problem solving in cognitive development

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Child cognitive development is a fascinating and complex process that entails the growth of a child’s mental abilities, including their ability to think, learn, and solve problems. This development occurs through a series of stages that can vary among individuals. As children progress through these stages, their cognitive abilities and skills are continuously shaped by a myriad of factors such as genetics, environment, and experiences. Understanding the nuances of child cognitive development is essential for parents, educators, and professionals alike, as it provides valuable insight into supporting the growth of the child’s intellect and overall well-being.

Throughout the developmental process, language and communication play a vital role in fostering a child’s cognitive abilities . As children acquire language skills, they also develop their capacity for abstract thought, reasoning, and problem-solving. It is crucial for parents and caregivers to be mindful of potential developmental delays, as early intervention can greatly benefit the child’s cognitive development. By providing stimulating environments, nurturing relationships, and embracing diverse learning opportunities, adults can actively foster healthy cognitive development in children.

Key Takeaways

Child cognitive development involves the growth of mental abilities and occurs through various stages.
Language and communication are significant factors in cognitive development , shaping a child’s ability for abstract thought and problem-solving.
Early intervention and supportive environments can play a crucial role in fostering healthy cognitive development in children.

Child Cognitive Development Stages

Child cognitive development is a crucial aspect of a child’s growth and involves the progression of their thinking, learning, and problem-solving abilities. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget developed a widely recognized theory that identifies four major stages of cognitive development in children.

Sensorimotor Stage

The Sensorimotor Stage occurs from birth to about 2 years old. During this stage, infants and newborns learn to coordinate their senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) with their motor abilities. Their understanding of the world begins to develop through their physical interactions and experiences. Some key milestones in this stage include object permanence, which is the understanding that an object still exists even when it’s not visible, and the development of intentional actions.

Preoperational Stage

The Preoperational Stage takes place between the ages of 2 and 7 years old. In this stage, children start to think symbolically, and their language capabilities rapidly expand. They also develop the ability to use mental images, words, and gestures to represent the world around them. However, their thinking is largely egocentric, which means they struggle to see things from other people’s perspectives. During this stage, children start to engage in pretend play and begin to grasp the concept of conservation, recognizing that certain properties of objects (such as quantity or volume) remain the same even if their appearance changes.

Concrete Operational Stage

The Concrete Operational Stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 12 years old. At this stage, children’s cognitive development progresses to more logical and organized ways of thinking. They can now consider multiple aspects of a problem and better understand the relationship between cause and effect . Furthermore, children become more adept at understanding other people’s viewpoints, and they can perform basic mathematical operations and understand the principles of classification and seriation.

Formal Operational Stage

Lastly, the Formal Operational Stage typically begins around 12 years old and extends into adulthood. In this stage, children develop the capacity for abstract thinking and can consider hypothetical situations and complex reasoning. They can also perform advanced problem-solving and engage in systematic scientific inquiry. This stage allows individuals to think about abstract concepts, their own thought processes, and understand the world in deeper, more nuanced ways.

By understanding these stages of cognitive development, you can better appreciate the complex growth process that children undergo as their cognitive abilities transform and expand throughout their childhood.

Key Factors in Cognitive Development

Genetics and brain development.

Genetics play a crucial role in determining a child’s cognitive development. A child’s brain development is heavily influenced by genetic factors, which also determine their cognitive potential , abilities, and skills. It is important to understand that a child’s genes do not solely dictate their cognitive development – various environmental and experiential factors contribute to shaping their cognitive abilities as they grow and learn.

Environmental Influences

The environment in which a child grows up has a significant impact on their cognitive development. Exposure to various experiences is essential for a child to develop essential cognitive skills such as problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking. Factors that can have a negative impact on cognitive development include exposure to toxins, extreme stress, trauma, abuse, and addiction issues, such as alcoholism in the family.

Nutrition and Health

Maintaining good nutrition and health is vital for a child’s cognitive development. Adequate nutrition is essential for the proper growth and functioning of the brain . Key micronutrients that contribute to cognitive development include iron, zinc, and vitamins A, C, D, and B-complex vitamins. Additionally, a child’s overall health, including physical fitness and immunity, ensures they have the energy and resources to engage in learning activities and achieve cognitive milestones effectively .

Emotional and Social Factors

Emotional well-being and social relationships can also greatly impact a child’s cognitive development. A supportive, nurturing, and emotionally healthy environment allows children to focus on learning and building cognitive skills. Children’s emotions and stress levels can impact their ability to learn and process new information. Additionally, positive social interactions help children develop important cognitive skills such as empathy, communication, and collaboration.

In summary, cognitive development in children is influenced by various factors, including genetics, environmental influences, nutrition, health, and emotional and social factors. Considering these factors can help parents, educators, and policymakers create suitable environments and interventions for promoting optimal child development.

Language and Communication Development

Language skills and milestones.

Children’s language development is a crucial aspect of their cognitive growth. They begin to acquire language skills by listening and imitating sounds they hear from their environment. As they grow, they start to understand words and form simple sentences.

Infants (0-12 months): Babbling, cooing, and imitating sounds are common during this stage. They can also identify their name by the end of their first year. Facial expressions play a vital role during this period, as babies learn to respond to emotions.
Toddlers (1-3 years): They rapidly learn new words and form simple sentences. They engage more in spoken communication, constantly exploring their language environment.
Preschoolers (3-5 years): Children expand their vocabulary, improve grammar, and begin participating in more complex conversations.

It’s essential to monitor children’s language development and inform their pediatrician if any delays or concerns arise.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication contributes significantly to children’s cognitive development. They learn to interpret body language, facial expressions, and gestures long before they can speak. Examples of nonverbal communication in children include:

Eye contact: Maintaining eye contact while interacting helps children understand emotions and enhances communication.
Gestures: Pointing, waving goodbye, or using hand signs provide alternative ways for children to communicate their needs and feelings.
Body language: Posture, body orientation, and movement give clues about a child’s emotions and intentions.

Teaching children to understand and use nonverbal communication supports their cognitive and social development.

Parent and Caregiver Interaction

Supportive interaction from parents and caregivers plays a crucial role in children’s language and communication development. These interactions can improve children’s language skills and overall cognitive abilities . Some ways parents and caregivers can foster language development are:

Reading together: From an early age, reading books to children enhance their vocabulary and listening skills.
Encouraging communication: Ask open-ended questions and engage them in conversations to build their speaking skills.
Using rich vocabulary: Expose children to a variety of words and phrases, promoting language growth and understanding.

By actively engaging in children’s language and communication development, parents and caregivers can nurture cognitive, emotional, and social growth.

Cognitive Abilities and Skills

Cognitive abilities are the mental skills that children develop as they grow. These skills are essential for learning, adapting, and thriving in modern society. In this section, we will discuss various aspects of cognitive development, including reasoning and problem-solving, attention and memory, decision-making and executive function, as well as academic and cognitive milestones.

Reasoning and Problem Solving

Reasoning is the ability to think logically and make sense of the world around us. It’s essential for a child’s cognitive development, as it enables them to understand the concept of object permanence , recognize patterns, and classify objects. Problem-solving skills involve using these reasoning abilities to find solutions to challenges they encounter in daily life .

Children develop essential skills like:

Logical reasoning : The ability to deduce conclusions from available information.
Perception: Understanding how objects relate to one another in their environment.
Schemes: Organizing thoughts and experiences into mental categories.

Attention and Memory

Attention refers to a child’s ability to focus on specific tasks, objects, or information, while memory involves retaining and recalling information. These cognitive abilities play a critical role in children’s learning and academic performance . Working memory is a vital component of learning, as it allows children to hold and manipulate information in their minds while solving problems and engaging with new tasks.

Attention: Focuses on relevant tasks and information while ignoring distractions.
Memory: Retains and retrieves information when needed.

Decision-Making and Executive Function

Decision-making is the process of making choices among various alternatives, while executive function refers to the higher-order cognitive processes that enable children to plan, organize, and adapt in complex situations. Executive function encompasses components such as:

Inhibition: Self-control and the ability to resist impulses.
Cognitive flexibility: Adapting to new information or changing circumstances.
Planning: Setting goals and devising strategies to achieve them.

