Cognitive domain development: What Is Cognitive Development | Help Me Grow MN

Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Ages 0 to 3

We hear the term child development a lot, but you may be thinking, what exactly does that cover? Child development refers to an expansion of physical, cognitive, psychological, and socioemotional skills that lead to increased competence, autonomy, and independence for a child. From conception to birth and through early childhood, it is important to ensure children are protected and encouraged to grow across developmental domains.

5 Developmental Domains For Early Childhood

There are 5 developmental domains, or specified areas of knowledge and activity, in childhood development. They are:

• Cognitive Development-

  • Cognitive development is the ability to learn, think, and problem solve.

• Social-Emotional Development–

  • Social-Emotional Development is the ability to interact, self-soothe, associate and actively engage with others.

• Speech/Language Development–

  • Speech and language development is the ability to understand and use language.

• Physical Development–

  • Fine Motor Development is the ability to use smaller muscles, like hands and fingers.
  • Gross Motor Development is the ability to use large muscles, including a wide range of leg and arm motions, sitting up, pulling up, etc.

All domains of child development and learning are connected! We will take a look at each domain up close, how they are naturally expressed through behaviors and how caretakers can encourage these behaviors with specific feedback. This series, created and written by Lauren Olivas, a CSUSB Masters in Child Development student, will look at stages within the first three years. Stay tuned as we cover skills to watch for and how to identify opportunities to engage.

We’ll begin with cognitive development in early childhood, which again is the ability to learn, think, and problem solve. How do these skills begin to present themselves in infants and toddlers and what activities and opportunities can we create to support them?

Cognitive Development for Infants and Babies

At 2-months-old, learning and problem-solving skills are being developed. There are a wide range of cognitive development milestones babies should be working on in the early years of their lives. These include:

• Paying attention to faces
• Following objects with their eyes
• Recognizing people at a distance
• Putting things in their mouth
• Passing toys from one hand to another
• Looking for things to hide and engaging in a peek-a-boo
• Responding to affection and recognizing familiar people from a distance

Cognitive Development Activities for Babies:

• Talk, read, sing and play together every day-feeding, dressing, and bath times are great for this.
• Look at pictures and picture books together.
• Hold a toy or rattle above their head and encourage them to reach for it.
• Pay attention to their differing cries to learn what your baby wants.
• Play peek-a-boo.
• Play hide and seek with toys and age appropriate objects.
• Allow your baby to safely reach for toys, kick their feet and explore their surroundings.
• Point to and talk about your surroundings.
• When your baby drops something on the floor, pick it up and give it back to them to explore cause and effect.
• Establish routines and maintain them consistently.
• Describe the behaviors you want instead of those you don’t. For example, tell baby, “feet on the floor” instead of “do not climb.”

Cognitive Development in Toddlers

Once your baby transitions to toddlerhood (after one year of age), they should be able to engage in more complex problem-solving and cognitive tasks such as:

• Scribbling on their own
• Participating in caregiving activities for a doll or a stuffed animal
• Engaging in simple pretend play
• Naming items in a picture book (“dog” or “baby”)
• Finding objects hidden under multiple layers
• Completing sentences or rhymes in familiar books

Cognitive Development Activities for Toddlers:

• Talk to your child about your daily routines and what you’re doing.
• Work on puzzles together.
• Encourage your child to help with simple household chores.
• Ask lots of simple questions.
• Praise and encourage behaviors you want more of rather than scolding or punishing for the behaviors that you do not.
• Play with blocks and sort shapes.
• Practice identification, ask your child to name parts of their body or what they see out the car window.
• Encourage pretend play.
• Play hide and seek with objects around your home.

(Content provided by Lauren Olivas, M.A Child Development Candidate, Higher Education Mentor for Quality Counts California)

Other Important Resources:

• Resources for building quality at home.
• What is Sesame Street in Communities and how does it support families and children’s growth?
• Watch the webinar, “Children’s Emotional Well-Being During Unpredictable Times” from Dr. Eugene Wong on childhood anxiety and how to effectively support a child who worries.

Finally, if you have questions of concerns about your child’s development or behavior, check out Help Me Grow Inland Empire for developmental screening information.

Reliable & Easy Block Play

Everyday play is vital to cognitive development in toddlers as well as their social, emotional, and physical well-being. Science suggests that children, especially toddlers, learn best through play. Specifically, their natural playful behavior seems to affect their ability to learn, especially when the activity interests them.

In fact, play is a valuable method of learning for toddlers. So, let’s look at play and cognitive development in early childhood.

What Is Cognitive Development?

