Cognitive development facts for kids
Cognitive development is all about how your brain grows and changes as you get older. It's how you learn to think, understand, solve problems, and make sense of the world around you. This field of study looks at how children learn new skills like processing information, understanding ideas, using language, and remembering things.
Think about how a baby sees the world compared to an adult. A baby doesn't understand that a toy still exists when it's hidden, but an older child does. This is part of cognitive development! It's about how you learn to think, understand, and explain your thoughts. This growth happens because of both your genes and what you learn from your experiences.
Jean Piaget was a very important person in this field. He created a famous "theory of cognitive development". Piaget suggested that children go through four main stages as their thinking skills develop. While some of his specific ideas have changed over time, his general descriptions of how thinking changes with age are still widely accepted. For example, he showed how young children learn through actions, and later, teenagers start to understand more complex, abstract ideas.
Today, scientists also use other ideas to understand cognitive development. These include how we process information, and how our social experiences shape our learning. One big question in this field is "nature versus nurture". This asks if our thinking skills are mostly decided by our genes ("nature") or by our experiences ("nurture"). Most experts now agree that both genes and experiences work together from the very beginning of life.
Contents
Early Ideas About Thinking
Even before Jean Piaget, many thinkers wondered about how children's minds grow.
Rousseau's Stages of Growth
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a book in 1762 called Emile, or On Education. He thought childhood development happened in three main parts.
- Up to age 12: Children are guided by their feelings.
- Ages 12–16: Children start to use reason and logic.
- Age 16 and up: Children become adults.
Sully's Child Observations
James Sully wrote books like Studies of Childhood (1895). He carefully watched children to learn about their development. Many of his observation methods are still used today.
Freud's Development Theory
Sigmund Freud had a theory about how children develop their personalities and thinking skills through different stages.
Montessori's Education Method
Maria Montessori started working with children in 1897. She created the Montessori method of education, which is still used today. She talked about four "planes of development" from birth to age 24.
Gesell's Maturation Theory
Arnold Gesell believed that children develop at their own pace based on their genes. He said children reach important milestones when they are ready. He even created a tool called the Gesell Developmental Schedule to help people understand a child's development.
Erikson's Personality Stages
Erik Erikson focused on how children develop their personality and who they are. He believed that social experiences throughout life help shape a person's identity. He described eight stages that children go through.
Bronfenbrenner's Environment Theory
Urie Bronfenbrenner created the ecological systems theory. This theory looks at the different parts of a child's environment and how they affect development. He suggested that as children grow, their interactions with their environment become more complex.
Kohlberg's Moral Stages
Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory about how people's moral thinking (what they think is right or wrong) grows in stages. He showed that thinking skills continue to develop throughout life.
Jean Piaget's Ideas
Jean Piaget was the first person to call this area of study "cognitive development." He is famous for his stage theory of how children's minds grow. He watched children carefully and created simple tests to see how they thought. Piaget believed that people move through stages where they can think in new, more complex ways.
Piaget's Stages of Thinking
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
This is the first stage. Babies learn about the world through their senses (like touch and sight) and actions (like grasping and sucking). At first, their actions are just reflexes. But slowly, they start to do things on purpose. By the end of this stage, they can imagine things in their minds.
Babies are born with reflexes like grasping and sucking. They use these to explore. If something feels good, they try to do it again. They start to form "schemas", which are like mental shortcuts or ways of understanding things. For example, a baby might have a "putting things in mouth" schema.
- Assimilation: When a child uses an existing schema to understand something new. A baby might try to put a new teddy bear in their mouth because it fits their "putting things in mouth" schema.
- Accommodation: When a child changes an existing schema or creates a new one to deal with something new. A baby might have to open their mouth wider to fit the teddy bear's paw.
Between 5 and 8 months, babies start to repeat actions that they find pleasing, especially if they involve something outside themselves. For example, a baby might accidentally hit a mobile above their crib and like how it spins. They will then try to hit it again.
From 8 to 12 months, babies start to do things for a reason. They also begin to understand object permanence. This means they know that an object still exists even when they can't see it. For example, if you hide a toy under a blanket, they will look for it.
From 12 to 18 months, babies try out different actions on purpose. They might bang a spoon on a pot, then on the floor, then on a table, just to see what happens.
Between 18 and 24 months, children start to use symbols in their minds. They begin to play pretend. For example, a child might pretend to stir ingredients with their finger if they don't have a spoon. This "symbolic thought" helps their imagination grow.
Preoperational Stage (2 to 6 or 7 years)
In this stage, children become much better at using symbols, like words and pictures. This is why they love playing and pretending!
However, children in this stage often think in certain ways:
- Egocentrism: They find it hard to see a situation from someone else's point of view. They might think everyone sees things exactly as they do.
- Animism: They might give human feelings and thoughts to objects that aren't alive, like a teddy bear or a toy car.
They are still learning to understand that other people might have different feelings or ideas about the same things.
Concrete Operational Stage (6 or 7 to 12 or 13 years)
During this stage, children start to think more logically about real, concrete things. A big achievement in this stage is conservation.
Imagine you have two glasses with the same amount of juice. One glass is short and wide, and the other is tall and thin. A younger child might think the tall, thin glass has more juice. But a child in the concrete operational stage will understand that the amount of juice is still the same, even if the glass looks different. They can reason about quantities and understand that things can stay the same even if their appearance changes.
Formal Operational Stage (12 or 13 to Adulthood)
This is the final stage. Teenagers and adults start to think about abstract ideas, not just concrete examples. They can think about "what if" scenarios and imagine possibilities. They can also think about their future and what kind of life they want.
Some experts think this stage has two parts:
- Early formal operational thought: Ideas might be more like fantasies.
