6 skills that will help your child find a cool job in the future

Ideally, these skills should be developed in a child from the age of 3-4, but the exercises that we will analyze in the article will work with children and adolescents of any age.

1. Creativity

One of the key skills of the future is creative thinking - the ability to find non-standard solutions for standard problems. It opens the widest horizons for a teenager.

Creativity is needed not only for designers and advertisers. A specialist with such a vein is a generator of a wide variety of ideas to get out of difficult situations. Engineers, analysts, managers, journalists, marketers - any professional will only benefit from the ability to look at the problem more broadly than is customary.

How to develop a skill

There are several exercises that will help change the habitual train of thought. When doing them, do not forget support the child and in no case make fun - otherwise in the future he may avoid sharing his ideas.

• Build unexpected connections between objects. For example, think about what a bag and a banana have in common? Both items can be yellow and have an oblong shape.
• Come up with unconventional ways to use items. For example, where can you use a pencil? They can not only draw, but also twist paper for crafts, stir paints or use it as a slingshot. Agree to name at least 30 options: this will push the boundaries from obvious to really creative solutions.
• Write a 100 word story or 10 slide presentation. Invite the child to say something with exactly 100 words left. Or host a home project defense night. Alternatively, a 10-slide presentation titled “Why do we need get a dog». It is important to show that even with limited resources it is possible to reveal the topic as deeply and interestingly as possible.

2. Ability to think critically

The Internet is full of very different and at the same time not always true information. The ability to look at a problem from new angles, not to take on faith everything that is said, and to draw objective conclusions are fundamental skills that should be developed from the school bench.

They will be useful to people of various specialties, including creative professionswho no longer focus on inspiration alone. After all, objectivity and evidence are now in the foreground.

How to develop a skill

You can train the ability to think critically in a game format - it will be easier to captivate the child.

• Find two texts on the same topic. For example, about global warming. Understand how the authors cover the topic, how their arguments differ, and what studies they refer to. This exercise will teach your child to always form their own opinion and help them not to be influenced by advertising on the Internet.
• Play scientist with your child. Give him a statement to prove with at least three arguments. For example, people cannot live outside of society. Why? Because:
  1. Man is a social being.
  2. It is important for a person to feel needed and involved in something.
  3. Skills and talents impossible to implement outside of society.
• Play Fact or Opinion. Take an article where the authors express their assumptions, and ask the child to determine what is fact and what is opinion. As an example, let's take this excerptScientists have suggested that the name Machu Picchu appeared by mistake / Gazeta.ru: "Scientists have suggested that the abandoned Inca city of Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, could actually be called Huayna Picchu." The fact that the abandoned city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is a fact, and the assumption of scientists that this city could have been called differently is an opinion.
• Make a list of what you know and don't know about an object.. Take, for example, an elephant in a zoo. You know that this is a mammal, they are gray in color and live in India. But you have no idea what elephants eat and how many years they live on average. Thanks to this exercise, the child realizes how much we may not know about a seemingly universally known object. This means that it is important to check everything that is said around, and not immediately take it for granted.

3. Teamwork skills

This skill allows you to effectively interact with other people and apply your abilities to achieve a common goal.

Collaboration in a team reveals their strengths and weaknesses in people and expands horizon, because the participants learn to look at the task from different angles and pay attention to the opinions of others.

In the labor market, the ability to work in a team is required in almost every job. However, during school hours, teachers do not always pay attention to this skill. So, you have to work with the child yourself.

How to develop a skill

It all depends on your imagination. Here are some examples of techniques:

• Avoid some household chores and see how the child reacts to it. Would he like to fulfill them? on one's own or will convince you to return to them, thereby developing the skill of the organizer.
• Give a group of children a joint task. For example, prepare gifts for mothers by March 8 in two hours. Observe the children, and then summarize who came up with the most ideas, who helped with the organization, and who did everything on their own and did not consult anyone.
• Discuss with your child the importance of each role in teamwork. on the example of a sports game. Let's say football. What happens if the goalkeeper is removed from the field? Why do you need a coach? Why can't you be an attacker and a defender at the same time?
• Teach your child to take on any little things with enthusiasm. For example, washing dishes not only behind you, turning off the light even in the corridor and washing the floor in the kitchen. To stir up interest, come up with a motivation system. For example, the Finnish child psychologist Ben Furman in his book Child Skills in Action recommends planning together holidaydedicated to the successful acquisition of a skill. As a rule, children love not only the parties themselves, but also the preparation for them. This motivates them not to abandon the case, and gives parents confidence that the skill will definitely be mastered.

