What Child Issues Can Affect Cognitive Development?
Cognition is the ability to think and understand. The study of a child's cognitive development focuses on her emerging perceptual, language, problem-solving and information-processing skills. While it was once believed that children had no ability to think or have complex ideas until they began to talk, it is now clear that babies are ready to learn and explore from the moment they are born. Parents and caregivers should be aware of certain issues that can affect a child's cognitive development.
-
Baby Bonding
-
Babies are curious about their caregivers from a very young age. A strong bond between parent and child is crucial for a child's cognitive development. Positive nurturing of a baby from birth lays a solid foundation for him to become a confident child with good social and emotional skills. Early relationships form the framework for a child's cognitive abilities, so a baby who is treated with love, care and warmth is more likely to develop good thinking and learning skills than one who is neglected or mistreated.
Learning Environment
-
Playing with your baby helps develop her ability to think and reason. A secure, dedicated learning environment has an extremely positive effect on a child's cognitive development. Stories and songs are not just amusement for a child; these are important learning activities to increase her brain power. Children are keen to learn from a very young age, and parents should take advantage of this with age-appropriate toys and activities.
Social Life
-
Play is great for kids' cognitive development and self-esteem. Children learn a great deal through play and social interaction. The more young children mix with others, the quicker they adapt to school and other new environments outside the home. Arranging for toddlers to play with their peers helps them develop healthy, secure relationships when they are older. Children who are not encouraged to play with others may take longer to develop cognitive ability, lack social skills or suffer from low self-esteem.
Nutrition
-
A healthy diet boosts all aspects of a child's development. Nutrition doesn't only impact on a child's physical development; a nutritious diet also improves your child's ability to think, learn and reason. Numerous university studies have found links between nutrition and brain development and cognitive ability. By ensuring your child's diet is rich in fruit, vegetables and protein, and low in sugar, saturated fats and processed foods, you are doing his cognitive development a huge favor.
-
-
There is a rough schedule of milestones for physiological development, though each child develops at a different pace. Maturing more slowly than average in an area is not necessarily a cause for concern. Stress from expectations, disorganization and
-
Young children learn in many different ways. From the time theyre born, children explore the world using their senses -- touching, seeing, tasting, smelling and hearing the different things around them. According to Suzanne Gainsley, early childhood
-
Language development in infants who are raised in bilingual homes is not much different from language development in infants from single language homes. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says that there are many ways in which to teach
