Cognitive Development in Children

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Cognition is the ability to gain knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. There are essentially four stages of cognitive development; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage is from birth to around 2 years old and during this stage you know the world only by movements and sensations. The next stage, preoperational, happens between 2 and 7 and is when you start to think symbolically and use words and pictures for objects. The third stage, concrete operational, is from 7 to 11, and you begin to think logically. The final stage, formal operational, happens at the ages 12+. This stage you begin to reasonably think about hypothetical problems. This is how cognition normally develops, but there are certain ways that cognitive development can be affected. There are various activities that can harm the development of cognition in children. Two of the major things that harm cognitive development during the pregnancy are drug use and malnutrition. After the child is born, there are several ways to harm the development. Exposing them to too much TV is one way, even if it is an education show. It is recommended that any infant under 2 not be allowed to watch TV. Another factor that is harmful is a stressful environment. Stressful environments include dirty houses, malnutrition, argumentative parents, etc. Finally, the last factor that I will list is not providing the infant with either formula or breast milk. Some parents do not breast feed and cannot afford formula, so they turn to regular milk, this does not provide them with all the nutrients that the infant needs to develop properly. If any of these factors contribute to a child's development, th... ... middle of paper ... ...t a slower rate, possibly with a disorder as well. The kid from Family A cannot process sights and sounds as fast as the kid from Family B, she has to stop and think for about a minute before responding. After looking at these examples, you can clearly see how these factors can either harm or help a child's development. It all boils down to stress and nutrition. All of these factors that I have listed either create stress or alleviates it. Exposing children to a stress free environment by not arguing around them, give them adequate amounts of attention and sleep, as well as providing them with the necessary nutrients will help children not develop a cognitive disorder. Of course, it is not a guaranteed way of preventing a disorder as it could just be a genetic disorder, but it will greatly reduce the chances and possibly even help the cognition to develop faster.

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