Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on child’s
development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, languages and other aspects of
the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development.
In his theory (piaget’s) he focuses on how children acquire knowledge and understanding the
intelligence. Through his observations of his children, piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual
development that include four stages. The sensorimotor stage which starts at birth to 2 years where the
infants knows the world through their movements and sensation and with basic actions such as sucking
grasping and listening. The second stage is the preoperational stage (between 2-7 years) here children
tend to be more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development and they begin to think
symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects. The concere operational stage is
the third stage of developmental changed where children begin to think logically about concrete events.
They begin to understand the concept of conversation and formal operational stage is the last stage
where adolescent or young adult begin to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development helped add our understanding of children’s intellectual
cognitive strategies can be achieved with the help of parents and teachers involved. During the
preschool years, parents can help build their children’s cognitive development through play and simple
activities. Play such as thinking of games boost their thinking skills. They tend to predicts games
summarize an event and understand the cause and effect of the game. Talking for stance in language is
the best way to build your child not only to hearing language but also to using it. Parents are the primary
source of child’s language in the early years and so it is important that the grammar is used in a correct
way. A child learns to speak by imitating the adult.
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Child’s family plays great role in language development. During the first years of life, children undergo
major developmental changes across a range of domains. Language enables children to share meaning
with others and participate in cultural in cultural learning in unpredictable ways. A plethora of studies
indicates that the quality of parent caregiver interactions plays a formative role in children’s early
language and learning. The amount and style of language that the family use when conversing with their
children is one of the strongest prediction of children’s early language. Children benefit from exposure
to adult speech that varied and rich in formation of event (Bruner s. Parents that respond to their young
children verbal and exploratory initiatives end to have children with more advanced receptive and
productive language. The provision of learning materials eg books, toys facilitate learning. Exposure to
toys enable symbolic play and support the development of fine motor skills. Children experiences at
home are critical to early language growth and learning.
Jean peaget was a very interested man whom was fascinated in how a child develops mentally. He did
not believe that baby’s were less intelligent than adult. He believes they just thought in a different ways.
He created his theory of four stages of child development where he was able to identify the changes as
each stage pass by. Mental processes change little by little until it gets to the formal operation stage
where people are then able to grasp logical operations as well as rationalize.
References
M Raess, AVM Brentani, B Fluckiger…- Environment…, 2022 – Elsevier
SCL Deoni, V D’sa, A Volpe, J Beauchemin…-…cognitive Neuroscience 2022- Elsevier