Top Tips for Supporting Your Child’s Cognitive Development
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When it comes to children, there are four main areas of development. These are:
- Motor Development
- Language Development
- Social/Emotional Development
- Cognitive Development
The first three are pretty self-explanatory, but not everyone is familiar with the term “cognitive”. Simply put, cognitive development refers to how children think and reason, so that they can figure things out and solve problems. There are lots of things that parents can do to support their child’s cognitive development, as explored below by this nursery in Halstead.
Photo by Marisa Howenstine on Unsplash
Encourage Your Child to Be Curious
As a parent, you’re probably familiar with the constant “why” questions that children throw at you. It can feel quite relentless at times, but its important not to shut them down or shrug them off. Always answer their questions to the best of your ability and if you don’t have the answer, use it as an opportunity to do some research together. You should even try and ask your own questions about the world where you can, to show your child that it’s perfectly normal to be curious.
Another way to encourage curiosity is to expose your child to new environments on a regular basis. Don’t always stick to the same park when you go for a walk; take them somewhere new so that they have the opportunity to learn about different places. Perhaps you could drive to the coast one weekend and do some arts and crafts the next.
Practise Numbers, Shapes & Colours
Where possible, try and help your child learn to count. You could count the number of buttons on their shirt, or the number of placemats on the table. You should also help them learn about shapes and colours by pointing them out as you see them. For instance, you could say “This ball is red and round” or “That sign is a yellow hexagon”.
Practising numbers, shapes and colours in this way will help your child not only identify visual information but also categorise things, which is important for their cognitive development.
Offer Choices
We are all guilty of making decisions on our child’s behalf, like what they should eat or how they should spend the afternoon. However, offering them choices will help them with their cognitive skills. Ask them “Would you like a banana or an apple with your lunch?” or “Would you like to wear the denim shorts or the khaki trousers?”.
Not only does offering choices help children with their cognitive development, it also helps with their self-esteem. It lets them know that their opinion is important and gives them a sense of control over their own lives.
Of course, cognitive development is much more in-depth than discussed and involves more than the three examples suggested. However, following this advice will put your child on the right path.
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