Cognitive development for children

Cognitive development is a development of mental process or skills of children from childhood to adulthood which make them to understand the environment better.
When we talk about child development based on cognitive mechanism it includes thinking capability of children, development of knowledge in various fields, their decision making capabilities, problem solving techniques, memory skills and social and emotional development of the children.

This cognitive development concentrates on following aspects,

1. Development of basic skills 
That includes five senses of human,
• Sense of Sight (Visual capability)
• Sense of Hearing (Auditory capability)
• Sense of Touch (Tactile capability)
• Sense of Taste (Gustatory capability)
• Sense of Smell (Olfactory capability)

2. Mental Skills
That includes the following aspects,
• The level of observation of children towards environment.
• Ability to classify or to sort the things.
• Ability to solve the problem varies depending on the age of children.

3. Sequencing 
The process of sequencing includes the formation of concepts based on object such as,
• Concept of Size
• Concept of Color
• Concept of shape
• Concept of Time
• Concept of Temperature etc.,

Stages in Cognitive Development

Further this cognitive development is classified into four stages proposed as Piaget’s cognitive theory based on children’s age which includes Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete Operational Stage, Formal Operational Stage.

1. Sensorimotor stage
This stage comprises of infants between 0 to 2 years and in which infant will acme to know their environment with their movements. In this stage they realize their action can cause certain changes in the environment.

2. Preoperational stage
This stage has children between the ages of 2 to 7 years. Children will learn things symbolically and use words and objects to denote the objects.

3. Concrete Operational Stage
In this stage children age varies from 7 to 11 years. Where children able to think logically about events happened. Their thinking will be well organized and also concrete. They may use reasoning or inductive learning as tool to make decisions.

4. Formal Operational Stage
In the final stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory, age of the children start from 12 and continuous lifelong. In this stage young adult will think in abstract manner and reason about hypothetical problems. They may use deductive thinking as tool to make decisions