Cognitive Skills

Children’s brains develop as they have new experiences. You cannot see the brain developing, but you can see what new things the child can do.

Cognitive skill development in children involves the progressive building of learning skills, such as attention, memory and thinking. These crucial skills enable children to process information and eventually learn to evaluate, analyze, remember, make comparisons and understand cause and effect. Although some cognitive skill development is related to a child’s genetic makeup, most cognitive skills are learned. This means that thinking and learning skills can be improved with practice and the right training.

Your child’s cognitive skills development will make huge advances in the first six years. During this time, you will find your child beginning to make connections and understand the relationship between the objects and people around him. As he continues to make huge advances physically and mentally, his abilities should likewise grow.

Involve yourself as a parent in your child’s early cognitive skills development. This gives your child an early advantage. A recommended approach is to involve your child in his own learning. His early participation determines his success in later life.

Some of the changes in our children are not so easy to spot, particularly cognitive changes. Children’s brains develop as they have new experiences. You cannot see the brain developing, but you can see what new things the child can do.

Six-year-old’s enjoy taking on new roles and responsibilities. They are able to pay attention for longer periods of time but continue to prefer structured activities to more open-ended experiences. At this age, your child will still require much direction from you and frequently ask questions to make sure that he is completing tasks the right way. He will be excited about going to school and learning to read and explore new concepts as his planning ahead problem solving skills become more advanced. Activities that can help in your 6 year old’s Cognitive skill development:

• Give your child a chance to make simple choices, such as what to wear or what to eat for a snack.
• Encourage him to answer simple pattern related questions such as “what comes next: sun, moon, sun, sun, moon, ?”
• Name some items from a category and encourage your child to identify the category correctly. For example: socks, t-shirt, dress and pants are in the clothes category.
• Start new board games that encourage memory and problem solving skills development such as Connect 4 or Dominoes