Cognitive development in children focuses on the advancement of processing information pertaining to perceptual skills, language abilities, attention, memory, decision-making, and learning.

As a core component of cognitive development in toddlers, brain development requires a lot of exploring, thinking, and figuring out how things work as they relate to their environment.

Toddlers sing songs, plays with blocks, and listen to their parents talk or read; those interactions increase their cognitive skills.

What Are Cognitive Skills?

In early childhood, your toddler’s ability to learn is rapidly developing. Accordingly, cognitive abilities or skills are the tools and behaviors your toddler’s brain uses to process information, both incoming and outgoing. Additionally, cognitive development skills include progressive skill-building and determine how your toddler learns.

Cognitive skills in toddlers enable them to take in information and store it in the brain until it is needed. Later, when required, their cognitive abilities help retrieve and use the information to focus, think, read, analyze, evaluate, make comparisons, problem-solve, and grasp cause and effect.

How To Support Cognitive Play And Development

As a parent, your support and ability to foster cognitive development is vital. The first thing to remember is to create an environment and attitude that gives toddlers choices. Secondly, encourage their problem-solving and decision-making by allowing them time to figure things out.

Gently guide and support them to try different solutions, for example, “Is there another spot the puzzle piece might fit?” Or “What about turning the puzzle piece in a different direction?” Most important, be patient and let them solve the problem. Then celebrate their successes to further support trying new things.

Spending quality time engaging and playing with your toddler is critical to their development. Furthermore, this time builds your relationship and sends a powerful message, “That You Matter To Me!” Positive relationships lay the groundwork for your toddler’s cognitive development, but none are as essential as the loving one you have with your child.

Children who feel confident and important are free to explore and learn. They learn about the world, discover who they are and how they fit into it all.

So, engage with your child, whether playing with blocks, doing puzzles, creating with arts and crafts, reading, or immersed in outside activities; most importantly, let them lead the play!

Cognitive Activities For Cognitive Development In Toddlers

• Add fun items to bath time for pouring, scooping, and measuring. Experiment to see if things float or sink.
• Develop their social skills by inviting your toddler to play with other children.
• Answer your toddlers, “Why?” questions. Find the answers together whenever possible.
• Assemble puzzles, encourage trial and error to fit the pieces together.
• Create an art box with paper, crayons, paint, colored chalk, fabric scraps, and other materials. Then let them create, using their imagination and creativity.
• Build and expand on your toddler’s interests. For instance, if they have a love for sea animals. Plan a trip to the aquarium to further their learning.
• Encourage and participate in imaginative play together.
• Expose your child to cognitive development toys, games, and activities such as wooden blocks for toddlers.
• Play simple games like “Simon Says” or “Follow The Leader.”
• Invite exploratory play by encouraging them to discover through their senses.
• Provide materials such as colored pegs, building blocks for toddlers, or shapes for matching, sorting, and counting games.
• Enjoy outside activities at a park or in your backyard. Support exploration with a nature walk.
• Model and teach appropriate ways to show emotions like anger and frustration.
• Read books daily. Ask them to name items in the book or fill in the blanks. For instance, stop reading one of their favorite books and ask your toddler, “What happens next?”
• Engage in language activities, such as storytelling.
• Recite classic rhyming songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
• Sing silly or action songs such as “I’m A Little Teapot” Or “Head And Shoulders.”
• Talk, have conversations about what you are doing and where you are going. For example, “We are going to get dressed after breakfast.” “After we get dressed, we are going to the park.”
• Teach your toddler finger-play songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

Finally, how about some block play with blocks for toddlers to build their cognitive skills!

Block Play And Toddler Cognitive Development

Your block center is the ideal place for cognitive development in play. Block activities foster exploring, thinking, and problem-solving. Whether your toddler is sorting, stacking, or designing the next Eiffel Tower, they are building their cognitive skills.

The benefits of building with blocks are numerous; in addition to developing your toddler’s cognitive abilities, playing with blocks increases skills in the following areas, social-emotional, language, creativity, physical, and motor. The more your toddler builds, the more cognitive growth occurs.

Building with blocks is easy to include in your daily routines. When you engage in block play with your toddler, it supports exploring and discovering new concepts.

Cognitive Development Examples In Block Play:

• Block play provides the opportunities to understand one to one correspondence. 
• Blocks allow toddlers to understand 1 block versus 2 blocks. 
• Building with blocks brings understanding to taller, shorter, longer, same, different, heavier, and more.
• Experimenting with cause and effect, your toddler discovers how a block reacts when added to the top of another one. Why did the tower come crashing down?
• Physical interaction with the blocks reinforces what it means to “add” blocks to make the tower taller or “subtract” blocks so the roads are the same length.
• Through trial and error, your toddler begins to understand how to balance the blocks and defeat gravity.