Academic and Cognitive Milestones

Children’s cognitive development is closely linked to their academic achievement. As they grow, they achieve milestones in various cognitive domains that form the foundation for their future learning. Some of these milestones include:

Language skills: Developing vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.
Reading and mathematics: Acquiring the ability to read and comprehend text, as well as understanding basic mathematical concepts and operations.
Scientific thinking: Developing an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships and forming hypotheses.

Healthy cognitive development is essential for a child’s success in school and life. By understanding and supporting the development of their cognitive abilities, we can help children unlock their full potential and prepare them for a lifetime of learning and growth.

Developmental Delays and Early Intervention

Identifying developmental delays.

Developmental delays in children can be identified by monitoring their progress in reaching cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social milestones. Parents and caregivers should be aware of developmental milestones that are generally expected to be achieved by children at different ages, such as 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 18 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, and 5 years. Utilizing resources such as the “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program can help parents and caregivers recognize signs of delay early in a child’s life.

Resources and Support for Parents

There are numerous resources available for parents and caregivers to find information on developmental milestones and to learn about potential developmental delays, including:

Learn the Signs. Act Early : A CDC initiative that provides pdf checklists of milestones and resources for identifying delays.
Parental support groups : Local and online communities dedicated to providing resources and fostering connections between families experiencing similar challenges.

Professional Evaluations and Intervention Strategies

If parents or caregivers suspect a developmental delay, it is crucial to consult with healthcare professionals or specialists who can conduct validated assessments of the child’s cognitive and developmental abilities. Early intervention strategies, such as the ones used in broad-based early intervention programs , have shown significant positive impacts on children with developmental delays to improve cognitive development and outcomes.

Professional evaluations may include:

Pediatricians : Primary healthcare providers who can monitor a child’s development and recommend further assessments when needed.
Speech and language therapists : Professionals who assist children with language and communication deficits.
Occupational therapists : Experts in helping children develop or improve on physical and motor skills, as well as social and cognitive abilities.

Depending on the severity and nature of the delays, interventions may involve:

Individualized support : Tailored programs or therapy sessions specifically developed for the child’s needs.
Group sessions : Opportunities for children to learn from and interact with other children experiencing similar challenges.
Family involvement : Parents and caregivers learning support strategies to help the child in their daily life.

Fostering Healthy Cognitive Development

Play and learning opportunities.

Encouraging play is crucial for fostering healthy cognitive development in children . Provide a variety of age-appropriate games, puzzles, and creative activities that engage their senses and stimulate curiosity. For example, introduce building blocks and math games for problem-solving skills, and crossword puzzles to improve vocabulary and reasoning abilities.

Playing with others also helps children develop social skills and better understand facial expressions and emotions. Provide opportunities for cooperative play, where kids can work together to achieve a common goal, and open-ended play with no specific rules to boost creativity.

Supportive Home Environment

A nurturing and secure home environment encourages healthy cognitive growth. Be responsive to your child’s needs and interests, involving them in everyday activities and providing positive reinforcement. Pay attention to their emotional well-being and create a space where they feel safe to ask questions and explore their surroundings.

Promoting Independence and Decision-Making

Support independence by allowing children to make decisions about their playtime, activities, and daily routines. Encourage them to take age-appropriate responsibilities and make choices that contribute to self-confidence and autonomy. Model problem-solving strategies and give them opportunities to practice these skills during play, while also guiding them when necessary.

Healthy Lifestyle Habits

Promote a well-rounded lifestyle, including:

Sleep : Ensure children get adequate and quality sleep by establishing a consistent bedtime routine.
Hydration : Teach the importance of staying hydrated by offering water frequently, especially during play and physical activities.
Screen time : Limit exposure to electronic devices and promote alternative activities for toddlers and older kids.
Physical activity : Encourage children to engage in active play and exercise to support neural development and overall health .

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key stages of child cognitive development.

Child cognitive development can be divided into several key stages based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development . These stages include the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), preoperational stage (2-7 years), concrete operational stage (7-11 years), and formal operational stage (11 years and beyond). Every stage represents a unique period of cognitive growth, marked by the development of new skills, thought processes, and understanding of the world.

What factors influence cognitive development in children?

Several factors contribute to individual differences in child cognitive development, such as genetic and environmental factors. Socioeconomic status, access to quality education, early home environment, and parental involvement all play a significant role in determining cognitive growth. In addition, children’s exposure to diverse learning experiences, adequate nutrition, and mental health also influence overall cognitive performance .

How do cognitive skills vary during early childhood?

Cognitive skills in early childhood evolve as children progress through various stages . During the sensorimotor stage, infants develop fundamental skills such as object permanence. The preoperational stage is characterized by the development of symbolic thought, language, and imaginative play. Children then enter the concrete operational stage, acquiring the ability to think logically and solve problems. Finally, in the formal operational stage, children develop abstract reasoning abilities, complex problem-solving skills and metacognitive awareness.

What are common examples of cognitive development?

Examples of cognitive development include the acquisition of language and vocabulary, the development of problem-solving skills, and the ability to engage in logical reasoning. Additionally, memory, attention, and spatial awareness are essential aspects of cognitive development. Children may demonstrate these skills through activities like puzzle-solving, reading, and mathematics.

How do cognitive development theories explain children’s learning?

Piaget’s cognitive development theory suggests that children learn through active exploration, constructing knowledge based on their experiences and interactions with the world. In contrast, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes the role of social interaction and cultural context in learning. Both theories imply that cognitive development is a dynamic and evolving process, influenced by various environmental and psychological factors.

Why is it essential to support cognitive development in early childhood?

Supporting cognitive development in early childhood is critical because it lays a strong foundation for future academic achievement, social-emotional development, and lifelong learning. By providing children with diverse and enriching experiences, caregivers and educators can optimize cognitive growth and prepare children to face the challenges of today’s complex world. Fostering cognitive development early on helps children develop resilience, adaptability, and critical thinking skills essential for personal and professional success.

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Cognitive development.

Fatima Malik ; Raman Marwaha .

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Last Update: April 23, 2023 .

Definition/Introduction

The concept of childhood is relatively new; in most medieval societies, childhood did not exist. At approximately seven years of age, children were considered little adults with similar expectations for a job, marriage, and legal consequences. Charles Darwin originated ideas of childhood development in his work on the origins of ethology (the scientific study of the evolutionary basis of behavior) and "A Biographical Sketch of an Infant," first published in 1877.

It wasn't until the 20th century that developmental theories emerged. When conceptualizing cognitive development, we cannot ignore the work of Jean Piaget. Piaget suggested that when young infants experience an event, they process new information by balancing assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is taking in new information and fitting it into previously understood mental schemas. Accommodation is adapting and revising a previously understood mental schema according to the novel information. Piaget divided child development into four stages.

The first stage, Sensorimotor (ages 0 to 2 years of age), is the time when children master two phenomena: causality and object permanence. Infants and toddlers use their sense and motor abilities to manipulate their surroundings and learn about the environment. They understand a cause-and-effect relationship, like shaking a rattle may produce sound and may repeat it or how crying can make the parent(s) rush to give them attention. As the frontal lobe matures and memory develops, children in this age group can imagine what may happen without physically causing an effect; this is the emergence of thought and allows for the planning of actions. Object permanence emerges around six months of age. It is the concept that objects continue to exist even when they are not presently visible.

Second is the "Pre-operational" stage (ages 2 to 7 years), when a child can use mental representations such as symbolic thought and language. Children in this age group learn to imitate and pretend to play. This stage is characterized by egocentrism, i.e., being unable to perceive that others can think differently than themselves, and everything (good or bad) somehow links to the self.

Third is the "Concrete Operational stage" (ages 7 to 11 years), when the child uses logical operations when solving problems, including mastery of conservation and inductive reasoning. Finally, the Formal Operational stage (age 12 years and older) suggests an adolescent can use logical operations with the ability to use abstractions. Adolescents can understand theories, hypothesize, and comprehend abstract ideas like love and justice.

Childhood cognitive development and the Piaget stages are poorly generalizable. For example, conservation may overlap between the Pre-operational and Concrete Operational stages as the child masters conservation in one task and not in another. Similarly, the current understanding is that a child masters the "Theory of Mind" by 4 to 5 years, much earlier than when Piaget suggested that egocentrism resolves. [1]

Stages of Cognitive Development (Problem-Solving and Intelligence)

The word intelligence derives from the Latin "intelligere," meaning to understand or perceive. Problem-solving and cognitive development progress from establishing object permanence, causality, and symbolic thinking with concrete (hands-on) learning to abstract thinking and embedding of implicit (unconscious) to explicit memory development.

