Act out a real-life problem during pretend play. For example, “Oh no, Panda and Teddy both want to sit in the truck, but there’s only room for one of them!” Encourage the child to talk through a solution. Ask questions like, “What should they do?”

When things go wrong during the day, use the opportunity to build language by offering an explanation. For example, “The juice spilled because the cap on the bottle was loose.”.

While on a walk, make comments that draw the child’s attention to why things appear a certain way. For example, if the child notices some flowers that are bent, say, “Those flowers are bent because someone stepped on them.”

When you finish reading a book, talk about the problem the characters faced in the story and see if the child can think of alternative ways the problem could have been solved. For example, “What else could the little pigs have done to protect themselves from the wolf?”