How Do Kids Develop Cognitive Skills?

What are cognitive skills? They are the processes that involve progressive building of learning and thinking skills within children. These skills help children to process sensory information and learn to evaluate, analyze and remember it. Part of the cognitive skills is based on a child’s genetic makeup, and part of it can be learnt. This means if the basic skills are present, learning and thinking skills of a child can be improved with practice and training. Generally, children start developing cognitive skills rapidly in the first few years of life, and progressively build them throughout their schooling. The teachers at GAFL, one of the best schools in Kengeri, put in all efforts to help their students develop learning and thinking skills effectively.

The cognitive development of children occurs in four diverse stages. Each of these stages builds upon the previous stage and is characterized by higher levels of thinking. This model of child development tracks qualities of attention, short and long term memory, logic, reasoning and processing within children.

First stage – Sensorimotor stage

This is the time from birth of the child up till he is about 2 years old. In this stage, kids learn about the world through their senses and manipulation capabilities. They learn through senses as they explore the world around them. They use their sense of touch, sound, sight, taste and smell to start making connections with objects around them. All of this controls things like movement and vision.

Second stage – Preoperational stage

This is the stage when the kids are between ages 2 and 7 years, and can develop memory and imagination. This is when they are able to understand things symbolically, and different ideas of the past and future. Children start developing attention skills, short and long term memory, and skills that are foundational for reading during this skill. This is also when kids start learning through language. They learn words and start using complex sentences. This is the time when kids require a language-rich environment. The more words they are exposed to, the more their neural pathways will develop.

Third stage – Concrete operational stage

During this stage, children are between the ages 7 to 11 years, and are more aware of external events and feelings of other people. They begin understanding that not every person has the same feelings, thoughts and beliefs. At this stage, children start thinking with more complexity. They consider the ‘what if’s of every situation and figure out possible outcomes. They start understanding people’s reactions, perspectives and experiences.

Fourth stage – Formal operational stage

This is the stage when children are above 11 years of age. During this stage, they are able to use logic to solve problems and plan for the future. They start finding clues and put the puzzle pieces together to come up with a solution. They start putting themselves in other people’s shoes and understand that actions have consequences. This is when their emotions and feelings are strengthened.

Thus, cognitive skills are those that the brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, pay attention and solve problems. These skills are measured to determine the IQ of children. However, all cognitive profiles do not look the same. Children have some skills that are stronger than others. Remember that kids learn by building connections between the cells of their brain. The more these pathways are used, the stronger they get. Thus, it is only practicing that will help them build cognitive skills. Depending on which stage your child is in, you can analyze the kind of thinking and learning skills he will be able to pick up, and then focus on them.

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