Curiosity & questions · 2026-09-11

Are There Really Purple Squirrels?

Children don't believe everything they hear. Nurturing "friendly scepticism" helps them pause and ask how we know something is true before accepting it.

"My older brother told me that if you swallow a watermelon seed, a whole watermelon will grow in your tummy!"

If you spend enough time around young children, you will hear them report playground rumours with absolute certainty. To a four-year-old, the world is vast and full of magic, making it entirely plausible that clouds are made of cotton candy or that the moon follows their car all the way home.

But as parents, how do we help them gently transition from believing everything they hear to developing a healthy, friendly scepticism? How do we teach them to check the facts without dampening their wonderful imagination?

The lie detector in little heads

For a long time, adults assumed that young children were simply blank slates, ready to absorb and believe any piece of information handed to them. However, developmental science paints a much more sophisticated picture.

Research into what psychologists call "epistemic trust" — how we decide who and what to believe — shows that even toddlers are actively evaluating the reliability of their sources. Studies led by researchers such as Paul Harris at Harvard University have demonstrated that by the age of four, children track whether someone has given them accurate information in the past. If an adult repeatedly calls a ball a shoe, the child will soon stop trusting that adult's labels for new, unfamiliar objects. They are not merely passive listeners; they are little detectives, constantly weighing the evidence in front of them.

The pause before believing

Friendly scepticism is not about raising cynical children who doubt everything. Rather, it is about nurturing the habit of the pause — the moment between hearing a claim and accepting it as absolute truth. It is the spirit of asking, "Wait, let's look again."

When your child brings home a wild claim from school, our first instinct is often to correct them immediately: "No, that's not true." But this skips a valuable learning step. Instead, we might say, "Wow, a purple squirrel? That sounds amazing. How do you think your friend knows that? Shall we see if we can find a picture of one together?"

This shared investigation shows them that it is perfectly fine to question information. It embodies the spirit of "Ask one more why." When they ask their AI learning companion, Sparkie, a question like "Why do leaves change colour?", we can take their curiosity a step further. We can step outside, pick up a fallen leaf, and look at its veins together, connecting the answer they heard with the real world they can touch.

Changing our minds gracefully

One of the most powerful ways to teach children to evaluate information is to model how we handle being wrong ourselves. It takes courage to change our minds based on new evidence, and children need to see the adults they love doing just that.

If you tell your child that the library is open, but you arrive to find the doors locked, talk them through your realisation. "I was so sure it was open today! But look at the sign — it says closed on Thursdays. I had the wrong information, so now I need to update my thinking." When we normalise making mistakes and correcting them based on new facts, we show children that truth is something we actively seek out, rather than something we passively receive.

Things to try at home this week

Play 'Real or Silly?' During a car ride or at the dinner table, take turns making statements. Say things like, "Dogs have four legs," followed by, "Cats can fly helicopters." Let your child proudly identify which is real and which is a silly story, building their confidence in sorting fact from fiction.
Ask 'How do we know?' When reading an informational picture book together, occasionally pause and ask, "How do you think the person who wrote this book found out about dinosaurs?" This introduces the idea that knowledge comes from observation and study.
Wonder out loud. Model your own friendly scepticism in everyday life. If you see a striking advertisement on a billboard, you might say, "That poster says this is the best cereal in the whole world. I wonder who decided that? Maybe we should check the ingredients ourselves."