Everyone around the world from parents, schools, teachers, company owners, business leaders, and governments are all asking the same question, what skills will our children need to succeed?
now you may think you know the answer to the question but consider this it has been estimated that two-thirds of children today will work in jobs that don’t currently exist now
So ask yourself, what skills do you want them to have
Every parent and quite honestly anyone who cares about our children’s future needs to know these 21st-century skills most valued in today’s complex globalized and rapidly changing world.
Some of these skills are the traditional hard skills that we know of, the reading, writing, and arithmetic, however, there are other skills that i call social and creative skills like creativity curiosity, communication, collaboration, public speaking, and critical thinking along with leadership skills and adaptability.
And most importantly there are other skills that are also gaining prominence in classrooms and boot camps around the world that I feel the need to point out that calling these skills soft doesn’t do them justice they involve complex functioning of the brain. So when i say other skills don’t get me wrong, I would even say these skills I am about to mention now comes most importantly because these skills are certainly key to future success.
Based on the science of early brain and child development we now know that these key skills can be developed far earlier than most people realize, with % of brain growth thought to occur by age and up to a million new neural connections forming per second it is during the early years that we have a unique opportunity to more intentionally build children brains and to assemble this skills we know they’ll need to succeed.
This would help you better understand why these early years are so critical
Let’s take this analogy I heard of comparing the electrical wiring of the brain to that of a house,
It is entirely possible to rewire an old house it just always takes longer costs, time and never turns out quite as good as when the wiring goes in before the walls go up
With the respect to the wiring of child’s brains, caring responsive adults that play the role as chief architects should understand that neurons don’t just connect and babies don’t just learn what they need to know all on their own unlocking children’s early learning potential is deeply dependent on social interactions which explains why cultivating the key skills involves a whole lot of talking, learning, playing and reading books and watching videos.
With that in mind allow me to introduce you to the seven creative skills your child needs to start learning now
- Critical Thinking. One of the most important 21st-century skills to teach our children is how to think critically and come up with solutions to problems
- Communication: How easily can they express themselves, amongst their pairs and in large crowds
- Collaboration: Can they work together comfortably with other kids and individuals
- Creativity: Are they willing to create, drawing, painting, modeling, fashion, music, photography amongst others
- Cultural Awareness: Do they still have a sense of their culture, learning things like their local languages, history, dressing, greetings, and others
- Digital Literacy: Are they aware of technology skills like coding, robotics, design, and so on.
- Autonomy: Your children need to have the ability to act on his or her own values and interests.
Now we know that what happens in early childhood does not stay in early childhood by applying what we now know about all of the key creative skills, I believe that we can achieve success in our shared goal of giving all children access to a world of possibilities.