Cognitive skill development in children involves the progressive building of learning skills, such as attending, memory and thinking. These crucial skills enable children to process the sensory information they experience and eventually learn to evaluate, analyze, remember, make comparisons and understand cause and effect. Although some cognitive skill development is related to the child's genetic makeup, most cognitive skills are learned. That means thinking and learning skills can be improved with practice and the right training.
Primary Areas Of Cognitive Development
Attention
When a child learns to pay attention, it enables him to concentrate on one task or conversation for an extended period of time. Learning to focus attention is an important cognitive skill that the child will use in virtually all future learning. Children younger than five years of age tend to have short attention spans that typically last 15 minutes or less. By the time a child reaches eight years of age, he typically has an increased ability to focus on one thing for longer periods and complete tasks and is more adept at ignoring distractions.
Parents and teachers can help children develop their ability to focus by pointing out things that seem important or interesting and then asking the child to comment on their observations. For example, a trip to the zoo might result in some specific questions such as:'What animal was your favorite?' and 'What did you like best about this animal?' Questions like these help the child to pay closer attention to what he is exposed to and also challenges his ability to choose specific words to describe his thoughts.
Memory
Memory is an important cognitive skill that equips a child to retain what he has learned and experienced and therefore build a future base of knowledge. Children younger than five years of age have difficulty with short- and long-term memory retention. But, as a child progresses into the school years, his long-term memory increases and allows the child to progressively build on the previous knowledge.
A useful technique for facilitating memory in children, especially when there is a lot of information, is teaching content with rhymes, catchy sayings or putting the content to music.
Thinking
The cognitive skill of thinking involves helping children to assess his own ability to reason out a task and find solutions. This skill helps him become more aware of his own thinking process, to know whether he's accomplishing what he set out to do or whether he needs to ask for help. For example, when a child reads a story, thinking skills allow the child to determine for himself whether he's able to understand what he is reading or whether he needs to go over the passage again, look for additional clues, study any available pictures or ask for help in order to better grasp the intended meaning.
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