“Playtime is precious. Play builds brain pathways for thinking, creativity, flexibility, empathy, and many other lifelong skills.” – Heather Shumaker –

Cognitive Development In Toddlers

Studies show, and many experts agree that free play is crucial for your toddler’s brain development! And what do toddlers love to do? They love to play and explore! At play, they are thinking, learning, experimenting, exploring, and problem-solving all the time. Consequently, your toddler wants to test and try everything. Even if things do not seem appropriate for their age. Bound only by their abilities, they are determined to discover how everything works.

At this stage, toddlers are rapidly building independence, confidence, and self-expression, which can often be difficult for parents. We’re sure you have heard of the “terrible twos.” Maybe you are experiencing them right now!

Your 2-year old not only understands approximately 100-150 words but also grows their vocabulary by 10 new words a day. They know the words and concepts of “thank you” and “please.” Toddlers are starting to grasp their emotions and better understand fear, anger, and love. Their behavior is more appropriate, and they comprehend discipline and inappropriate behavior.

Pretend play becomes a focus of your toddler’s daily activities. They enjoy creating imaginative scenarios and playing with other children. Through play, your child can act out everyday activities like shopping, cooking, and cleaning, helping them better understand their surroundings.

Have a preschooler? Read our Cognitive Activities: How To Promote Cognitive Development In Preschoolers post.

Cognitive Development Milestones

Cognitive skills such as following directions, engaging in imaginative play, and sorting shapes are part of toddler cognitive development. Furthermore, these tasks or behaviors that most children complete by a certain age are referred to as developmental milestones. These achievements or milestones are usually divided into five major domains: physical growth, social-emotional development, motor development, and cognitive and language development.

During this tremendous growth stage, your toddler’s physical, social-emotional, motor development (both fine and gross), cognitive development and language will grow leaps and bounds. It can be an exciting time to watch them experience the world and their surroundings.

Toddler Cognitive Development Milestones (Learning, Thinking, Reasoning, Problem -Solving)

We will be looking specifically at the cognitive milestones for toddlers. Typically children progress through developmental milestones in sequence. Therefore, by the age of three, they will know or complete most of the below tasks.

However, all children develop at their own pace, so use these for informational guidelines only. Please contact your pediatrician if you have any concerns about your toddler’s development.

Want to see what cognitive development for toddlers will look like over the next year? Here is what to expect:

• Answers simple questions like, “Where?” “What are you doing?” or “What is this?”
• Begins to sort or match some colors, pictures, or shapes.
• Can follow two or three-step commands (“Please, pick up the red block and put it on the shelf next to the blue one.”)
• Communicates a wide range of emotions and feelings.
• Comprehends the concept of one to one actions, such as passing out one book per person.
• Curious about how things work and will use trial and error to investigate.
• Develops a sense of humor.
• Engages in imaginative play, enjoying easy make-believe games.
• Enjoys simple 3-4 piece puzzles.
• Finds objects even when hidden.
• Has an increased attention span.
• Identifies themselves by name in the mirror.
• Imitates playmates or adults- for example, doing laundry, cooking, or playing house.
• Incorporates toys in multiples ways, such as using blocks in pretend play – for example, may use a block as a telephone.
• Knows full name, gender, and age.
• Labels body parts.
• Likes looking at books, listening to stories, and storytelling. May make appropriate comments, complete the rhymes or sentences in familiar books.
• Loves repetition, be prepared to read the same book or sing the same song repeatedly.
• Names at least one color and possibly more.
• Names items in a picture book.
• Recalls parts of a story or past experiences.
• Recognizes familiar objects and can match them with their use.
• Starts to understand time like the future (tomorrow or soon.)
• Understands “same” and “different.”
• Understands counting and can count 2-3 objects.

A relationship with a loving, caring, and trusting adult is an essential component of cognitive development in toddlers. The time you spend together playing sends an important message, “You are important to me, and you are loved!” So grab a set of wooden toy blocks and enjoy some quality block play!

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Cognitive science is one of the fastest growing segments of modern interdisciplinary research devoted to the study of the functions of consciousness and the mechanisms of the brain that implement these functions. One of the most important results of the development of cognitive science in recent years has been the emergence of a number of new disciplines (cognitive ergonomics and neuroergonomics, neuroeconomics, neuromarketing) and a whole class of technological applications in medicine and related fields of science. In our country, these works are carried out within the framework of the Interregional Association for Cognitive Research (MAKI) and on the basis of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”. The authors of this article are employees of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, heads of the MAKI: Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences B.M. Velichkovsky – founder and first President of MAKI (2006–2010) and V.L. Ushakov is the current President since 2018.

