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.

The preschool period is a time of rapid growth along a number of developmental measures, especially children’s thinking abilities, or cognition.Your curious and inquisitive child is better able to carry on a conversation. His vocabulary is growing, as is his or her thought process. Not only is your child able to answer simple questions easily and logically, but he or she should be able to express feelings better. Most children at this age enjoy singing, rhyming and making up words. They can now count up to 10 or more objects, correctly name at least four colors and three shapes, recognize letters and potentially attempt to write his own name if taught. Activities that can help in your 5 year old’s Cognitive skill development:

• Start a game of “I Spy”, which is communicating a name of an object around you by just giving him the first letter of the word. He should then think and guess the different options it could be.
• Ask him to close his eyes and feel objects with different shapes and textures to identify what they are.
• Play a game of “Which one doesn’t belong?”. You can name items such as book, magazine, computer and birthday card and encourage him to identify which one stands out and why.
• Offer your child challenging puzzles that require him to think independently and solve them.