Birth to two months: The optical focal length is approximately 10 inches at birth. Infants actively seek stimuli, habituate to the familiar, and respond more vigorously to changing stimuli. The initial responses are more reflexive, like sucking and grasping. The infant can fix and follow a slow horizontal arc and eventually will follow past the midline. Contrasts, colors, and faces are preferred. The infant will distinguish familiar from moderately novel stimuli. As habituation to the faces of caregivers occurs, preferences are developed. The infant will stare momentarily where at the place from where an object has disappeared (lack of object permanence). At this stage, high-pitched voices are preferred.

Two to six months: Children in this age bracket engage in a purposeful sensory exploration of their bodies, staring at their hands and reaching and touching their body parts; this builds the concepts of cause and effect and self-understanding. Sensations and changes outside of themselves are appreciated with less regularity. As motor abilities are mastered, something that happens by chance will be repeated. For example, touching a button may light up the toy, or crying can cause the appearance of the caregiver. Routines are appreciated in this age group.

Six to twelve months: Object permanence emerges in this age group as the toddler looks for objects. A six-month-old will look for partially hidden objects, while a nine-month-old will look for wholly hidden objects and uncover them; this includes engaging in peek-a-boo-type games. Separation and stranger anxiety emerge as the toddler understands that out of sight is not out of mind. As motor abilities advance, sensory exploration of the environment occurs via reaching, inspecting, holding, mouthing, and dropping objects. They learn to manipulate their environment, learning cause and effect by trial and error, like banging two blocks together can produce a sound. Eventually, as Piaget suggested, mental schemas are built, and objects can be used functionally; for example, by intentionally pressing a button to open and reach inside a toy box.

Twelve to eighteen months: Around this time, motor abilities make it easier for the child to walk and reach, grasp, and release. Toys can be explored, made to work, and novel play skills emerge. Gestures and sounds can be imitated. Egocentric pretend play emerges. As object permanence and memory advance, objects can be found after witnessing a series of displacements, and moving objects can be tracked.

Eighteen months to two years: As memory and processing skills advance and frontal lobes mature, outcomes are imagined without so much physical manipulation, and new problem-solving strategies emerge without rehearsal. Thought arises, and there is the ability to plan actions. Object permanence is wholly established, and objects can be searched for by anticipating where they may be without witnessing their displacement. At 18 months, symbolic play expands from just the self; the child may attempt to feed a toy along with themselves, and housework may be imitated.

Two to five years: During this stage, the preschool years, magical and wishful thinking emerges; for example, the sun went home because it was tired. This ability may also give rise to apprehensions with fear of monsters, and having logical solutions may not be enough for reassurance. Perception will dominate over logic, and giving them an imaginary tool, like a monster spray, to help relieve that anxiety may be more helpful. Similarly, conservation and volume concept lacks, and what appears bigger or larger is more. For example, one cookie split into may equal two cookies.

Children in the preschool stage have a poor concept of cause and may think sickness is due to misbehavior. They are egocentric in their approach and may look at situations from only their point of view, offering comfort from a favorite stuffed toy to an upset loved one. At 36 months, a child can understand simple time concepts, identify shapes, compare two items, and count to three. Play becomes more comprehensive. At 48 months, children can count to four, identify four colors and understand opposites.

At five years of age, pre-literacy and numeracy skills further; five-year-old children can count to ten accurately, recites the alphabet by rote, and recognize a few letters. A child also develops hand preference at this age. Play stories become even more detailed between four and five years and may include imaginary scenarios, including imaginary friends. Playing with some game rules and obedience to those rules also establishes during the preschool years. Rules can be absolute.

Six to twelve years: During early school years, scientific reasoning and understanding of physical laws of conservation, including weight and volume, develop. A child can understand multiple points of view and can understand one perspective of a situation. They realize the rules of the game can change with mutual agreement. Basic literacy skills of reading and numbers are mastered initially. Eventually, around third to fourth grade, the emphasis shifts from learning to read to reading to learn and from spelling to composition writing. All these stages need mastery of sustained attention and processing skills, receptive and expressive language, and memory development and recall. The limitation of this stage is an inability to comprehend abstract ideas and reliance on logical answers.

Twelve years and older: During this age, adolescents can exercise logic systematically and scientifically. They can simultaneously apply abstract thinking to solve algebraic problems and multiple logics to reach a scientific solution. It is easier to use these concepts for schoolwork. Later in adolescence and early adulthood, these concepts can also apply to emotional and personal life problems. Magical thinking or following ideals guides decisions more than wisdom. Some may have more influence from religious or moral rules and absolute concepts of right and wrong. Questioning the prevalent code of conduct may cause anxiety or rebellion and eventually lead to the development of personal ethics. Side by side, social cognition, apart from self, also is developing, and concepts of justice, patriarchy, politics, etc. establish. During late teens and early adulthood, thinking about the future, including ideas such as love, commitment, and career goals, become important. [2]

Issues of Concern

Pediatric and primary care practitioners are in a prime position to monitor the growth and development of children, particularly cognitive development. A lag in cognitive development may alert the provider to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disability, global developmental delay, developmental language disorder, developmental coordination disorder, mild intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, moderate-severe intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol syndrome (FASD), or vision and auditory disorders.

The most well-known causes of intellectual disability are FASD, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, other genetic or chromosomal problems, lead or other toxicities, and environmental influences such as poverty, malnutrition, abuse, and neglect. Prenatal causes of intellectual disability include infection, toxins and teratogens, congenital hypothyroidism, inborn errors of metabolism, and genetic abnormalities. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common preventable cause of intellectual disability. Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause, and Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause. First-tier tests recommended for intellectual disability are chromosomal microarray and Fragile X testing.

Clinical concerns can arise in areas of visual analysis, proprioception, motor control, memory storage and recall, attention span and sequencing, and deficits in receptive or expressive language. Early recognition of intellectual disability leads to earlier diagnosis and intervention, showing promising results in improved cognition. Besides what is best for children and families, early intervention saves overall economic expenditure on disabilities. Thus, surveillance alone is inadequate; active screening for developmental delay should be an integral part of medical practice. [3] Some commonly used measures for screening are the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Survey of Well-being of Young Children. If the results of surveillance and screening are concerning, watchful waiting is inadequate, and a referral is necessary for early intervention.

Intellectual disability is defined when there is a concern for intellectual and adaptive functioning. Usually, on standardized measures, this means a score less than two standard deviations below the mean, which is 100 for most measures. Standardized tests used to measure intellectual function include the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), and the Stanford-Binet test. One standardized test for adaptive functioning is the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.

A learning disability should be suspected when the intelligence score is within the average range, but a significant discrepancy in achievement scores exists, or a child does not respond to evidence-based interventions. Evidence-based interventions include increasing instruction time and specialized instruction by trained personnel in deficit areas.

Clinical Significance

Early intervention during the "critical period" in development has shown promising results. [4] Thus clinicians must take the lead to diagnose, treat, and establish resources for early intervention to provide optimal health opportunities to our children. Early intervention services should be provided in two areas; biological risk/disabilities and environmental risk.

Pediatric and primary care practitioners should understand The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and other federal policies. Early intervention laws give entitlement to services from birth through early intervention home-based service, the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) from birth to 3 years of age, and individualized education plans for ages 3 to 21 years. The goal is to minimize or prevent disability by accommodating children with intellectual disabilities or changing the curriculum to meet the individualized needs of the child. This plan should be based on an interprofessional assessment to understand the child's needs.

Thus, clinicians should partner with social workers, psychologists, or psychiatrists for thorough evaluations, lawyers to explore legal support and advocacy for services, therapists, early intervention providers, and schools to plan individualized goals and monitor progress.

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Disclosure: Fatima Malik declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Raman Marwaha declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits others to distribute the work, provided that the article is not altered or used commercially. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.

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What Is Cognitive Development? 3 Psychology Theories

But don’t worry, we will try our best to help you with the essentials of this complex field of study.

We’ll start with some background, then show you how cognitive skills are used every day. In addition, we will explain a few theories and describe fascinating studies.

Since cognitive development goes beyond childhood and into adolescence, we are sure you will want to know all about this, too.

