Cognitive Development in Kids
“A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired.”
Vygotsky
Cognitive development is the process of acquiring the ability to draw one’s own perception and conclude by self evaluation and analysis of things or matter based on the knowledge earned and experiences. Knowledge can be spoon fed but not the wisdom as wisdom is more profound. To think, explore and eventually reach a mental construct or view of one’s own without merely emulating what others have done or said amounts to the cognitive development and this very development too originates since early childhood unlike commonly perceived as it’s an adult thing.
Maria Montessori has said once that “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’”
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
Brain development is an element of cognitive development. Brain development is not restricted to merely collecting data and storing it and in being applied just as it was fed as and when required. But it also involves in moulding one’s thinking and critical ability to frame own view after analysing and contemplating the situation, process or matter with the knowledge about the subject resourced and learnt.
JEAN PIAGET’S- COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget said, “The principal goal of education in schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.”
To Piaget, ‘Cognitive development was a progressive reorganisation of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience.’
Piaget believed that children create a perception about the world around and there occurs badminton between the things they have already known and the things they newly discover in the environment. His idea about cognitive development gives impetus to weaving a mental construct of the world by the kids than to the accumulation of acquirement of facts and knowledge.
JEAN PIAGET- FOUR STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget was of the view that Cognitive Development takes place through interaction of innate capacities and events happening in the environment. He learnt that this developmental journey happens by a series of four stages:
- Sensorimotor Stage
This stage is during the first 18-24 months of the infant. During this stage infant lives entirely in Present and do not possess the ability to store a picture of world in mind nor to memorise things generally. This is why it is observed that kids of this age group when shown a toy, they get attracted to it and follow it however they instantly gets deviated to another thing once the toy is hidden from them. They don’t whine or mewl for the toy. Object Permanence, Self Recognition, Deferred imitation and Representational Play are the features developed during this stage and kids does this through making use of their senses and actions.
- Preoperational Stage
Kids enter this stage by the time they turn 2 years old and they are in that stage till 7 years old. During this stage kids develop furthermore than the previous stage in matters of storing information, recalling and labelling things. They become capable to develop mental imagery of world and its things. However they are not yet developed enough to reason and think logically. They focus only on how world looks or appears and not how world really is. Also, kids are observed to interacting with their toys and non- living things and calling them by names. This personifying and attachment to non-living things is called ‘animism demonstration’.
- Concrete Stage: Kids of 7-11 years constitute the third stage of Jean Piaget. Kids of this age have logical thinking ability acquired and used.
- Formal Operational Stage: Kids who fall in the fourth category which is the final stage of Jean Piaget’s Cognitive development stages are of 12 years old and up. Kids who are in this final stage have gained the ability or capacity to reason scientifically.
EARLY CHILDHOOD COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT SKILLS
An infant from birth to around five years are in their early childhood. Cognitive development in kids during early childhood is visible through the various cognitive skills they build during this age like Pre-reading, basic numeracy, language and vocabulary. It is surprising that these skills actually begin from the moment a kid takes birth.
INTERACTION OF GENETIC AND LEARNT FACTORS
It is through the interaction of various genetic factors and the acquired knowledge or things learnt, a person perceives ideas, thinks and draw an understanding of the world. Hence, acquired knowledge, brain functioning, thinking and many genetic traits are also part of the very important kind of overall development namely Cognitive Development.
The overall development of a child can be stratified in to different kinds of development which further is impacted by several factors and phenomenon. Among these, cognitive development makes an individual stand out from the other through the unique way each individual thinks reasons and draws a picture about world and things. Just as any other development starts its baby steps since birth or infant age cognitive development also follows the same timeline. It is important from the parents’, teachers’ and caretakers’ side to give opportunities and facilities to enhance every kind of development as almost every kind progress simultaneously. Kids simultaneously has the characteristics of emulating behaviours and attitudes of elders they know as well as curiosity and thinking way different from adults. This is why kids always have reason even for their answers which are wrong. However this unique way of thinking can also lead the child to reason more, picture things vividly and think differently and discover new things and ideas as it grow up to an adult.
See Also: Why Stories are Important for Children?
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