Understanding your child’s cognitive development can help you to choose the right activities to further boost thinking, remembering and reasoning abilities. Cognitive development in early childhood refer to your baby or toddler’s mental capacity for problem solving, language acquisition, learning about objects and relations between cause and effect. In other words, it is immensely important and forms the foundation for many of the other skills your child will learn later in life.
Baby Cognitive Development
The brain of an infant baby is growing faster than at any other time in life! Studies have shown the first months of life to have enormous consequence for social and emotional development much later in life and up through adulthood. However healthy cognitive development does not need to be complicated. At ADAM & Mila we have three golden rules when it comes to stimulating young brains:
Rule No. 1: Love, Love, Love!
Caring for you baby and developing a strong emotional bond is the absolute best way to make sure your child will grow up to be an emotionally balanced and caring adult.
Rule No. 2: Novelty for all the Senses
Nothing gets those baby brain neurons firing like experiencing something for the first time. Repetition is good for learning specific skills, but for fast growth and comprehensive mental development the name of the game is Novelty. New smells, New Sounds, New Textures and New Shapes – all of it helps.
Rule No. 3: Not What but How
It’s not important what your baby is able to do, it’s how he or she does it that deserve applause. Try not to get too caught up in teaching your baby specific skills, instead provide opportunities to explore through play. Soon you will find that your baby has acquired many new and surprising talents!
Toddler Cognitive Development
This is the most amazing age when it comes to cognitive skills. Now is the time when all that brain building your child has been doing as a baby is truly starting to pay off, and you are about to witness an explosion of new talents and surprisingly clever behavior!
Your toddler will start imitating parent behavior and act out familiar scenes from adult life. He or she will start to remember the location of favorite toys and objects and will be able to search for and find them at will.
Solving increasingly complex problems whether it be a toy puzzle or how to convince grandma to give another biscuit is done with ease.
Your toddler may even try to read a favorite book by him or herself! While not quite able to decipher the letters and words your toddler may be able to flip the book if it happens to be held upside down. If you are reading aloud you may see a burst of excitement and anticipation just as something in the story is about to happen.
As with adults, taking good care of your child’s body and wellbeing has significant impact on mood and mental development. So make sure to serve healthy food and combine physical gross motor activity with your other educational and brain boosting activities.
Cognitive Development Activities for Babies and Toddlers
Helping parents to find the right development activities that suits your child’s current development stage is why we created ADAM & Mila!
We strongly believe that playing games and having lots of fun with child development is not just the right approach, but is the essence of good parenting. Whether you are looking for recommendations of children’s books, tips on things to talk to your toddler about or ways to include the whole family in the care of your baby, the community here at ADAM & Mila is ready to support you.
Cognitive Development Milestones
Young children develop through stages marked by developmental milestones. Here at ADAM & Mila we have spent considerable energy compiling vast amounts of scientific research on Child Development into a simple to understand guide, trying to explain the often complicated terms used, and above all making it practical and easy to apply for you as a parent.
We cover hundreds of Baby and Toddler Development Milestones and quite a few just in the area of Cognitive Skills. For your convenience we have sorted all the Cognitive Development Milestones into small themes representing different aspects of your child’s journey.
Developmental Milestones related to Learning through Play
Sorting and Matching Developmental Milestones
Creative Problem Solving Milestones and Activities
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