65+ COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Cognitive development is the ability to think and reason. It helps us learn about the world around us and figure out how everything works. There are many stages of cognitive development in one’s life. This article focuses on cognitive development activities in early childhood.
The first five years of a child’s life are an important time for cognitive development.
This is the time when their brains learn how to process information and make sense of the world around them. During this period, they will develop strong thinking skills and be able to communicate more effectively with other people – both verbally and non-verbally.
Let’s see how this complex process of cognition develops in infants to preschoolers.
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Table of Contents
- What is cognitive development?
- Cognitive development activities in each stage
- Some strategies to help kids develop their cognitive skills
- Providing a variety of stimulants to encourage cognitive development activities
- How do you know If your child is ready for a particular activity ?
- More strategies to develop cognitive skills in children
- Online resources related to cognitive development activities
What is Cognitive Development ?
Cognitive development is the way children learn to think and reason, understand the world around them and communicate with others.
It starts from birth as babies begin to acquire new skills in all areas of their lives.
As your child grows, they will develop a range of cognitive abilities that help them make sense of the world around them.
These include:
- Understanding how objects fit together (such as putting blocks into a box)
- Understanding cause and effect relationships (for example if I push this button on my remote control it will turn off my TV)
- Communicating verbally with others by asking questions or giving instructions
How does a child’s brain develop?
The human brain is a complex organ, and its development is a lifelong process. It’s influenced by genetics and the environment, but it’s also not linear; the way your child’s brain develops depends on the interaction between genes and the environment.
This means that while there are some things you can’t control-like whether or not your baby has Down Syndrome-there are also many things you can do to help him reach his full potential.
For example: if you expose your child regularly from an early age (starting before birth), they will probably develop better speech skills than if they don’t get those same experiences until later in life (like when they starts kindergarten).
How does the brain affect a child’s thinking and learning?
The brain is the control centre of the body. It’s made up of billions of cells called neurons, which are connected to each other using electrical signals.
The brain constantly sends and receives signals to keep us alive and healthy-for example, when you breathe or eat food.
You can think of these electrical signals as being like tiny lightning bolts that shoot through your body from one neuron to another.
These lightning bolts help chemicals called neurotransmitters travel between neurons so they can talk to each other!
When a child learns something new, their brain creates new pathways between these neurons so that they can remember how it works in the future (like riding a bike).
This means that learning new things actually changes how your child’s brain looks on an MRI scan!
Cognitive Development Activities Up To 3 Months
What To Expect
- This is the time of wonder when the infant explores the basic senses around them.
- They begin to pay attention to faces, gaze at the mouth when mom is talking or when feeding the baby.
- Sucking nipple or finger for comfort.
- See objects more clearly within a distance of 3 inches.
- Focus on moving objects
- See all colours of the human visual spectrum. (only black and white prior to that)
Things to do
- Cot Mobile – Use cot mobile for sight and sound stimulation
- Rattles – Baby rattles are great toys to play with at this stage
- Peekaboo – Simple expressions like Peekaboo can use to engage with your baby
Cognitive Development Activities From 3 To 6 Months
What to expect
- This is the time when the baby’s sense of perception develops.
- You may notice they bring objects to their mouth.
- React to familiar sounds
- Recognize familiar faces
- Imitate facial expressions
- Try to get things that are out of reach
Things to do
- Sing Songs – Singing is a great way to get the attention of your child
- Object Play – You can provide age-appropriate toys to play with
- Sensory objects – They are curious about different textures by now. For example, you can try sensory books with different textures.
Cognitive Development Activities From 6 to 9 Months
What To expect
- Already has their favourites to be around. Usually mom and dad.
- Begin to pass things from one hand to another
- Identify real and fake objects
- Shows more and more curiosity about what’s happening around them. For example by gazing at bubbles floating in the air
- Showing interest in what other kids are doing
Things to do to
- Sensory bins – A great way to stimulate senses is through sensory bins. This can be a container filled with age-appropriate toys or objects with different textures.
- Stacking toys – You can provide stacking toys or some objects. Playing stacking helps with fine motor skills.
- Water play – bath time can be fun with water toys, cups or containers.
- Storytelling – Tell stories to your kids. Use different voices and tones to get their attention. This helps with their language and vocabulary skills.
Cognitive Development Activities From 9 to 12 Months
What to expect
- Enjoy looking at picture books
- Explore things by shaking, banging, throwing.
- Imitate gestures and some basic actions
- Starts to use things correctly – drink from a cup, use a spoon
- Respond with gestures and sounds
- Pokes with the index finger – especially when exploring different textures
- Understand the concept of object permanence, the idea that an object continues to exist even though it cannot be seen.
THINGS TO DO
- Picture books – Reading is one of the activities that you can do regularly throughout the early years.
- Music Games – They like to play with toy instruments and banging things together to make sounds.
Cognitive Development Activities From 1 to 2 Years
WHAT TO EXPECT
- This is a magical time period where your child’s physical , social and cognitive development speed up rapidly.
- Your child can identify objects that are similar.
- Point out familiar objects and people in picture books
- Imitate the actions and languages of adults
- Learn through exploration.
- Tell the difference between “me” and “you”
- Understand and respond to words
THINGS TO DO
- Matching games – Use flash cards and match with real life objects. This can be done in outdoors as well as a nature exploration activity.
- Colouring – Children can scribble on their own. So it’s a good time to do drawing and colouring.
- Cause and effect toys – This is a great time for them to play with cause and effect toys such as toys with switches, music…
- Teach emotions – You can teach the different emotions. Ex : sad face, scared face, happy face. Use real emotions and flash cards.