4. Ability to adapt to change

The world is changing faster today than even 10 years ago. New technologies are being developed, the circle of acquaintances is expanding, new professions are constantly appearing on the labor market and old ones are dying.

The ability to quickly adapt to all these changes makes a person a true professional. He will be able to step out of his comfort zone, adapt to market demands and find application for his skills in those industries that are most in demand right now.

How to develop a skill

The best way to make children's thinking more flexible - make changes to their daily routine.

• Try new homework methods with your child. For example, instead of the usual calculator, use paper and a pen, or do all the calculations in your head.
• Encourage your child to do routine things with the other hand. For example, brush your teeth, have lunch or close the door. Many psychologists say that children are very enthusiastic about such experiments. And Paul Dennison in his book Brain Gymnastics writes that novelty stimulates the brain to work better, because both of its hemispheres develop.
• Practice "What if...". Come up with an interesting idea or situation and invite the child to reason. For example: “What if the world completely shuts down the Internet?”
• Play Sherlock Holmes. Choose a place familiar to the child - a room, a park, the way home from school - and say that a crime happened here. To do this, write a little background in advance and lay out the evidence. For example, a piece of a note or someone's scarf. The task of the child investigate a crime. During the game, he will learn to pay attention to details, look at things from different angles and draw logical conclusions.
• Read a book with your child. Reading stimulates our brain and develops imagination. We begin to better understand reality, take into account points of view different from ours, and acquire new knowledge that will be useful in an environment of uncertainty.

5. Ability to concentrate

It is more difficult for children to keep their attention on certain things, because their brains are not yet sufficiently developed. However, the sooner the child begins to master this skill, the easier it will be for him to study at school and build a career in the future.

An important note: the ability to hold attention develops not only in the process of complex activity. For example, when children draw, build a city from a constructor, watch a video on a tablet or play a game whose meaning you yourself do not understand, they also develop concentration. And at such moments it is better not to interfere with them.

How to develop a skill

There are many ways to keep your attention on the important:

• learn poetry. Choose a favorite poet or topic that your child is interested in. Start with one poem (or even a passage) a week and gradually increase the load.
• Use the Pomodoro Method during the performance of tasks that require perseverance and concentration from the child. His proposed"Pomidor" - a technique that speeds up the learning process, improves the quality of learning and self-learning / Cyberleninka back in the 80s of the last century, time management expert Francesco Cirillo. One Pomodoro is 25 minutes of work followed by a five-minute break. In total, you need to “eat” four “tomatoes”, after which you can rest for 15-30 minutes. To make the child more willing to study, come up with a system of motivation. For example, after four "pomodoros" you can go to eat something tasty or look through social networks.
• Enroll your child in the sports section. It would seem that the advice is absolutely not related to the concentration of attention, but it is not. Physical exercise helpI Bidzan-Bluma, M. Lipowska. Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning of Children: A Systematic Review / International journal of environmental research and public health brain to ignore distracting factors and train willpower. And it is known to have a positive effect on our ability to focus.

6. Independence

An independent person is able to understand what he wants from life, make a conscious choice and bear responsibility for it. It is in childhood that a person begins to form the will and ability for self-control, and new opportunities push children to an endless number of experiments.

educating independence in a child, you must learn to gradually let him go, accept growing up, not protect him from mistakes and the opportunity to learn from them. It is better to start this process from the very childhood, so that the conditions for feeling confident in any changes and achieving greater success in your career are formed.

How to develop a skill

Psychologists recommend the following techniques:

• Start developing self-reliance with simple household items. At 2-3 years old, a child can learn how to dress without the help of adults, make a bed and wash their hands. At 4-5 years old - tie shoelaces, clear the table, feed the animals or water the flowers. At 6-8 years old - pack a backpack for school, wash and maintain hygiene.
• Practice the Counter Question exercise. When a child asks you about something, do not immediately try to decide everything for him - let him think for himself. Use counter remarks: “What would you do (a)?”, “Let's think. What options do we have? or “Which answer suits you best?”. As you get older, increase the number and complexity of the questions. So children gradually understand that any decision in life can be made independently.
• Give your child the right to make mistakes. When he first makes his own breakfast, it may turn out tasteless or inedible, but this will be his mistake, which needs to be analyzed together. Otherwise, the child will always rely on you and blame others for wrong decisions in the future.
• Reinforce rules with personal examples. Children are so arranged that they imitate well everything that adults do. Tell your son or daughter about your achievements - how you entered the university without the help of your parents or how you got a job on your own. This will inspire the child, and in the future it will be easier for him take responsibility for your decisions.