Cognitive Development For Preschoolers
Do you know that 90% of your child’s brain develops in the early childhood years? From building coordination between their hands and eyes to holding a pencil for writing, the overall development of preschoolers takes place which includes fine motor skills, communication, social, and cognitive skills. As a parent, it is important to stimulate your child’s cognitive development in the early years because doing so will lead to your child’s success and also set the foundation for life-long learning. In conformity with time, children develop the ability to think on higher levels and thus, it becomes easier for them to process any information around them with better proficiency.
What is cognitive development in Preschoolers?
Cognitive development refers to one’s ability to think, communicate and learn deeply. It is the development of knowledge, skills, and problem solving which help children to understand the world around them. Cognitive development covers preschoolers’ ability to manage and acknowledge information and experiences on a daily basis. It involves almost all the mental processes such as creating, conceptualizing, categorizing, planning, and more.
Skills to learn during Preschool
- Questioning
- Problem Solving
- Imitation
- Memory
- Symbolic Play
- Reasoning and logic
- Developing attention span
Preschool cognitive development activities :
Preschoolers want to learn how things work, and they learn best when they play. Children at play are creating, experimenting, thinking, solving problems, and learning all the time. Spending time playing with your kids is especially good for their cognitive development.
Activities that promote Cognitive Development in preschoolers :
Educators and parents both play a vital role in a child’s cognitive development. It is important to choose activities that are beneficial for them and encourage cognitive development while being fun at the same time. Here we have listed a few engaging learning activities for kids that promote cognitive development in preschoolers-
1. Puzzles
As it is said, ‘It’s always the small pieces that make the big picture.’ Puzzles are a great way to create fun learning opportunities for kids. It also helps in the development of cognitive and basic skills like concentration, patience and a sense of achievement.
2. Sorting and classifying
Sorting and classifying things together is one of the most important cognitive development activities for toddlers as it encourages them to observe similarities and differences between different objects and help develop logical thinking and early numeracy and literacy skills.
3. Practice shapes and colors
Giving preschoolers lots of practice with shapes and colors can help them in solidifying their thinking skills, observation skills and gives children an advantage in many areas of learning. For example- Telling them to pick red-colored ribbons from a box full of multicolored ones
4. Play with everyday objects
An environment-friendly way to offer fantastic opportunities for kids to discover the world around them and to let their creativity and imagination run wild, is to allow them to play around with common objects in their surroundings such as a table clock, spoons, utensils etc. This kind of play can arouse curiosity related to the usage of such objects too and is beneficial for both cognitive development and the brain.
5. Sequencing
Aligning numbers and objects can be one of the most engaging and fun learning activities to build strong sequencing skills in young kids. This play with numbers and their comparison also develop better cognitive and numeracy skills such as understanding the size of numbers and even help build a foundation for learning and solving arithmetic problems in the future.
6. Play games
Play is the highest form of research in childhood, isn’t it? Games are incredible for our young learners as it fosters creativity and teamwork while nurturing their imagination which is essential for healthy cognitive development. Choose games that are good for the brain development of kids. Outdoor games like hide and seek and treasure hunts are beneficial too.
7. Board Games
Board games especially where numbers are involved, such as snakes and ladders, can help teach children about numerical values and comparisons, like how more numbers often equates to higher chances of winning and greater rewards. Board games help in cognitive and other multisensory development such as the ability to read numbers and words too.
8. Reading
Routine book reading by kids and reading out loud to them can help build awareness of various words and how their component sounds (basically how words sound), how two or more words can rhyme, their meanings, etc. this will also help them in improving their vocabulary and language skills. Teaching such skills will make them better readers down the line in the future.
9. Singing
What better way to learn than with songs? Children’s songs that include rhymes and actions can help in cognitive skill development and assist with learning basic concepts such as alphabets, numbers, directions, etc.
10. Ask questions
Another engaging way to help your child develop cognitive skills is by asking questions. For example, ‘What sound does a goat make?’ or ‘What does it feel like when you play?’ etc. These questions will encourage your child to think more and feel confident.
Conclusion
As it is rightly said, ‘The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.’ So why not motivate them? We have discussed why cognitive development is important for preschoolers and some of the various activities that promote cognitive skills and brain development skills for toddlers. With practice, you can encourage your child to enhance the essence of creativity and make them feel confident. Just like academics, healthy cognitive skills will tremendously benefit a preschooler. Make your child fall in love with learning since childhood and develop their cognitive skills while having fun at the same time.