The article provides an overview of current neurocognitive research that combines fundamental questions with practical applications. The results of the ongoing work at the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” aimed at creating new types of human-machine interfaces, which are designed to replace in the near future the traditional graphical user interfaces created at an early stage of cognitive science, are described. These works are largely related to the study of the features of visual attention and voluntary oculomotor behavior in humans. Methods and results of studying the macroscale mechanisms of the brain are presented. Modern methods, such as ultrafast functional magnetic resonance imaging and dynamic causal modeling, allow in a completely non-invasive mode to restore the picture of cause-and-effect interactions of human brain structures when solving various problems and in the state of waking rest, basic for human consciousness. With the help of these methods, it was possible for the first time to study the interactions of brain mechanisms related to different evolutionary levels of its organization, namely, the most ancient, ancient, new and recent cortex. An example of the former is the hippocampus, and the latter is the frontopolar regions of the frontal lobes. As a result, new data on the asymmetry of the human brain in normal and pathological conditions were obtained, indicating the importance of interhemispheric asymmetry with the right hemisphere dominance of effective (causal) connections at rest with the normal functioning of the brain and human consciousness. The authors emphasize that the features of the macroscale organization can and should be correlated with the molecular mechanisms of the corresponding neural networks of the human brain.

The results of studying the features of the expression of protein-coding genes in the frontopolar regions of the frontal cortex are presented. These studies also revealed right-sided dominance, but this time in terms of the number of genes expressed, which were found to be associated with schizophrenia risk. However, no association was found with major neurodegenerative diseases.

The diagnosis of consciousness has always played a crucial role in medicine. To this day, communicative contact with the patient remains the main test of the preservation of consciousness. At the same time, the importance of objective methods is growing. Arguments are given that indicate that the modeling of consciousness and the corresponding implementation are the most important condition for the further development of work in the field of cognitive technologies and machine “intelligence”.

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The basis of the cognitive development of children with severe multiple developmental disorders is the kinetic and kinesthetic development of the child



First, let’s understand what is meant by the term “cognitive development”. Cognitive development (from the English. Cognitive development) – the formation of all aspects of thought processes, such as: memory, perception, problem solving, concept formation, logic and imagination. The doctrine of cognitive development was developed by the Swiss philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget. His epistemological doctrine determined the diversity of basic concepts in the field of developmental psychology, and also explores the level of intelligence, which, according to Piaget, means the ability to more accurately reflect the external environment and implement regular operations on the types of concepts formed in cooperation with the external environment. The doctrine interprets the origin and structure of schemas—schemes for perceiving the universe—during the “developmental stage,” a time when babies are learning the latest techniques for understanding information in the brain. The doctrine is “constructivist”, the idea being that, unlike nativist doctrines (which describe cognitive change as a gradual acquisition of knowledge through skill), it argues that we individually construct our cognitive capabilities through our activities in the world around us.

Studying the work of the human brain structure, physiologists discovered the following fact: for the cognitive development of babies, bright information is required, that is, such information that comes from the sense organs together with movement and personal-emotional experiences.

The ingenious Russian physiologist IP Pavlov, the developer of the science of the highest nervous activity, believed that every idea ends with a movement. He explained this by the fact that as a result of movement during mental work, neural networks are created that allow one to assimilate new knowledge. During this process, special substances are released that contribute to a change in the nervous network.

Another scientist, a doctor of neurophysiological sciences and a professional in the field of education, K. Hannaford, wrote in the book “Movement Wise”: “The wrong notion that the mind and body are separate manifestations is seriously rooted in our society and, therefore, movements are not connected at all. with the intellect … This is due to the philistine view of the body: bodily functions, feelings and impressions that accompany life are considered more low, less human than the intellect … As if the significance of the body should be in order to “transfer” the brain from one place to another and in this way to guarantee his weighty work… But not all thinking and teaching is concentrated only in the head. Otherwise, our body, physical exercises from childhood and throughout life play the most important role in the formation of a network of nerve cells, which is considered the result of learning. For this reason, the cognitive development of children with disabilities is so problematic.

Speaking about the features and developmental opportunities of children with TMND, let’s clarify what this term defines.

These children have a pronounced lack of cognitive development in combination with impaired motor activity. In this category of children, intelligence, communication and speech, sensory sphere, motor skills suffer, sensorimotor coordination is disturbed, they cannot accurately and quickly start moving, change the rhythm and pace of movement.