- Late formal operational thought: Life experiences help turn those fantasy thoughts into more realistic plans.
Criticisms of Piaget's Ideas
While Piaget's work was very important, some of his ideas have been questioned. For example, he thought young children couldn't understand numbers. But later experiments showed that children sometimes didn't understand the questions being asked. If you ask a child which pile of candies they want, they often know which one has more, even if they are very young.
Also, Piaget's theory mostly stops at early adulthood. It doesn't really cover how adults continue to develop their thinking skills later in life.
Another point is that Piaget mainly studied children from Western societies. This means his ideas might not fully explain how children develop in different cultures. For example, some cultures have different early experiences that could affect how children learn about objects or numbers.
Lev Vygotsky's Ideas
Lev Vygotsky had a different idea about cognitive development. He believed that social learning is the most important part. He thought adults play a huge role in helping children learn by showing them things and explaining ideas.
Vygotsky believed that we learn complex mental skills through our interactions with others. A key idea in his theory is the zone of proximal development. This is the space between what a child can do alone and what they can do with a little help from someone who knows more (like a parent or teacher). This is where the best learning happens.
Vygotsky also thought that culture is very important for cognitive development. This includes the language, writing, and counting systems used in a culture. Another idea is private speech, which is when a person talks to themselves to help solve a problem. Scaffolding is also part of his theory. This is when an adult gives a child support to learn something new, and then slowly removes that support as the child becomes more independent.
Unlike Piaget, who thought development came before learning, Vygotsky believed that learning comes first. He thought you have to learn things to develop into a fully functioning person.
Here are four ways Vygotsky's theory is different from Piaget's: 1. Culture's Impact: Vygotsky believed culture affects cognitive development much more than Piaget did. Piaget thought development was similar everywhere, but Vygotsky saw how culture shapes it. 2. Social Factors: Vygotsky emphasized that social interactions and the environment (like parents) strongly influence a child's thinking growth. 3. Thought and Language: While Piaget saw thought as important, Vygotsky believed thought and language start separately but eventually come together. He thought inner speech (talking to yourself) was key for cognitive development. 4. Adult Influence: Vygotsky stressed that adults greatly influence cognitive development. Children learn by watching adults and gaining knowledge about their culture through mediation and scaffolding.
How Our Brains Develop
The brain is amazing, especially in the first few years of life! It shows a lot of neuroplasticity, which means it can change and adapt. The World Health Organization explains neuroplasticity as:
- How the nervous system repairs itself after an injury.
- How the nervous system can fix damaged parts of the brain.
- How the brain can adapt to new situations and environments.
The connection between how our brain develops and how our thinking skills grow is very complex. It's a big area of research today.
Our thinking skills and our motor skills (like moving our bodies) are also closely connected. If someone has a problem with their brain development that affects their thinking, it often affects their motor skills too. The cerebellum, a part of the brain important for movement, also plays a big role in thinking. This shows that thinking and moving are deeply linked and work together.
Cultural Influences on the Brain
Cultural psychologists believe that our minds and our culture shape each other. This means that culture can actually influence how our brain structures work, which then affects how we understand our culture. Here are some examples:
Figure-Line Task
Studies show that people from East Asian cultures are often better at tasks where they need to change their own behavior to fit in with others. People from Western cultures are often better at tasks focused on influencing others or themselves. When people had to do a task that didn't fit their culture, their brains showed more activity in areas related to paying attention. This suggests that different cultures use different brain pathways for the same task.
Brain Studies Across Cultures
New studies show that your cultural background can influence how your brain works for both simple tasks (like seeing things) and complex tasks (like understanding social situations). For example, studies have found differences in brain activity in people from different cultures when they do mental math or think about their mothers. This means that our brain's activity is strongly shaped by the culture we grow up in.
Understanding Others' Intentions
Researchers compared how American and Japanese children's brains responded when they tried to understand what others were thinking. They found that a certain brain area was active in both groups when thinking about others' intentions. However, American children showed more activity in one part of the brain, while Japanese children showed more activity in a different part for the same task. This suggests that how our brains work is not exactly the same for everyone, but can depend on our culture.
Other Theories of Development
Whorf's Language Idea
Benjamin Lee Whorf believed that how a person thinks depends on the language they speak. He thought that language actually decides our thoughts and how we see the world. For example, he thought if a word didn't exist in a language, then people wouldn't even know about that object or idea. However, this idea is too strict. People can still understand a concept even if their language doesn't have a specific word for it.
Quine's Bootstrapping Idea
Willard Van Orman Quine suggested that we have some natural ways of thinking that help us learn language, ideas, and beliefs. This idea is similar to older philosophical ideas that some knowledge is built into us.
Neo-Piagetian Theories
These theories combine Piaget's ideas with newer understandings of how we process information. They suggest that moving through Piaget's stages happens as our ability to control our attention and remember things gets stronger.
In Underrepresented Groups
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Being deaf or hard-of-hearing can affect cognitive development. This is because hearing loss impacts social development, language learning, and how society reacts to a deaf child. How a deaf child's thinking skills develop depends on their main language (like American Sign Language or English) and how well they can communicate. Some research suggests that deaf children might have some differences in developing "theory of mind" (understanding others' thoughts and feelings), possibly due to less early conversation experience.
Transgender People
Since the 2010s, there has been more research into how transgender people fit into cognitive development theories. Transgender children can start exploring their gender identity at a young age. A study in 2015 looked at transgender youth compared to their siblings and other children. The study found that transgender children's results on a test about gender preference matched their desired gender. Their behaviors also matched their desired gender. The researchers reported that these children were not confused or pretending about their gender identity.
See also
- Reuven Feuerstein
- Developmental psychology
- Child development stages
- Infant cognitive development
- Human behaviour genetics
