Cognitive development begins from the time when an infant is born and develops into adulthood. It is critical to facilitate healthy cognitive thinking in children because it creates a strong foundation for handling complex situations that require critical thinking when they become adults. Cognitive development tends to be distinct for every age group, and therefore specific cognitive activities should be incorporated based on the age group. Based on Piaget's cognitive stages of development, infants develop a cognitive understanding through senses and movement. Interactions with the world experiences influence the preschoolers' thoughts development. Finally, adolescents' cognitive thinking is influenced by hypothetical reasoning, and they make conclusions after consideration of various factors and outcomes. To facilitate cognitive thinking, infants can engage in activities involving toys and rattles with noise; preschoolers can participate in symbolic activities and simple mathematical operations for teenagers.
Cognitive Development Activity for Infant Room: Toys or Rattles with Noise
Playing with noisy toys is an activity that can be incorporated in the infant room to facilitate cognitive development. A child can shake the rattle to produce the noise, or the guardian can shake it for them. The rattles help the child's motor ability as they reach the rattles for noise production. Additionally, rattles with music and lights activated through a push of a button can educate the child about the cause and effect factors. Piaget's cognitive stages of development state that the children at this stage are in the sensorimotor stage (Sullivan, 2014). Infants understand the world through sensing and movement and realize that their actions can make the things around them happen. The rattles' noises can help the infant identify different sounds around them, which helps them know the sound's direction. This activity will help in cognitive development and also the sensory part as the infants interact with rattles.
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Cognitive Development Activity for Early Childhood Room: Symbolic Activities
Young children develop a symbolic function to the extent that they can create a visual image or scenario of an encounter they had in their life. In this stage, children often engage in imaginary activities, a theory termed by Piaget as a symbolic representation. For instance, a child may see a car, and then sometime later, they collect a piece of wood and start simulating the car. The children in the Preschoolers stage tries to understand the world through mental structures (Mossler, 2015). Therefore, it is critical to enhancing them with symbolic activities that include showing them images that represent certain aspects of life.
Furthermore, at this stage, they tend to be in the Preoperational stage; therefore, they have a rigid thinking style. As a result, the children encounter characteristic errors since they have not developed transformation and conservation abilities. Conservation is the ability to understand the specific characteristic of objects and remain the same. In this stage, the children cannot understand how things change from one state to another. However, the symbolic activities will help them grasp different concepts about the things around them.
Cognitive Development Activity for Adolescent Room: Simple Mathematical Operations
Adolescence is a stage where young adults start getting more interactive with the things around them. At this stage, the children can reason hypothetically and logically. Furthermore, adolescents develop the ability to reason and solve problems. Therefore, to stimulate cognitive development in this stage, one can introduce mathematical operations activities in adolescent rooms. Factors such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division influence and expands the child's ability to solve problems. Piaget's cognitive development stages depict that young adults begin to think abstractly and reasons hypothetically. The unraveling of mathematical problems will develop the abstract thinking of young adults.
Conclusion
To facilitate cognitive thinking, infants can engage in activities involving toys and rattles with noise; preschoolers can participate in symbolic activities and simple mathematical operations. Noises from toys will enable infants to understand the different types of sounds and can be used to train the child to understand the noise direction. Additionally, preschoolers strive to understand the world through a mental structure, and therefore, introducing symbolic activities in their rooms will reinforce their cognitive development. Finally, introducing mathematical operations activities in adolescent rooms will enhance their abstract thinking. When proper cognitive development activities are introduced in every child development stage, cognitive development will occur effectively and optimally.
References
Mossler, R. (2015). Child and Adolescent Development (2nd ed.). L+L Companies.
Sullivan, P. (2014). A new writing classroom: Listening, motivation, and habits of mind . University Press of Colorado.