To end this article, we provide some helpful resources. You can use these to support the cognitive skills of your students or clients.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology, including strengths, values, and self-compassion, and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is cognitive development in psychology, cognitive development skills & important milestones, 5 real-life examples of cognitive development, 3 ground-breaking cognitive development theories, a look at cognitive development in adolescence, 3 fascinating research studies, helpful resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Cognitive development is how humans acquire, organize, and learn to use knowledge (Gauvain & Richert, 2016).

In psychology, the focus of cognitive development has often been only on childhood. However, cognitive development continues through adolescence and adulthood. It involves acquiring language and knowledge, thinking, memory, decision making, problem solving, and exploration (Von Eckardt, 1996).

Much of the research within cognitive development in children focuses on thinking, developing knowledge, exploring, and solving problems (Carpendale & Lewis, 2015).

Nature vs nurture debate

The nature versus nurture debate refers to how much an individual inherits compared to how much they are influenced by the environment. How do nature and nurture shape cognitive development?

American psychologist Arthur Jensen (1969, 1974) emphasized the role of genetics within intelligence, arguing for a genetic difference in the intelligence of white and Black people.

Jensen (1969) made some very bold assertions, stating that Black people have lower cognitive abilities. His research was heavily criticized for being discriminatory. He did not consider the inbuilt bias of psychometric testing (Ford, 1996). The lower test scores of Black individuals were more likely to be a result of a lack of resources and poor-quality life opportunities (Ford, 2004).

In an enormous cross-sample of 11,000 adolescent twins, Brant et al. (2013) found that those with a higher intelligence quotient (IQ) appeared to be more influenced by nurture and stimulation. The researchers suggested this may be because of their heightened attention and arousal system, absorbing more information from the environment, being more open to new experiences, and allowing brain plasticity and changes to occur.

They also found that adolescents with a lower IQ showed more genetic influence on their IQ from their parents. The researchers suggested that their lower levels of intelligence may result in lower motivation levels and an inability to seek out new experiences.

This study highlights the need for those with lower IQ levels to be supported with positive interventions to increase their cognitive abilities and capacity.

These milestones reflect skill achievement and take into account genetic makeup and environmental influence (Dosman, Andrews, & Goulden, 2012).

Here are a few of these important milestones, the associated skills, and the age at which they are typically achieved. The following table is modified from the Child Development Institute .

Table 1. Children’s cognitive milestones and skill development

Language and other cognitive skills

Language skills are essential for a child’s ability to communicate and engage with others. These skills support other areas of a child’s development, such as cognitive, literacy, and social development (Roulstone, Loader, Northstone, & Beveridge, 2002).

The modified table below was sourced from the Australian parenting website raisingchildren.net.au and describes how language develops in children.

Table 2. Language development from 0 to 8 years

Thinking skills

Thinking concerns manipulating information and is related to reasoning, decision making, and problem solving (Kashyap & Minda, 2016). It is required to develop language, because you need words to think.

Cognitive development activities helps thinking and reasoning to grow. Thinking is a skill that does not commence at birth. It develops gradually through childhood and advances more rapidly when children are around two years old. Reasoning develops around six. By the time they’re 11, children’s thinking becomes much more abstract and logical (Piaget, 1936).

Developing knowledge

Knowledge is essential for cognitive development and academic achievement. Increased knowledge equates to better speaking, reading, listening, and reasoning skills. Knowledge is not only related to language. It can also be gained by performing a task (Bhatt, 2000). It starts from birth as children begin to understand the world around them through their senses (Piaget, 1951).

Building knowledge is important for children to encode and retrieve new information. This makes them able to learn new material. Knowledge helps to facilitate critical thinking (Piaget, 1936). Clearly, the development of children’s knowledge base is a critical part of cognitive development.

Memory development

The development of memory is lifelong and related to personal experiences.

Explicit memory, which refers to remembering events and facts of everyday life, develops in the first two years (Stark, Yassa, & Stark, 2010). Explicit memory develops around 8 to 10 months.

Working memory and its increase in performance can be seen from three to four years through adolescence (Ward, Berry, & Shanks, 2013). This is demonstrated through increased attention, the acquisition of language, and increased knowledge.

Implicit memory, which is unconscious and unintentional, is an early developing memory system in infants and develops as the brain matures (Ward et al., 2013).

Perceptual skills

Perceptual skills develop from birth. They are an important aspect of cognitive development. Most children are born with senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell (Karasik, Tamis-LeMonda, & Adolph, 2014).

As children develop, they learn to communicate by interacting with their environment and using their sensory and motor skills (Karasik et al., 2014).

When visual, tactile, and auditory skills are combined, they emerge as perceptual skills. These perceptual skills are then used to gauge spatial relationships, discriminate between figure and ground, and develop hand–eye coordination (Libertus & Hauf, 2017).

Exploring and solving problems

Problem solving can be seen in very young children when they play with blocks, objects, and balls. It is entwined with perceptual skills and memory. Very young children playing with blocks, picking up a spoon, or even looking for objects demonstrate the development of problem solving skills (Goldschmied & Jackson, 1994). This is known as heuristic play (Auld, 2002).

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To understand how people think and process information, it is important to look at how cognitive skills are used in everyday life. Here are some real-life examples of cognitive development.

Decision making

To make a decision, a person needs to weigh up information and make the best choice. As an example, think about a restaurant menu. There is a lot of information on the menu about food options. Reading the menu requires you to analyze the data then reduce it to make a specific meal choice.

Recognition of faces

Have you ever wondered why it is possible to recognize a person even when they have grown a beard, wear makeup or glasses, or change their hair color?

Cognitive processing is used in facial recognition and explains why we still recognize people we meet after a long time, despite sometimes drastic changes in their physical appearance.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

This widely used therapeutic intervention is based on an understanding of cognition and how it changes behavior.

It is based on the premise that cognition and behavior are linked, and this theory is often used to help individuals overcome negative thinking patterns . CBT provides them with alternative positive thinking patterns to promote positive behavior.

The cognitive processes of short-term and long-term memory explain forgetting. An example of forgetting can be seen in students who do not study for exams. If they do not transfer the information from short-term to long-term memory, they forget the knowledge required for the examination and may fail.

Thinking and cognition are required for reasoning. Reasoning involves intellect and an attempt to search for the truth from new or existing information. An example of this activity can be seen in political debates on television.

They all attempt to explain how cognitive development occurs.

Piaget’s cognitive development theory

Jean Piaget (1936) is famous for his theory of cognition that considers four specific stages of development .

The sensorimotor stage (0–2 years) is when infants build an understanding of the world through their senses and movement (touching, feeling, listening, and watching). This is when children develop object permanence.

The pre-operational stage (2–7 years) is when language and abstract thinking arise. This is the stage of symbolic play.

When a child is 7 years old, they enter Piaget’s concrete-operational stage , which goes up to 11 years. This is when logical and concrete thought come into action.

At the age of 11 onward, children learn logical and abstract rules and solve problems. Piaget described this as the formal operational stage.

Vygotsky’s theory

Lev Vygotsky described an alternative theory. He believed that children’s cognitive development arises through their physical interaction with the world (Vygotsky, 1932). Vygotsky’s theory is based on the premise that the support of adults and peers enables the development of higher psychological functions. His is known as the sociocultural theory (Yasnitsky, 2018).

Vygotsky believed that a child’s initial social interactions prompt development, and as the child internalizes learning, this shifts their cognition to an individual level.

Vygotsky (1932) considered children akin to apprentices, learning from the more experienced, who understand their needs.

There are two main themes of Vygotsky’s theory.

The zone of proximal development is described as the distance between the actual development level and the level of potential. This is determined by independent problem solving when children are collaborating with more able peers or under the guidance of an adult (Vygotsky, 1931).

This may explain why some children perform better in the presence of others who have more knowledge and skills but more poorly on their own. These skills, displayed in a social context but not in an isolated setting, are within the zone of proximal development. This highlights how a more knowledgeable person can provide support to a child’s cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1932).

Thinking and speech are considered essential. Vygotsky described a connected relationship between language development and the thinking process. His theory explains how younger children use speech to think out loud. Gradually, they evolve silent inner speech once mental concepts and cognitive awareness are developed (Vygotsky, 1931).

Ecological systems theory

Another more modern theory, similar in some sense to Vygotsky’s, is one by American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (1974). He suggested that a child’s environment, within an arrangement of structures, has a differing impact on the child (Bronfenbrenner, 1974).

