisations. These behaviours are also known as "IRMs" or "information requesting mechanisms".

Preschoolers must be attracted to an item or a situation to feel curious about it in the first place. Three-year-olds are excited about an event that takes them by surprise, like a bright flashing light in the dark or spilt water dripping off a table. But their short attention spans cause them to move on after a while. Three-year-olds frequently need an adult to ask questions or provide additional enriching materials to extend their curious feelings. For example, a caregiver can motivate a child's inquisitiveness about the water further by asking, "What's happening to the ice in your hand?" ("It's melting.") "Why do you think that is happening?"

Effective caregivers are powerful mediators of children's thinking and learning. They design learning environments that stimulate children's curiosity, ask questions, and talk to children about what they are experiencing and what will happen.

Caregivers can reinforce the exploring child through attention and approval. When exploration is disruptive or inappropriate, caregivers can teach the child when and where they can carry out the exploration. For example, you can say, "Let's play with water outside. We want to keep your bedroom dry, so nobody falls when they walk in."

Like pointing, children's questioning is deeply affected by whether they grow up in a curious household. A 1984 study by British researchers found that children in middle-class households asked more curiosity-based questions than children in working-class households.

This was not necessarily because they were getting more answers - the working-class mothers were just as likely to answer their child's questions. It was because the children in middle-class households were getting more questions in the first place.

By the time children from curious households go to school, they have a head start on their peers. Having absorbed more information from their parents and caregivers, they know more, which means they find it easier to learn more.