Activity 1: Cognitive Development Activity for Infants: Stacking toys and blocks.
Stacking blocks is a game where objects such as toys or blocks are placed on a flat surface. The child or children stack the objects on top of each other, and when or if the objects fall, they repeat the action. The child needs to apply hand-eye coordination and begin to learn to build out of blocks. The game enables infants of 12 to 24 months to develop their understanding of the world through coordination of experiences. According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, infants construct knowledge from physical interactions with objects (Bhagat, Haque
& Jaalam, 2018). They develop goal orientation, where they plan to stack up a block on top of the other to see how they create a tower of objects. The shapes of the objects also matter where they begin to see some similarities in different objects. The game is an intentionally repetitive action that triggers the desired effect. Thorough sense and motor movements, the stacking blocks or toys game enhances the cognitive ability of the child during trial and error. Children cognitively learn to grasp objects and coordinate means and ends intentionally. When playing with others, they also gain psychosocial skills.
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Activity 2: Cognitive Development Activity for Preschooler Room: Playing Pretend
Preschoolers play pretend as an imaginative game where children can make paper planes and cars and zoom them around a room to show that they are racing a car or a plane. They use objects to represent real-life items and assign others roles like a pilot, passenger, doctor, mother, or father. They act out their understanding of these words to them and shape the outcomes. According to Paget’s theory of cognitive development, preschool children are at the preoperational stage where they don’t have concrete knowledge. Therefore they manipulate symbols (Bhagat, Haque & Jaalam, 2018). Using paper as cars or planes symbolizes the child’s development of stable concepts while at the same time incorporating magical beliefs. They use sub-stage to picture objects in their mind without having to have the actual object at hand. They develop the ability to connect with others by assigning roles. Egocentrism and pre-causal thinking inhibit them from seeing other people’s perspectives. Egocentrism is when they stick to their viewpoint because they believe that everyone sees situations in the way the child sees contexts. The play pretend games help in the cognitive development of the child by giving them the ability to think in symbols and images that aids in their logical understanding of the world.
Activity 3: Cognitive Development Activity for Grade-schoolers: Snakes and ladders
One of the activities to incorporate in the grade-schooler room is the game board for the snakes and ladders game. The child begins the game at the square numbered one from the bottom left corner and ends at 100 in the uppermost left corner. In the board, the snakes and ladders represent evil and good deeds, respectively. Each player shall use a piece of dice and some objects to represent them. Rolling the dice shall lead to landing on a value that represents the number of squares the player will move towards the 100. The snakes will cause the player to go a few steps back, and the ladder will make a player go a few steps forwards. According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the grade-schooler is at the concrete operational stage, where they develop the appropriate use of logic (Ahmad, Ch, Batool, Sittar & Malik, 2016). To play, the child throws the dice to determine the values which represent the number of compartments to move. They develop inductive reasoning to predict the outcome of an event. In this case, they learn that landing on higher values will give them more progress. The player that reaches the compartment number 100 as the first becomes the winner of the game. The game helps in developing thinking, memory, imagination, and understanding skills to change the course of outcomes.
References
Ahmad, S., Ch, A. H., Batool, A., Sittar, K., & Malik, M. (2016). Play and Cognitive Development: Formal Operational Perspective of Piaget's Theory. Journal of Education and Practice , 7(28), 72-79.
Bhagat, V., Haque, M., & Jaalam, K. (2018). Enrich Schematization in Children: Play as The Tool for Cognitive Development. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science , 8(07), 128-131.
