Cognitive Development Activities

Cognitive Development Activities

Experiences during the initial years are considered sensitive and tend to influence an individual’s brain capacity (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2008). Early learning sets the stage for later learning in an individual’s life. According to Piaget, infants in the sensorimotor stage learn that objects tend to exist even if they cannot see them. As children interact with the environment around them, they tend to make discoveries regarding how the world works around them. Therefore, creating cognitive development activities facilitates object performance and enhances cognitive development.

Cognitive Development for Infant Room: Magic Scarf

One of the concepts that infants need to learn is object permanence. To help a child develop the concept of object permanence, playing the game of a magic scarf can help. In this game, the caregiver takes an empty tissue box and ensures the baby watches while they stuff a long, colorful silk scarf into the open box. The caregiver should then count from 1 to 3 and then reach in and unfurl the scarf from the parcel slowly. The baby will be amazed by the bright colors and will gain comfort knowing the scarf is reappearing. Piaget claims that mastering object permanence is among an infant’s most critical cognitive development achievements (Mossler, 2014). Children can use this knowledge to indulge in intentional behavior. Furthermore, by using a scarf of different bright colors, the child will develop color recognition, which will aid in their cognitive development as colors help them gain object recognition. This, in turn, helps them establish descriptive language skills, hence improving their understanding and communication as they grow.

Cognitive Development for Early Childhood Room: Pretend Play

In pretend play, the caregiver can give the child a doll and ask the infant to feed it. At this stage, infants are more likely to imitate the actions of their caregivers, such as making a call. The caregiver should have tools for themself and the baby. The caregiver should then take a toy spoon and bowl and pretend to pour some cereals into the bowl, add imaginary milk, and feed the doll. The infant should be encouraged to do the same. In doing this, children can enhance mental representations. This falls under Piaget’s preoperational stage. Children start to represent schemas using symbols. Similarly, make-believe or pretend plays are essential in helping the child comprehend the world through various mental structures, including absent objects and images (Mossler, 2014). Language is developed through efficient symbolic representation as it enhances thinking and enables children to plan and use their imagination.

Cognitive Development for Adolescent Room: Sudoku

Sudoku is a game where the player must complete a grid using various symbols or numbers. Adolescents’ cognitive development falls in the formal operations stage of Piaget’s cognitive development. Children begin to think more abstractly in this stage and hypothesize about varying factors that influence an outcome (Mossler, 2014). By playing Sudoku, which involves symbols, children can improve their logical thinking in the dimensional stage of their cognitive development. In contrast, Sudoku based on numbers helps to enhance their vectorial location. According to Beilin (1992), in this stage, adolescents can form hypotheses in a problem-solving task, allowing them to navigate different problems that enhance their logic and cognition development.

In conclusion, cognitive development activities such as games like the magic scarf, pretend to play, and Sudoku are critical in enhancing cognitive development for infants, children in their early childhood, and adolescents.

References

Beilin, H. (1992). Piaget’s enduring contribution to developmental psychology. Developmental psychology, 28(2), 191-204.

Mossler, R.A. (2014). Child and Adolescent Development (2ed). Retrieved from https://content.uagc.edu/

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2007). The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture: Working Paper No. 5. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.

 

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The purpose of this assignment is for you to continue working on elements that will become part of your Community Center Proposal Final Project. This week, you will create three activities that address cognitive development in the assigned age groups. These will become part of your center’s infant, early childhood, and adolescent rooms.

Using Piaget’s, Vygotsky’s, and Information processing theories of cognitive development, you will continue to build your Community Center Proposal by identifying activities for the assigned rooms that promote cognitive development for children and adolescents. The training must focus on the age group’s cognitive milestones and be tied to a specific theory. You must use at least one credible source. Your activities might be focused on object permanence for infants, conservation, egocentrism, conservation for early childhood, or deductive reasoning for adolescence. Table 7.1 in your textbook will help complete this activity.

Focus on the primary developmental tasks of each age period. For each of the three activities, write a paragraph that addresses the following:
• Describe the activity in some detail (provide more than just the name of the action).
Identify the concept from cognitive development theory that supports the use of this activity.
• Identify how the activity enhances cognitive development in the specific age group.