Your four-year-old bursts through the door and starts enthusiastically telling you about his favourite superhero - Spider-Man. After five minutes you know everything about this radioactive spider, what his skills are, who his enemies are, where he lives – even what he likes for breakfast!

Kids are born curious! As a preschooler, their whole life revolves around discovery and being curious about what’s around them. And as parents, our job is to help our children develop their curiosity. If we really listen and really hear what excites them, our children are way more likely to engage with what they’re learning.

Before we take a look at some ways that you can improve your child's engagement and curiosity, let’s look at why it’s important for your child to be curious and engaged.

Why is it important for your child to be curious and engaged?

When children are deeply engaged and fascinated by something, their brain makes new connections that help them develop learning in other areas.

Can you recall a time when you’ve noticed your child completely ‘in the zone’? Where they have a look of total concentration on their face and aren’t aware of anything else around them? This is when your child is completely in the moment and is able to learn a huge amount.

Catering to the interests of your child and encouraging their involvement in what they’re doing increases their language development. Their mind becomes clearer so everything they do and say has more clarity, and they become more motivated.
When you try to make a child learn something that they’re not interested in, a blankness develops in their eyes. In fact, adults are not dissimilar! And when that blankness develops, they’re not engaged and therefore not in a state to absorb and process information. On the other hand, when children are interested, their eyes light up and are fully present and able to absorb and process information.

Encouraging your child to be curious helps them to become more present and figure things out for themselves. The by-product of this is increased confidence and self-esteem.

Now let’s take a look at some ways you can improve your child’s engagement and curiosity.

What are the ways I can help improve my child’s engagement and curiosity?

Include their interests in their learning. If your child is a fan of superheroes, start including them in their learning. For example, if your child is learning maths – specifically how to count – consider using pictures of Spider-Man or Batman, or whatever their preference may be. This helps your child grow in confidence and in their ability to count! This, in turn, will encourage them to want to do more maths!

Really pay attention to your child when they are totally engaged in something. What is it that’s really captivating them? Spend time watching what excites them and see what you discover.

Provide a space that looks appealing and attractive for your child, and provide materials that fit their interests. For example, if they’re a dinosaur fan, make sure you provide a good selection of dinosaurs. You don’t have to keep them on show continuously, you can keep them in the cupboard until your little one becomes interested.
Think outside the box. Instead of encouraging leaf paintings around autumn or colouring in Santa Claus for Christmas, how can you incorporate your children’s interests? If your little one loves cars, maybe you could bring some real car parts from a garage for them to play around with (providing they’re safe with no sharp edges).

Adapt to your child’s changing interests. As parents, we need to really listen to and tune into the needs of our children, so they have the space to explore and learn.
Provide boundaries and freedom. As parents, we have a lot of power. It’s important that we help our children feel safe and secure and that we provide clear boundaries for them. But it’s also essential that we allow them the freedom to explore and discover things for themselves.

Model curiosity. If we want our little ones to be curious and engaged, we need to model this for them by showing curiosity in what they are telling or showing us. When we show genuine engagement in what they’re telling us, we’re showing them that what they enjoy is important to us.

Observe and listen. Observing your child is essential to understanding what is happening for your child, how they are learning and what they are enjoying. You may want to note down when your child achieves something for the first time, such as using scissors or tying shoelaces. Notice how they interact and what they like to play with.

Look out for schemas. Schematic behaviours are when a child repeats a certain behaviour. For example, they might always climb things, put things into boxes, wrap themselves up in clothes and bedding or draw circles. Being able to recognise schemas helps you to support your child’s learning by matching their curriculum with their individual interests. When your child is deeply interested in something, it makes learning easy.

Understand what your child is interested in. This enables you to find resources that really meet your child’s needs. For example, if your child shows an interest in wheels and clocks and loves turning cars over and spinning their wheels, consider getting them some toys they can spin like wheels or windmills rather than something they push along the ground.

How do I improve my child's engagement and curiosity?

Unii looks at understanding your child’s interests and sparking their curiosity.