Cognitive Development Activities From 2 to 3 Years
What To Expect
- During 2 -3 years children become increasingly independent.
- Identify their own reflection through a mirror by name
- Find things even when they are hidden
- Turns book pages one at a time
- Complete sentences and rhymes in familiar songs and stories
- Respond to simple directions
- Imitate more complex adult actions
- Match objects with their uses
- Name objects in picture books
- Ask questions and try to understand the world around them
- Awareness of the past and present
- Learn by observing and listening to instructions
- Maintain a longer attention span of around 5 – 15 mins
- Screw and unscrew the jar lids and door handle
- Tell their names, parents names and siblings names in full
Things to do
- Tracing shapes – Copy shapes like a circle with a pencil or crayon
- Vocabulary games – Use vocabulary games like ‘I spy’ to help them learn new words
- Hide and Seek – You can play hide and seek or similar games.
- Sorting games – Sort objects by category, colour or shapes (animals, flowers, trees)
- Building games – Let them build towers or structures using blocks.
- Puzzles – You can introduce simple puzzles at this age
- Memory games – There are a varieties of age-appropriate memory games that you can do with your child.
- Imaginary play – Role playing is a fun activity to do in this age.
Cognitive Development Activities From 4 to 5 Years
What to expect
- Create pictures and name them and describe them
- Name and identify colours
- Can write some letters and numbers
- Know about things used in everyday life like money, food.
THINGS TO DO
- Body parts games – You can teach about human body parts. Draw a shape of a person and name parts of the body.
- Time activities – They will be able to understand the concept of time
- STEM activities – They can learn about simple processes like the life cycle of a butterfly, how honey is made etc.
- Board games – Board games are a great way to promote cognitive skills in this age group.
What are some strategies to help kids develop their cognitive skills?
The best way to help children develop their cognitive skills is by providing them with opportunities for exploration and play.
These activities can be as simple as playing with toys, or they can be more complex, such as playing games that require thinking skills.
For example, if you want to expand your child’s’ attention span, you could use a variety of materials on the table: building blocks, crayons, paper and pencils or pens (for writing), small animals in cages so they can observe them up close – anything that interests your kids!
Providing a variety of stimulants to encourage cognitive development activities
For infants
Cot mobiles, rattles, soft toys can be given to help them explore their basic senses. By gazing at rotating objection mobiles, shaking or biting the rattle, squeezing soft toys children get a wide variety of sensory stimulation.
Your voice, songs you sing can stimulate their brains and even create lifetime memory for them.
Even at such a young age, it’s so important to talk to them, look into their eyes, smile and cuddle them, and even do peek-a-boo. They are tiny but their brain cells are growing super fast. Provide stimulants !
After 6 months
They may crawl, sit down, reach for objects. Show them picture books, toys with music, rattles and soft toys of different textures.
Touch and Feel books are great for them at this stage.
1 -2 Years
This is a stage where children show rapid growth in cognitive skills. A few tips to encourage their learning through play ;
- Playing at parks
- Playing with mud and slime
- Reading stories together
- Count with them as they climb steps
Talking to them all the time explaining to them what you are doing and building up sentences from the words they say, will help them improve their language skills.
Ex: If they say Broom, You say Broom Broom It’s a car!
Toddlers And Up
As they grow older, you can offer varied stimulants to match their maturity level.
You can let them experience the beauty of the natural world, talk about weather, emotions to help develop their cognition.
Making puzzles, building towers using building blocks and creating new things can stimulate their brain cells.
Talking about the natural world. Helping the kids bond with nature opens up a wide array of cognitive stimulants in them.
Start small. You can start your day by saying “It’s a beautiful day. We can go for a picnic” Then expand their interest in the outer world gradually. Bush walks, farm visits, woodlands are great places to explore and learn.
Demonstrate information
Starting from their baby days, explain to them what you do.
Ex : I am going to change your nappy, I am making a coffee for me and a toast for you.
As they grow older, show them how to fold clothes, how to stack the dishwasher and try to break down complex ideas in simple ways for them to understand.
Ex : Use simple words to explain how bee honey is made, life cycle of a butterfly
Encourage exploration
Curiosity is so important when you learn about the world you live in. Look at the night sky and talk about what you see.
Encourage them to explore what they don’t know.
Also provide many opportunities for open ended play. This is a great way for them solve problems and make decisions.
How Do You Know If Your Child Is Ready For A Particular Activity ?
If you are looking for activities that will challenge your child, it’s important to understand the developmental milestones for children in this age group.
Children at this age have a lot of energy and enthusiasm – they want to explore the world around them but they are still learning how to do so.
The above list shows some common cognitive development activities based on the child’s stage of development:
More Strategies To Develop Cognitive Skills In Children
Creative and imaginative play is important because it allows children to express themselves through their imagination.
This type of play helps develop thinking skills by encouraging children to use their imaginations as well as problem solving skills when playing games or doing activities that require them to think outside of the box.
Hands-on learning provides an opportunity for children to learn through doing something practical rather than just listening or watching someone else do it first hand (which is often referred to as “book learning”).
Hands-on learning also helps develop fine motor skills which are necessary for writing later on down the road when handwriting becomes more important at school age levels too!
Physical activity is important because it improves physical fitness levels by getting oxygen circulating throughout our bodies more efficiently through increased heart rates while also releasing endorphins which makes us feel happier after working out regularly over time periods such as weekly classes etc.
Online Resources
Now that you know more about how the brain works and how to help children develop their cognitive skills, it’s time to get started!
Let us know what your child’s favourite cognitive development activities are 🙂
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