Any parent who has spent hours trying to sort out their laptop, or struggled all week to stop their digital watch going off every 10 minutes, only to have their 6-year-old fix it for them in under 10 minutes. I think you got exactly what I mean! A child doesn't know that something is highly complex until we tell them so. If we pre-condition them into thinking their ability, it actually means that we are putting brakes on them even before they get started. Let us consider a scenario wherein children learn to ride a bicycle. Despite the difficulties involved in learning it, lots of children successfully tackle the situation. How? This is because they don't see it as a problem but as an opportunity. They are not worried about the process but their focus is on the goal. No one ever told them to be "super-smart" to do that. When they fall off a couple of times and get hurt, they never link it to a failure instead they succeed after a number of tries. Hence this process of finding solution is a natural ability for both children and even adults!
But if we are using this natural ability, then why is that when children are faced with abstract problems they find it difficult to solve? The solution is that they should always try to find a way into the problem. Unless they train themselves not to let the situation throw them, they may panic at this stage. The problem may look alien to the children, but that does not mean that they lack the skill, knowledge or experience to solve it. The trick is being able to transfer what they already know to the 'strange situation' they are looking at. By training them on few 'tricks of genius' and helping them to master the art of solution-finding, they will be able to unlock and maximize their natural gift whenever they need to!
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