Bronfenbrenner’s five structures are the micro-system, mesosystem, ecosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. These concern the surrounding environment, family, school, values, customs, and cultures. They are interrelated, with each system influencing others to impact the child’s development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977).

Bronfenbrenner (1974) considered the micro-system as the most influential. This system contains the developing child, family, and educational environment, and impacts a child’s cognitive development the most.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development – Sprouts

Adolescence is a period of transition between late childhood and the beginning of adulthood.

Based on Inhelder and Piaget’s (1958) stage theory of cognitive growth, adolescence is when children become self-conscious and concerned with other people’s opinions as they go through puberty (Steinberg, 2005). The psychosocial context of adolescents is considerably different from that of children and adults.

The brain goes through a dramatic remodeling process in adolescence. Neural plasticity facilitates the development of social cognitive skills (Huttenlocher, 1979). Structural development of cortical regions of the brain may significantly influence cognitive functioning during adolescence (Huttenlocher, De Courten, Garey, & Van der Loos, 1983).

Recognition of facial expressions and emotion is one area of social cognition that has been investigated in adolescence (Herba & Phillips, 2004). The amygdala, a part of the brain associated with emotion processing, was found to be significantly activated in response to fearful facial expressions in a study of adolescents (Baird et al., 1999). This highlights that the development of emotional cognition is prominent in this age group.

Here are three we find most interesting.

1. A cognitive habilitation program for children

Millians and Coles (2014) studied five children who had experienced learning and academic deficits because of prenatal alcohol exposure. Before and after an intervention, researchers gave standardized tests of nonverbal reasoning and academic achievement to the children.

Four of the five children showed increases to the average range of scores on measures of nonverbal, reasoning, reading, and mathematics. This study highlighted the benefit of interventions to address children’s cognitive difficulties and learning problems, even when the cognitive difficulties are apparent from birth.

2. Bilingual babies and enhanced learning

Introducing babies to two languages has been shown to improve cognitive abilities, especially problem solving (Ramírez-Esparza, García-Sierra, & Kuhl, 2017).

Spanish babies between 7 and 33.5 months were given one hour of English sessions for 18 weeks. By the end of the 18 weeks, the children produced an average of 74 English words and phrases. This study showed that the age between 0 and 3 years is the best time to learn a second language and gain excellent proficiency. However, languages can be learned at any time in life.

3. Unusual autobiographical memory

In an unusual case study, a woman described as ‘AJ’ was found to have highly superior autobiographical memory, a condition that dominated her life (Parker, Cahill, & McGaugh, 2006).

Her memory was described as ‘nonstop, uncontrollable and automatic.’ AJ did not use any mnemonic devices to recall. She could tell you what she was doing on any day of her life.

AJ could also recall her past with a high level of accuracy. This study provided some insightful details of the neurobiology of autobiographical memory and changes in the prefrontal cortex that cause these superior cognitive abilities.

problem solving in cognitive development

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The first few years of a child’s life show rapid changes in brain development. This is part of the child’s cognitive development. There are a number of different theories of how and when this occurs. These are not set in stone, but are a guide to the cognitive development of children.

If children are not achieving their milestones at the approximate times they should, extra support can help make a difference. Even children with fetal alcohol syndrome can achieve considerably improved cognition with specialized support.

Remember, cognitive development does not end in childhood, as Piaget’s schema theory first suggested. It continues through adolescence and beyond. Cognitive development changes carry on through much of a teenager’s life as the brain is developing.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

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Cognitive Development Theory: What Are the Stages?

Sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage.

Cognitive development is the process by which we come to acquire, understand, organize, and learn to use information in various ways. Cognitive development helps a child obtain the skills needed to live a productive life and function as an independent adult.

The late Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was a major figure in the study of cognitive development theory in children. He believed that it occurs in four stages—sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

This article discusses Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, including important concepts and principles.

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History of Cognitive Development

During the 1920s, the psychologist Jean Piaget was given the task of translating English intelligence tests into French. During this process, he observed that children think differently than adults do and have a different view of the world. He began to study children from birth through the teenage years—observing children who were too young to talk, and interviewing older children while he also observed their development.

Piaget published his theory of cognitive development in 1936. This theory is based on the idea that a child’s intelligence changes throughout childhood and cognitive skills—including memory, attention, thinking, problem-solving, logical reasoning, reading, listening, and more—are learned as a child grows and interacts with their environment.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s theory suggests that cognitive development occurs in four stages as a child ages. These stages are always completed in order, but last longer for some children than others. Each stage builds on the skills learned in the previous stage.

The four stages of cognitive development include:

Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational

The sensorimotor stage begins at birth and lasts until 18 to 24 months of age. During the sensorimotor stage, children are physically exploring their environment and absorbing information through their senses of smell, sight, touch, taste, and sound.

The most important skill gained in the sensorimotor stage is object permanence, which means that the child knows that an object still exists even when they can't see it anymore. For example, if a toy is covered up by a blanket, the child will know the toy is still there and will look for it. Without this skill, the child thinks that the toy has simply disappeared.

Language skills also begin to develop during the sensorimotor stage.

Activities to Try During the Sensorimotor Stage

Appropriate activities to do during the sensorimotor stage include:

Playing peek-a-boo
Reading books
Providing toys with a variety of textures
Singing songs
Playing with musical instruments
Rolling a ball back and forth

The preoperational stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development occurs between ages 2 and 7 years. Early on in this stage, children learn the skill of symbolic representation. This means that an object or word can stand for something else. For example, a child might play "house" with a cardboard box.

At this stage, children assume that other people see the world and experience emotions the same way they do, and their main focus is on themselves. This is called egocentrism .

Centrism is another characteristic of the preoperational stage. This means that a child is only able to focus on one aspect of a problem or situation. For example, a child might become upset that a friend has more pieces of candy than they do, even if their pieces are bigger.

During this stage, children will often play next to each other—called parallel play—but not with each other. They also believe that inanimate objects, such as toys, have human lives and feelings.

Activities to Try During the Preoperational Stage

Appropriate activities to do during the preoperational stage include:

Playing "house" or "school"
Building a fort
Playing with Play-Doh
Building with blocks
Playing charades

The concrete operational stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years. During this stage, a child develops the ability to think logically and problem-solve but can only apply these skills to objects they can physically see—things that are "concrete."

Six main concrete operations develop in this stage. These include:

Conservation : This skill means that a child understands that the amount of something or the number of a particular object stays the same, even when it looks different. For example, a cup of milk in a tall glass looks different than the same amount of milk in a short glass—but the amount did not change.
Classification : This skill is the ability to sort items by specific classes, such as color, shape, or size.
Seriation : This skill involves arranging objects in a series, or a logical order. For example, the child could arrange blocks in order from smallest to largest.
Reversibility : This skill is the understanding that a process can be reversed. For example, a balloon can be blown up with air and then deflated back to the way it started.
Decentering : This skill allows a child to focus on more than one aspect of a problem or situation at the same time. For example, two candy bars might look the same on the outside, but the child knows that they have different flavors on the inside.
Transitivity : This skill provides an understanding of how things relate to each other. For example, if John is older than Susan, and Susan is older than Joey, then John is older than Joey.

Activities to Try During the Concrete Operational Stage

Appropriate activities to do during the concrete operational stage include:

Using measuring cups (for example, demonstrate how one cup of water fills two half-cups)
Solving simple logic problems
Practicing basic math
Doing crossword puzzles
Playing board games

The last stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development occurs during the teenage years into adulthood. During this stage, a person learns abstract thinking and hypothetical problem-solving skills.

Deductive reasoning—or the ability to make a conclusion based on information gained from a person's environment—is also learned in this stage. This means, for example, that a person can identify the differences between dogs of various breeds, instead of putting them all in a general category of "dogs."

Activities to Try During the Formal Operational Stage

Appropriate activities to do during the formal operational stage include:

Learning to cook
Solving crossword and logic puzzles
Exploring hobbies
Playing a musical instrument

Piaget's theory of cognitive development is based on the belief that a child gains thinking skills in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. These stages roughly correspond to specific ages, from birth to adulthood. Children progress through these stages at different paces, but according to Piaget, they are always completed in order.

National Library of Medicine. Cognitive testing . MedlinePlus.

Oklahoma State University. Cognitive development: The theory of Jean Piaget .

SUNY Cortland. Sensorimotor stage .

