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SLP Corner: Musings and Random Thoughts

by Mary Huston, MS, CCC-SLP
mary

I read a lot of different articles. Most are research based, peer-reviewed articles. Some are research based…sort of, but not peer reviewed…some are just interesting.

I recently came across one regarding critical thinking…and it caused me to … you know…THINK

…critically. Actually, if I’m honest…

It was the “how to build a die” that caught my attention (yes, I’m one of those SLPs that still uses “games” in therapy. I firmly believe most kids learn better when they’re having fun and most of my kids have little enough “fun” in school…but that’s a completely different rant).  Anyway, when I read the article, it made me ponder.

The first article I was reading is called “The question game: A playful way to teach critical thinking.” What’s not to love about that? I am a firm believer in that we need to actively teach kids (and some adults) how to think critically. It is paramount to their success in college and in the world. Without the ability to truly think critically, they are forever doomed to believe that reality TV is … well…real…and always vote for whatever political moron happens to catch their attention first without giving a conscious thought to what is actually being said and acted on (okay…that wasn’t nice, but come on…you know it’s true!).

For SLPs, I think this ties in nicely with the deeper knowledge aspect that Common Core brings to mind (yes, I know those are dreaded words). For instance, in the language arts for 5th grade CCSS, there are numerous mentions of inferring, summarizing, explaining relationships and interactions, and analyzing multiple accounts of the same event in order to compare/contrast different points of view. If that’s not critical thinking skills in a nutshell, I’m not sure what is.

Read the Rest of this Article on Mary Huston’s Speech Adventures blog

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