Why do kids ask why so much?

A Woman Less Ordinary - 13 Jan 18

Why?  Young kids are scientists – they try things out to see what happens. It’s as simple as that!  In a basic science experiment, a scientist forms a hypothesis or theory about what they expect to see. Then they carry out their experiment several times to see if what they actually observe matches their hypothesis. If each time they get the same outcome they will form a conclusion and move on to another experiment:

Same answer every time?

Sometimes kids ask the same questions to see whether they get the same answer each time – either they ask you the same question repeatedly or they ask several people the same question:

A kid would be left wondering which answer is the right one.  Of course, several can be true at once!  Plus the answer depends on changing conditions.  The world is complex and they’re trying to figure it out.  A kid who is given several answers like this will be curious and try to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

5 Why Analysis

Try Googling 5 Why Analysis and you will find a plethora of Management guru type responses.  It’s a technique used in business to get to the root cause of an issue.  Kids are already great at it – they do not require a training course:

(Details of the  sphere / flashlight experiment – you don’t need the tape to get the idea across)

Persistent questioning of this nature means that a kid was not fully satisfied with the first answer that they were given.  Perhaps they didn’t understand what you meant, the words that you used were unfamiliar or it they couldn’t relate it to their existing understanding of the world.  It can be extremely annoying sometimes when you’re trying to do something else, but if you can, view these questions in the positive: you have a motivated, enthusiastic learner!  My next post discusses how to approach answering the barrage of why questions.

Sometimes kids behaving like scientists test out new undesirable behaviours too – read about this in my post about why kids push your buttons

A Woman Less Ordinary lives, parents, purchases and thinks differently.  With 10 years of teaching experience, she has many effective techniques for managing kids’ behaviour (and a lot to say about finance if you’re interested) BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY OF IT!

A Woman Less Ordinary

A Woman Less Ordinary lives, parents, purchases and thinks differently. With 10 years of teaching experience, she has many effective techniques for managing kids’ behaviour (and a lot to say about finance if you’re interested) BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY OF IT!

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