Divergent and Convergent Thinking Techniques for Children

Divergent and convergent are two ways of thinking and solving problems that people use every day. Learning to use and balance both ways of thinking can allow for true creativity.

Most people lean towards a mainstream style of thinking. Convergent thinkers see a problem and gather information that they can apply to that problem. They “converge” all their resources to solve the problem at hand. This is the usual way of mathematicians and scientists.

Divergent thinkers are “outside the box” thinkers who see a problem and work outward toward new creative solutions. They use the problem as a stimulus for new solutions and insights rather than converging on the problem itself. This is the common thinking style for entrepreneurs, inventors, and “artistic” people.

Each thinking style has a critical role to play in the creative process, and teaching children how to use both sets them up for a life of success.

Usually the first step in the creative process is divergent. When you start brainstorming, you don’t limit yourself, you come up with as many ideas, no matter how outlandish or unlikely they are. Once you have all your ideas, analyzing them through a convergent process allows you to narrow down and identify your best chances of success.

This is where there is a disconnect for individuals or groups using only one method of thinking. If you only think divergent, it is difficult to achieve something because there are too many great ideas and it is easy to lose focus of your original goal.

If you only think Convergent, you will generally get to the answer faster, but you may miss out on more creative and potentially better answers.

Here are some activities and games you can do with your children to train their convergent and divergent thinking muscles:

What’s in a word? A quick game to play while you wait is to pick a long word and see how many different smaller words you can find in it. This is a great exercise to see how something like a word can be divided and rearranged into many different things.

In someone else’s shoes – Every time you can see a different perspective or see a situation from someone else’s shoes, it forces you to think differently. Open yourself up to different points of view by talking to new people and really listening. Role-playing is a great way to step into someone else’s shoes – by pretending to BE someone else, you have to THINK like someone else.

Get a new perspective – Get in the habit of looking past the first answer that comes to mind. A great Turkish photographer put it to me this way: “When you take a photo, find your perspective and stop. Do not take that photo. That is the one that every amateur tourist takes. Find a new perspective and stop, no” Also do not take that photo . That is the photo that most photographers take and they think is good enough. Go on and when you’re in your fourth or fifth perspective, that’s the one and only, award-winning take. “

This is a great activity to do with children. Take out the camera and take the same photo from different perspectives, see which ones are the best in the end.

This can also be applied to any problem in life. Don’t be happy with the first solution that comes along, train yourself and your kids to keep looking and see what other options there are.

This is a…. – A great game to play while on the go, take whatever item you see or have with you and try to find as many different uses as you can. Take turns seeing who comes up with the most ideas. You may want to write down your good ideas because you never know where they might lead. George Washington Carver came up with over 300 uses for peanuts – an excellent example of divergent thinking!

Fact detective – Whenever you listen to a news story together (or even read a storybook), help your children practice their convergent thinking by answering questions 5 W and 1 H. Identify who, what, when, where, why and what a good exercise that gets children into the habit of selecting relevant details and converging them on an understanding. This is especially useful when trying to solve a problem.

Organizing those facts – Too much information can be overwhelming, especially for divergent thinkers generating ideas. Help them develop an organizational system so that once they have their ideas, they can converge on a useful idea. Lists, flashcards, mind maps, or filing systems are great tools for organizing ideas.

Have regular family brainstorming sessions that employ both divergent and convergent thinking strategies. Whenever you are faced with a problem, like where to go on your next vacation or how you can save electricity, brainstorm as many different solutions as you can (divergent) and then examine each one as a possible solution (convergent). This is a great way to develop strong family communication and allow children to feel like they really have something to do with family decisions.