Cognitive Development of Children

825 Words2 Pages

Cognitive Development of Children Cognitive development is very crucial in the development of a child. A friend of mine, Julie just recently had a perfect baby boy. Since Julie found out she was pregnant she has been reading book after book, each book that she has read talks about cognitive development, but never really explains what cognitive development is or how to improve ones development. Julie has asked me to help her to understand what she can do to give Hunter the best optimal cognitive development though out his life. I'm going to start by telling Julie exactly what cognitive development is, the four stages of cognitive development and what kinds of activities to do together as he gets older. I believe that this will help Hunter develop into a very smart child he most likely will be ahead of his classmate's in school and will excel through out his life. Cognitive development is the growth in children's ways of thinking about and interacting with their environment. Young children initially learn about the world through active, physical exploration and then gradually develop the ability to think symbolically and logically about their experiences. Children are curious explorers, and their cognitive development involves learning new concepts and testing a variety of ideas. A biologist, known as Piaget was interested in how an organism adapted to their environment, especially behavior adaptation to the environment. Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called "reflexes." However, in human beings an infant uses these reflexes to adapt to the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes. Piaget described two processes used by the individual in its at... ... middle of paper ... ...that is too far beyond the child's level. As an infant's cognitive development grows he knows how to use things to his advantage. His new smiles help to hold mother's attention longer. He also learns that as mother moves slowly from one side of him to the other, he can move his eyes and head to sustain the interaction. However, if his mother moves out of sight and the baby loses her altogether because he does not yet have the ability to remember and reproduce her image in his mind. Either he will fuss because the schema that he was in is gone, or he will switch on another schema, such as comforting himself by thumb sucking. There is a process to this development that does take a long time to develop fully, but with the help of loved one you can help your child be successful and learn to engage in activities that are good for him and his cognitive learning process.

Open Document