Logical Thinking: Helping Children to Become “Smarter”

Logical thinking is an important foundation skill. Unfortunately its role in learning is grossly underestimated and its role in overcoming learning difficulties is neglected.

Logical thinking is the process in which one uses reasoning consistently to come to a conclusion. Problems or situations that involve logical thinking call for structure, for relationships between facts, and for chains of reasoning that “make sense.”

In his book Brain Building, Dr. Karl Albrecht says that the basis of all logical thinking is sequential thought. This process involves taking the important ideas, facts, and conclusions involved in a problem and arranging them in a chain-like progression that takes on a meaning in and of itself. To think logically is to think in steps.

It has been proven that specific training in logical thinking processes can make people “smarter.” Logical thinking allows a child to reject quick answers, such as “I don’t know,” or “this is too difficult,” by empowering them to delve deeper into their thinking processes and understand better the methods used to arrive at a solution and even the solution itself.

Logical thinking is also an important foundational skill of math. “Learning mathematics is a highly sequential process,” says Dr. Albrecht. “If you don’t grasp a certain concept, fact, or procedure, you can never hope to grasp others that come later, which depend upon it. For example, to understand fractions you must first understand division. To understand simple equations in algebra requires that you understand fractions. Solving ‘word problems’ depends on knowing how to set up and manipulate equations, and so on."

Logical thinking is not a magical process or a matter of genetic endowment, but a learned mental process, he says.

One of the aims of the Audiblox program is to teach a child to think logically. Logical thinking exercises are carefully graded. For example, in the first example of Logical Thinking exercise 1a a child or children would be asked to arrange a sequence of colored blocks in front of them, from left to right.

One would then ask the child or children: “If you had to add one more color to the above sequence, which color would you choose?” The answer, of course, is green.

Gradually this exercise becomes more and more challenging. Below is one of the more advanced examples:

One would ask the child or children: “If you had to add four colors to the above sequence, which colors would you choose?”

Case Study

The letter below was received from a mother in California. It is clear that learning the skill of logical thinking (sequential thought) has started to transfer to her daughter’s everyday life:

“Audiblox is the best thing we have ever used. My daughter even thinks so too! She has even stated, see I'm not dumb mom I did it. I knew she wasn't dumb but because of her struggles she has always felt she was no matter how you tried to tell her otherwise.

“She has just completed 40 hours of the program and I am seeing results. At about 25 hours, I was skeptical as to when would I see these results carry over to daily tasks. In fact, I had a letter started to Audiblox about this very thing. I was seeing her accomplish the goals of Audiblox and her concentration was getting better but I still wondered how was all this going to fit together with everyday life. Needless to say, the most amazing thing happened before I even sent the letter to Audiblox, so they never even got a chance to reply.

“I gave my daughter some directions to follow while I made lunch. These included getting out supplies from various areas, finding the information needed to complete the work, and finally writing the completed work on the proper paper completely, neatly, and correctly. This said, before Audiblox this would never have been carried out without many questions to reassure herself of following directions correctly. Then when she was finished you would still find errors in work or directions not followed etc.

“I was absolutely amazed. Number one, she THOUGHT through how she should go about getting her supplies. One of these supplies was various encyclopedias. Before Audiblox she would have gotten one book, took it to the table, found the information, wrote it on her paper (partially incorrect) then asked now what do I do. After starting with Audiblox, she collected all her papers, glue, and pencils from three different areas. Then she proceeded to THINK about how to complete the work ahead of her. She went to the encyclopedia shelf and pulled out all 5 books that she would need at one time. Then, she went to the table and completed the assignment that I had given her all by herself before I could even make our sandwiches and serve lunch. I was so amazed. I just knew she must have done them wrong as usual. But excitedly enough she not only did it correct, but neatly, and completely as was the expected goal.”

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