Marwaha S, Goswami M, Vashist B. Prevalence of principles of Piaget’s theory among 4-7-year-old children and their correlation with IQ . J Clin Diagn Res. 2017;11(8):ZC111-ZC115. doi:10.7860%2FJCDR%2F2017%2F28435.10513

Börnert-Ringleb M, Wilbert J. The association of strategy use and concrete-operational thinking in primary school . Front Educ. 2018;0. doi:10.3389/feduc.2018.00038

By Aubrey Bailey, PT, DPT, CHT Dr, Bailey is a Virginia-based physical therapist and professor of anatomy and physiology with over a decade of experience.

Jerome Bruner’s Theory Of Learning And Cognitive Development

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

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Jerome Bruner believed that children construct knowledge and meaning through active experience with the world around them. He emphasized the role of culture and language in cognitive development, which occurs in a spiral fashion with children revisiting basic concepts at increasing levels of complexity and abstraction.

Bruner’s Ideas

Like Ausubel (and other cognitive psychologists), Bruner sees the learner as an active agent; emphasizing the importance of existing schemata in guiding learning.
Bruner argues that students should discern for themselves the structure of subject content – discovering the links and relationships between different facts, concepts and theories (rather than the teacher simply telling them).
Bruner (1966) hypothesized that the usual course of intellectual development moves through three stages: enactive, iconic, and symbolic, in that order. However, unlike Piaget’s stages, Bruner did not contend that these stages were necessarily age-dependent, or invariant.
Piaget and, to an extent, Ausubel, contended that the child must be ready, or made ready, for the subject matter. But Bruner contends just the opposite. According to his theory, the fundamental principles of any subject can be taught at any age, provided the material is converted to a form (and stage) appropriate to the child.
The notion of a “spiral curriculum” embodies Bruner’s ideas by “spiraling” through similar topics at every age, but consistent with the child’s stage of thought.
His spiral curriculum revisits basic ideas repeatedly, building upon them into more complex, abstract concepts over time in a developmentally appropriate sequence.
The aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).
Cognitive growth involves an interaction between basic human capabilities and “culturally invented technologies that serve as amplifiers of these capabilities.”
These culturally invented technologies include not just obvious things such as computers and television, but also more abstract notions such as the way a culture categorizes phenomena, and language itself.
Bruner would likely agree with Vygotsky that language serves to mediate between environmental stimuli and the individual’s response.

Three Modes of Representation

Modes of representation are how information or knowledge is stored and encoded in memory.

Rather than neat age-related stages (like Piaget), the modes of representation are integrated and only loosely sequential as they “translate” into each other.

Bruner (1966) was concerned with how knowledge is represented and organized through different modes of thinking (or representation).

In his research on the cognitive development of children, Jerome Bruner proposed three modes of representation:

Enactive representation (action-based)
Iconic representation (image-based)
Symbolic representation (language-based)

Bruner’s constructivist theory suggests it is effective when faced with new material to follow a progression from enactive to iconic to symbolic representation; this holds true even for adult learners.

Bruner’s work also suggests that a learner even of a very young age is capable of learning any material so long as the instruction is organized appropriately, in sharp contrast to the beliefs of Piaget and other stage theorists.

Enactive Mode (0-1 year)

In the enactive mode , knowledge is stored primarily in the form of motor responses. This mode is used within the first year of life (corresponding with Piaget’s sensorimotor stage ).

Thinking is based entirely on physical actions , and infants learn by doing, rather than by internal representation (or thinking).

It involves encoding physical action-based information and storing it in our memory. For example, in the form of movement as muscle memory, a baby might remember the action of shaking a rattle.

And this is not just limited to children. Many adults can perform a variety of motor tasks (typing, sewing a shirt, operating a lawn mower) that they would find difficult to describe in iconic (picture) or symbolic (word) form.

This mode continues later in many physical activities, such as learning to ride a bike.

Iconic Mode (1-6 years)

Information is stored as sensory images (icons), usually visual ones, like pictures in the mind. For some, this is conscious; others say they don’t experience it.

This may explain why, when we are learning a new subject, it is often helpful to have diagrams or illustrations to accompany the verbal information.

Thinking is also based on using other mental images (icons), such as hearing, smell or touch.

Symbolic Mode (7 years onwards)

This develops last. In the symbolic stage , knowledge is stored primarily as language, mathematical symbols, or in other symbol systems.

This mode is acquired around six to seven years old (corresponding to Piaget’s concrete operational stage ).

In the symbolic stage, knowledge is stored primarily as words, mathematical symbols, or other symbol systems, such as music.

Symbols are flexible in that they can be manipulated, ordered, classified, etc., so the user isn’t constrained by actions or images (which have a fixed relation to that which they represent).

According to Bruner’s taxonomy, these differ from icons in that symbols are “arbitrary.” For example, the word “beauty” is an arbitrary designation for the idea of beauty in that the word itself is no more inherently beautiful than any other word.

The Importance of Language

Language is important for the increased ability to deal with abstract concepts.

Bruner argues that language can code stimuli and free an individual from the constraints of dealing only with appearances, to provide a more complex yet flexible cognition.

The use of words can aid the development of the concepts they represent and can remove the constraints of the “here & now” concept.

Bruner views the infant as an intelligent & active problem solver from birth, with intellectual abilities basically similar to those of the mature adult.

Educational Implications

Education should aim to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).

For Bruner (1961), the purpose of education is not to impart knowledge, but instead to facilitate a child’s thinking and problem-solving skills which can then be transferred to a range of situations. Specifically, education should also develop symbolic thinking in children.

In 1960 Bruner’s text, The Process of Education was published. The main premise of Bruner’s text was that students are active learners who construct their own knowledge.

Bruner (1960) opposed Piaget’s notion of readiness . He argued that schools waste time trying to match the complexity of subject material to a child’s cognitive stage of development.

This means students are held back by teachers as certain topics are deemed too difficult to understand and must be taught when the teacher believes the child has reached the appropriate stage of cognitive maturity .

The Spiral Curriculum

Bruner (1960) adopts a different view and believes a child (of any age) is capable of understanding complex information:

“We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.” (p. 33)

Bruner (1960) explained how this was possible through the concept of the spiral curriculum. This involved information being structured so that complex ideas can be taught at a simplified level first, and then re-visited at more complex levels later on.

The underlying principle in this is that the student should review particular concepts at over and over again during their educative experience; each time building and their understanding and requiring more sophisticated cognitive strategies (and thus increase the sophistication of their understanding).

Therefore, subjects would be taught at levels of gradually increasing difficultly (hence the spiral analogy). Ideally, teaching his way should lead to children being able to solve problems by themselves.

Bruner argues that, as children age, they are capable of increasingly complex modes of representation (basically, ways of thinking) – and the spiral curriculum should be sensitive to this development;

Initially, children learn better using an enactive mode of representation (i.e. they learn better through “doing things” such as physical and manual tasks) – for instance, the concept of addition might be first taught by asking the child to combine piles of beads and counting the results.
As they grow older – and more familiar with subject content – pupils become more confident in using an iconic mode of representation; they are able to perform tasks by imagining concrete pictures in their heads. To continue the above example; as the child becomes more confident with addition, they should be able to imagine the beads in order to complete additions (without physically needing to manipulate the piles).
Finally, students become capable of more abstract, symbolic modes of representation; without the need for either physical manipulation or mental imagery. Consequently, at this point, the student should have little problem with completing a series of written calculations; of numbers which are higher than is possible by “imagining beads”.

Discovery Learning Theory

Bruner (1960) developed the concept of Discovery Learning – arguing that students should “not be presented with the subject matter in its final form, but rather are required to organize it themselves…[requiring them] to discover for themselves relationships that exist among items of information”.

Bruner (1961) proposes that learners construct their own knowledge and do this by organizing and categorizing information using a coding system.

Bruner believed that the most effective way to develop a coding system is to discover it rather than being told by the teacher.

The concept of discovery learning implies that students construct their own knowledge for themselves (also known as a constructivist approach ).

The result is an extremely active form of learning, in which the students are always engaged in tasks, finding patterns or solving puzzles – and in which they constantly need to exercise their existing schemata , reorganizing and amending these concepts to address the challenges of the task.

The role of the teacher should not be to teach information by rote learning, but instead to facilitate the learning process. This means that a good teacher will design lessons that help students discover the relationship between bits of information.

To do this a teacher must give students the information they need, but without organizing for them. The use of the spiral curriculum can aid the process of discovery learning .

