A Child’s Development from a Cognitive Perspective
Developmental psychology explains the process of growth and change in the lifespan of a human being. It also deals with the thinking of a person, feelings, and behavior change during the life of a person. When it is dealing with children, it is called child psychology or child development. A lot of changes in a human being occurs when there are children. They are a lot of theories that explain the discipline of a child’s development. Development occurs in a wide range, including social, emotional, biological, and cognitive processes (Cherry, 2018).
Cognitive development dominates very majorly in the event of a child. Cognitive comes from the word cognition, which means the operation of the mind. Cognitive development is the study of how the brain thinks during the life of a person. In children, cognitive development will include learning how to distinguish between behavior, punishment, and the decision making of that child. This essay will cover the theories of the cognitive development of a child and what affects the cognitive development of a child.
Cognitive development can be best discussed by theories that explain the process with different stages. Jean Piaget’s approach is the most prominent theory in child physiological development. Piaget’s theory states that a child goes through different cognitive development, which is all different from one another. Various factors, like nature and nurture, influence them. They occur in stages based on the age of the child. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage, which begins from birth to two years (Huitt, Hummel, 2003). Significant cognitive developments happen in this stage.
On the sensorimotor stage, babies develop from innate reflex to voluntary activities. They start to focus their attention more on the surroundings rather than their bodies. They understand that objects and people exist and can represent their actions in mind. The second stage is the preoperational stage, which begins from two years to seven years. This stage will be characterized by the child being unable to make logical reasoning and relying on other forms of thinking. These characteristics make them have faulty conclusions of things. At this stage, the child is only able to see the world in their perspective and not beyond that (Huitt, Hummel, 2003).
The third stage is the concrete operational stage, which runs from seven years through eleven. The child is more aware of the surrounding event and understands their feelings and those of others. They learn that everyone has different perspectives on things, and at times it may be different from there’s. The final stage is the formal operational stage. It starts for eleven years and older. Children can solve various problems using logic and plan for the future. Piaget used these theories to be able to understand how children develop with different environments. His study has had a lot of influence on children’s cognitive development, and it is still very relevant nowadays.
The other theory is the Lev Vygotsky theory, which focuses more on nature and nurture as a sociocultural influence. Sociocultural factors, like the transfer of language from parents, contribute significantly to cogitative development. At this stage, the child can learn new tasks from the parents and can perform them independently. Apart from these two theories, they are other; they are other theories. All these theories explain the same concept of developmental phycology and cognitive development. They optimize the development of normative behavior with different processes.
Cognitive skills include attention, short and long term memory, logical reasoning, and the ability to process things. The brain needs these cognitive skills to learn, think, read, pay attention, and remember and to solve problems. A child can do different things at different stages, depending on their age. Focus is a significant aspect of cognitive development in a child. It involves being able to concentrate on one task at a time in the exclusion of other things. This ability is called selective attention. Sustained attention, on the other hand, is when one can select a job and focus on it at a given period. The early stages of cognitive development start with the infant paying attention to new things. It helps the child’s rapid growth, and they tend to learn new things quickly.
A child will also engage in habituation, which means that they will stop responding to things that have been repeated a lot of times. They will have less attention to things that they have seen before and may even have no response to them. Children continue to develop more awareness as they grow up. At around five years, the child will be able to maintain attention for an extended period. This development will be significant because it will help them in school. Other children are not able to sustain attention and are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Unfortunately, this disorder can only be diagnosed when the child is a little bit older.
Memory is also essential in the development of cognitive skills. This cognitive skill means having the ability to store memory in the brain. As a child develops, so do their capability in saving memory. For instant, it can be difficult for them to remember verbal terms before they can talk and understand a language. Their ability to remember experiences increases as they grow. The reputation of experiences and information will enhance this process until they can independently recall it. This development occurs from two years to around five years and will.
From five years and above, the child begins to develop logic and reasoning capabilities. They begin to understand different perspectives and connect disparate ideas. Another cognitive skill that they acquire is the executive function skill. Executive functions involve using memory and having self-control. The executive functions are developed over time through the childhood of a person. These functions will be influenced by some factors, including the relationships, environment, and activities around the child. Positive executive functions will profoundly impact the future achievements of the person in the future. Executive functions can be negatively affected by stress and trauma.
Another essential thing to understand about cognitive skills is that they vary from one child to another. Every person has different strengths, and others may have weaknesses. For example, some children may have exceptional memory skills, while others may have excellent logical reasoning skills. Others may be having defects in paying attention and poor memory retention. Having little cognitive abilities should not be a problem because the child can improve their cognitive skills. The treatment is done through brain training. Fun activities are done to help the child develop their memory skills and improve their weak cognitive skills.
Cognitive development is primarily concerned with infants and children in acquiring cognitive abilities. It deals with early child development with the influence of relationships, environment, and activities. Piaget’s theory explains how the changes in the human body impact the cognitive development of a child. Significant changes include the development of memory, attention, and executive functions. Each cognitive skill is essential and contributes to the processing of new information in our daily lives. Cognitive skills are related to each other, and one affects the other. Parents must help their children improve their cognitive abilities because they will change them in the future.
References
Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Educational psychology interactive, 3(2), 1-5.
Collins, W. A., & National Research Council. (1984). Cognitive Development in School-Age Children: Conclusions and New Directions. In Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six to Twelve. National Academies Press (US).
Cherry, K. (2018). Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved June 5, 2018.