Thus, it is the motor disorders in a child with TMND that are the basic part of the main defect and are formed by the same mechanisms as the main defect.

Currently, the most urgent problem of specialists working with this contingent is the organization and implementation of correctional and developmental work to change the kinetic and kinesthetic feelings and perceptions of children with TMND.

The kinetic and kinesthetic development of children with TMND is as important as the development of vision and hearing. However, we can only speculate what limit a child with SMDD can achieve in each of these areas. Suppose that most likely the development will be minimal, and he will not learn to talk, serve himself, walk. Therefore, there was such an opinion until recently that it is pointless to teach such children anything.

Despite this dogma, the practice of employees working with this category of children convinces us that there are no children who have not learned something. Every child is capable of development if he is supported. Therefore, it is very important to teach children how to interact and communicate with people around them. It is also necessary to explain to this child that he himself has the opportunity to influence the world around him by his activity. In this regard, it is quite important for children with TMND to change kinesthetic and kinetic feelings and motor activity.

The brilliant Russian scientist I.M. Semenov believed that the “muscular feeling” proper is considered not only a vector of the direction of movement, but also a psychological factor in spatial thinking, understanding of time, subject judgments and conclusions, which most emphasizes the significance of kinesthetic feelings in the psychological work of people.

The kinesthetic sense is required for the child to determine information about the movement and position of his personal body in space. It appears with irritation of proprioceptors (peripheral components of sensory organs) located in tendons, muscles, ligaments and joints. Further, on the basis of kinesthetic sensitivity, intersensory connections are formed, namely: visual-motor, motor-motor, auditory-motor, skin-kinesthetic, tactile-motor, etc.

The formation of kinesthetic sensitivity is undoubtedly not considered, without the kinetic factor in the development of children. Kinetics is a complex of body movements that an individual uses in the course of communication. It explores human behavior in its non-verbal manifestations, these include: pantomime, facial expressions, expressiveness and manifestations of emotions, experiences.

The formation and change of kinesthetic and kinetic feelings compensates for impaired vision or hearing in children with TMND. It depends on the fact that this type of feeling, according to the definition of I.M. Sechenov, acts in the form of a “muscular feeling” and has the ability to drastically intensify with special training, during which a conscious body movement is formed characteristic of speed, rhythm and strength.

The main goal of teachers working with children of this category is the process of the greatest initiative and independence of children with SMDD during the day, as well as the development of the ability to communicate with people around them by the method of non-traditional communication based on preserved functions. As a result, correctional classes with children on the development of kinesthetic and kinetic perception are focused on the conscious performance of body movements by children, on the development of their methods of control and self-control over their movements.

When selecting and conducting corrective and developmental activities, one must take into account, in fact, that kinesthetic feelings are closely related to the work of the peripheral sections of the analyzers and receptors located on the skin of the body, which perceive irritations from the environment. This is very clearly expressed in touch, which combines kinesthetic and skin sensations, in which vestibular, auditory, visual and other analyzers play an important function.

In comparison with normally developing peers, the formation of the accuracy of body movements, the mastery of the abilities of control and self-control in children with TMND are carried out in a longer period of time, during long sessions with numerous repetitions. For the formation of the motor ability of special children, special exercises are required. And the main way of working with these guys is the method of stimulation: tactile-motor, visual-motor, motor-auditory, etc.

At the same time, at the beginning of work, it is purposeful to apply the method of passive stimulation, and only then the method of active stimulation; which will contribute to the child’s habituation in this place and his greater confidence in the study of the external environment, as well as an increase in his dynamic and static endurance, performance. His body movements in this case will work as a working tool in understanding objects, their qualities and phenomena of the external environment. And the control of their body will strengthen children with TMND to feel all the influences of the external environment much faster and more accurately and understand them accurately.

Therefore, from the above, we conclude. Kinetic and kinesthetic development is in the concept of the formation of the cognitive development of children with TMND.

Literature:

1. Bgazhnokova, I.M. Teaching children with severe underdevelopment of the intellect. Program – methodological materials. M. – Humanitarian publishing center “Vlados”, 2010]
2. Vorobieva E. A., Ph.D. Semenovich A. V. Complex methodology of psychomotor correction. — M., 1998]
3. Mahler A. R. Help for children with developmental disabilities. M., “Arkti”, 2006]
4. Minenkova, I. N. The use of the method of basal stimulation in correctional and pedagogical work with children with severe and or multiple disorders of psychophysical development.