For example, in teaching a particular concept, the teacher should present the set of instances that will best help learners develop an appropriate model of the concept. The teacher should also model the inquiry process. Bruner would likely not contend that all learning should be through discovery.

For example, it seems pointless to have children “discover” the names of the U.S. Presidents, or important dates in history.

Bruner’s theory is probably clearest when illustrated with practical examples. The instinctive response of a teacher to the task of helping a primary-school child understand the concept of odd and even numbers, for instance, would be to explain the difference to them.

However, Bruner would argue that understanding of this concept would be much more genuine if the child discovered the difference for themselves; for instance, by playing a game in which they had to share various numbers of beads fairly between themselves and their friend.

Discovery is not just an instructional technique, but an important learning outcome in itself. Schools should help learners develop their own ability to find the “recurrent regularities” in their environment.

Bruner would likely not contend that all learning should be through discovery. For example, it seems pointless to have children “discover” the names of the U.S. Presidents, or important dates in history.

Scaffolding Theory

On the surface, Bruner’s emphasis on the learner discovering subject content for themselves seemingly absolves the teacher of a great deal of work.

In practice, however, his model requires the teacher to be actively involved in lessons; providing cognitive scaffolding which will facilitate learning on the part of the student.

On the one hand, this involves the selection and design of appropriate stimulus materials and activities which the student can understand and complete – however Bruner also advocates that the teacher should circulate the classroom and work with individual students, performing six core “functions” (Wood, Bruner and Ross: 1976):

Recruitment : ensuring that the student is interested in the task, and understands what is required of them.
Reducing degrees of freedom : helping the student make sense of the material by eliminating irrelevant directions and thus reducing the “trial and error” aspect of learning.
Direction Maintenance : ensuring that the learner is on-task and interest is maintained – often by breaking the ultimate aim of the task into “sub-aims” which are more readily understood and achieved.
Marking critical features : highlighting relevant concepts or processes and pointing out errors.
Frustration Control : stopping students from “giving up” on the task.
Demonstration : providing models for imitation or possible (partial solution).

In this context, Bruner’s model might be better described as guided discovery learning; as the teacher is vital in ensuring that the acquisition of new concepts and processes is successful.

Bruner and Vygotsky

Both Bruner and Vygotsky emphasize a child’s environment, especially the social environment, more than Piaget did. Both agree that adults should play an active role in assisting the child’s learning.

Bruner, like Vygotsky, emphasized the social nature of learning, citing that other people should help a child develop skills through the process of scaffolding.

“[Scaffolding] refers to the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring” (Bruner, 1978, p. 19).

He was especially interested in the characteristics of people whom he considered to have achieved their potential as individuals.

The term scaffolding first appeared in the literature when Wood, Bruner, and Ross described how tutors” interacted with a preschooler to help them solve a block reconstruction problem (Wood et al., 1976).

The concept of scaffolding is very similar to Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development , and it’s not uncommon for the terms to be used interchangeably.

Scaffolding involves helpful, structured interaction between an adult and a child with the aim of helping the child achieve a specific goal.

The purpose of the support is to allow the child to achieve higher levels of development by:

Simplifying the task or idea.
Motivating and encouraging the child.
Highlighting important task elements or errors.
Giving models that can be imitated.

Bruner and Piaget

There are similarities between Piaget and Bruner, but a significant difference is that Bruner’s modes are not related in terms of which presuppose the one that precedes it. While sometimes one mode may dominate in usage, they coexist.

Bruner states that the level of intellectual development determines the extent to which the child has been given appropriate instruction together with practice or experience.

So – the right way of presentation and explanation will enable a child to grasp a concept usually only understood by an adult. His theory stresses the role of education and the adult.

Although Bruner proposes stages of cognitive development, he doesn’t see them as representing different separate modes of thought at different points of development (like Piaget).

Instead, he sees a gradual development of cognitive skills and techniques into more integrated “adult” cognitive techniques.

Bruner views symbolic representation as crucial for cognitive development, and since language is our primary means of symbolizing the world, he attaches great importance to language in determining cognitive development.

Children are innately PRE-ADAPTED to learning
Children have a NATURAL CURIOSITY
Children’s COGNITIVE STRUCTURES develop over time
Children are ACTIVE participants in the learning process
Cognitive development entails the acquisition of SYMBOLS
Social factors, particularly language, were important for cognitive growth. These underpin the concept of ‘scaffolding’.
The development of LANGUAGE is a cause not a consequence of cognitive development
You can SPEED-UP cognitive development. You don’t have to wait for the child to be ready
The involvement of ADULTS and MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE PEERS makes a big difference

Bruner, J. S. (1957). Going beyond the information given. New York: Norton.

Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review , 31, 21-32.

Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction , Cambridge, Mass.: Belkapp Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1973). The relevance of education . New York: Norton.

Bruner, J. S. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair, R., J. Jarvelle, and W. J.M. Levelt (eds.) The Child’s Concept of Language. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology , 17(2), 89-100.

Child Psychology

Vygotsky vs. Piaget: A Paradigm Shift

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262-456-2384

Importance of Problem-solving in Child Development

The development of problem-solving skills is an essential aspect of child development. Learning how to approach and solve problems, both at home and school, can affect the quality of a child’s relationships with others. Problem-solving also encourages creativity, which is key to success later on in life. In this post, we will discuss the importance of problem-solving for children.

When do children develop problem-solving skills?

Problem-solving skills often start to emerge during the preschool years. In many cases, children obtain these skills by observing adults who model their own behavior as they face various situations and come up with solutions. These role models help children understand how their actions can affect problems and their outcomes.

The importance of problem-solving for children

One crucial aspect of problem-solving is identifying a problem at its earliest stage so that one can prevent it from escalating into something more serious. For example, if children have a dispute with a playmate, they need to learn about the importance of sharing and taking turns. This kind of knowledge is necessary in order for children to develop healthy relationships with others.

Furthermore, problem-solving plays a vital role in children's cognitive development. It encourages creativity because it allows kids to view situations from different perspectives. Sometimes creative solutions are better than more obvious ones when addressing problems.

Problems vary

Even though problem-solving plays a critical role throughout child development, it's also important to note that not every problem requires the same type of solution. For example, children wouldn't use the same approach with a broken toy as they would for completing academic assignments. Therefore, it's helpful to keep in mind that there are different types of problems, and each has an associated function or purpose.

The problems that children typically face can be divided into two categories: physical and social.

Physical problems include situations such as getting food when we’re hungry. On the other hand, social problems may involve conflicts with friends or siblings, or how to respond if one of your parents is upset. Understanding these different types of conflicts can help children understand which type of problem-solving strategy will work best depending on the context.

Learning how to solve problems

While learning how to solve problems is an integral part of child development, this process isn't always easy, especially in complex situations with several obstacles. In complicated situations, a slower approach is often best. This will allow children to explore different options and weigh the pros and cons.

Being able to settle differences with others helps children establish positive relationships. Moreover, problem-solving encourages creativity, which is another important element of growing into a successful adult. Understanding different types of problems will help children come up with solutions.

Why are problem-solving skills important for kids?

There are many reasons why problem-solving skills are essential for kids. When children can effectively face and address conflicts, they exercise their imaginations, creativity, critical thinking skills , and logic in order to address a difficult situation. Over time, children who are given opportunities to practice their problem-solving skills will grow more confident in their abilities.

When confronted with new problems, children can work out solutions through reasoning, rather than relying on others for help. This can result in higher self-confidence. If children have poor social competence, they may find it hard to form relationships with others.

Kids who lack academic motivation are less likely to succeed in school, while possessing strong problem-solving skills will encourage them to engage more in the learning process.

Problem-solving can help children adapt better in a variety of settings. They'll also have the ability to face challenges with determination.

Problem-solving plays a vital role in child development. This important skill is not just coming up with a solution. Rather, it involves using one's creativity, thinking through possibilities, reasoning through potential plans or pathways, and using logic to address complex problems or questions.

Additionally, confronting problems with confidence can help children feel better about themselves and have higher self-esteem. It is also vital for academic success later on. If children lack social competence, they may find it hard to form relationships with others.

Learning how to problem-solve requires practice, which can help boost motivation and improve academic performance too!

At Mrs. Myers' Learning Lab , we know the importance of problem-solving during child development. We offer programs that instill creativity and analytical skills. Call us today for more information!

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HealthyChildren.org

Introduction

Nature of learning and play, categories of play, object play, physical, locomotor, or rough-and-tumble play, outdoor play, social or pretend play alone or with others, development of play, effects on brain structure and functioning, benefits of play, benefits to adults of playing with children, implications for preschool education, modern challenges, role of media in children’s play, barriers to play, role of pediatricians, conclusions, lead authors, contributor, committee on psychosocial aspects of child and family health, 2017–2018, council on communications and media, 2017–2018, the power of play: a pediatric role in enhancing development in young children.

POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

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Michael Yogman , Andrew Garner , Jeffrey Hutchinson , Kathy Hirsh-Pasek , Roberta Michnick Golinkoff , COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH , COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA , Rebecca Baum , Thresia Gambon , Arthur Lavin , Gerri Mattson , Lawrence Wissow , David L. Hill , Nusheen Ameenuddin , Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos , Corinn Cross , Rhea Boyd , Robert Mendelson , Megan A. Moreno , MSEd , Jenny Radesky , Wendy Sue Swanson , MBE , Jeffrey Hutchinson , Justin Smith; The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Pediatrics September 2018; 142 (3): e20182058. 10.1542/peds.2018-2058

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Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage toxic stress. Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. Furthermore, play supports the formation of the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with all caregivers that children need to thrive.

Play is not frivolous: it enhances brain structure and function and promotes executive function (ie, the process of learning, rather than the content), which allow us to pursue goals and ignore distractions.

When play and safe, stable, nurturing relationships are missing in a child’s life, toxic stress can disrupt the development of executive function and the learning of prosocial behavior; in the presence of childhood adversity, play becomes even more important. The mutual joy and shared communication and attunement (harmonious serve and return interactions) that parents and children can experience during play regulate the body’s stress response. This clinical report provides pediatric providers with the information they need to promote the benefits of play and and to write a prescription for play at well visits to complement reach out and read. At a time when early childhood programs are pressured to add more didactic components and less playful learning, pediatricians can play an important role in emphasizing the role of a balanced curriculum that includes the importance of playful learning for the promotion of healthy child development.

Since the publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Clinical Reports on the importance of play in 2007, 1 , 2 newer research has provided additional evidence of the critical importance of play in facilitating parent engagement; promoting safe, stable, and nurturing relationships; encouraging the development of numerous competencies, including executive functioning skills; and improving life course trajectories. 3 , – 5 An increasing societal focus on academic readiness (promulgated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) has led to a focus on structured activities that are designed to promote academic results as early as preschool, with a corresponding decrease in playful learning. Social skills, which are part of playful learning, enable children to listen to directions, pay attention, solve disputes with words, and focus on tasks without constant supervision. 6 By contrast, a recent trial of an early mathematics intervention in preschool showed almost no gains in math achievement in later elementary school. 7 Despite criticism from early childhood experts, the 2003 Head Start Act reauthorization ended the program evaluation of social emotional skills and was focused almost exclusively on preliteracy and premath skills. 8 The AAP report on school readiness includes an emphasis on the importance of whole child readiness (including social–emotional, attentional, and cognitive skills). 9 Without that emphasis, children’s ability to pay attention and behave appropriately in the classroom is disadvantaged.

The definition of play is elusive. However, there is a growing consensus that it is an activity that is intrinsically motivated, entails active engagement, and results in joyful discovery. Play is voluntary and often has no extrinsic goals; it is fun and often spontaneous. Children are often seen actively engaged in and passionately engrossed in play; this builds executive functioning skills and contributes to school readiness (bored children will not learn well). 10 Play often creates an imaginative private reality, contains elements of make believe, and is nonliteral.

Depending on the culture of the adults in their world, children learn different skills through play. Sociodramatic play is when children act out the roles of adulthood from having observed the activities of their elders. Extensive studies of animal play suggest that the function of play is to build a prosocial brain that can interact effectively with others. 11

Play is fundamentally important for learning 21st century skills, such as problem solving, collaboration, and creativity, which require the executive functioning skills that are critical for adult success. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has enshrined the right to engage in play that is appropriate to the age of the child in Article 21. 12 In its 2012 exhibit “The Century of the Child: 1900–2000,” the Museum of Modern Art noted, “Play is to the 21st century what work was to industrialization. It demonstrates a way of knowing, doing, and creating value.” 13 Resnick 14 has described 4 guiding principles to support creative learning in children: projects, passion, peers, and play. Play is not just about having fun but about taking risks, experimenting, and testing boundaries. Pediatricians can be influential advocates by encouraging parents and child care providers to play with children and to allow children to have unstructured time to play as well as by encouraging educators to recognize playful learning as an important complement to didactic learning. Some studies 15 , – 18 note that the new information economy, as opposed to the older industrial 1, demands more innovation and less imitation, more creativity and less conformity. Research on children’s learning indicates that learning thrives when children are given some agency (control of their own actions) to play a role in their own learning. 19 The demands of today’s world require that the teaching methods of the past 2 centuries, such as memorization, be replaced by innovation, application, and transfer. 18

Bruner et al 20 stressed the fact that play is typically buffered from real-life consequences. Play is part of our evolutionary heritage, occurs in a wide spectrum of species, is fundamental to health, and gives us opportunities to practice and hone the skills needed to live in a complex world. 21 Although play is present in a large swath of species within the animal kingdom, from invertebrates (such as the octopus, lizard, turtle, and honey bee) to mammals (such as rats, monkeys, and humans), 22 social play is more prominent in animals with a large neocortex. 23 Studies of animal behavior suggests that play provides animals and humans with skills that will help them with survival and reproduction. 24 Locomotor skills learned through rough-and-tumble play enables escape from predators. However, animals play even when it puts them at risk of predation. 25 It is also suggested that play teaches young animals what they can and cannot do at times when they are relatively free from the survival pressures of adult life. 26 Play and learning are inextricably linked. 27 A Russian psychologist recognized that learning occurs when children actively engage in practical activities within a supportive social context. The accumulation of new knowledge is built on previous learning, but the acquisition of new skills is facilitated by social and often playful interactions. He was interested in what he called the “zone of proximal development,” which consists of mastering skills that a child could not do alone but could be developed with minimal assistance. 28 Within the zone of proximal development, the “how” of learning occurs through a reiterative process called scaffolding, in which new skills are built on previous skills and are facilitated by a supportive social environment. The construct of scaffolding has been extrapolated to younger children. Consider how a social smile at 6 to 8 weeks of age invites cooing conversations, which leads to the reciprocal dance of social communication even before language emerges, followed by social referencing (the reading of a parent’s face for nonverbal emotional content). The balance between facilitating unstructured playtime for children and encouraging adult scaffolding of play will vary depending on the competing needs in individual families, but the “serve-and-return” aspect of play requires caregiver engagement. 29

Early learning and play are fundamentally social activities 30 and fuel the development of language and thought. Early learning also combines playful discovery with the development of social–emotional skills. It has been demonstrated that children playing with toys act like scientists and learn by looking and listening to those around them. 15 , – 17 However, explicit instructions limit a child’s creativity; it is argued that we should let children learn through observation and active engagement rather than passive memorization or direct instruction. Preschool children do benefit from learning content, but programs have many more didactic components than they did 20 years ago. 31 Successful programs are those that encourage playful learning in which children are actively engaged in meaningful discovery. 32 To encourage learning, we need to talk to children, let them play, and let them watch what we do as we go about our everyday lives. These opportunities foster the development of executive functioning skills that are critically important for the development of 21st century skills, such as collaboration, problem solving, and creativity, according to the 2010 IBM’s Global CEO Study. 33

Play has been categorized in a variety of ways, each with its own developmental sequence. 32 , 34

This type of play occurs when an infant or child explores an object and learns about its properties. Object play progresses from early sensorimotor explorations, including the use of the mouth, to the use of symbolic objects (eg, when a child uses a banana as a telephone) for communication, language, and abstract thought.

This type of play progresses from pat-a-cake games in infants to the acquisition of foundational motor skills in toddlers 35 and the free play seen at school recess. The development of foundational motor skills in childhood is essential to promoting an active lifestyle and the prevention of obesity. 36 , – 39 Learning to cooperate and negotiate promotes critical social skills. Extrapolation from animal data suggests that guided competition in the guise of rough-and-tumble play allows all participants to occasionally win and learn how to lose graciously. 40 Rough-and-tumble play, which is akin to the play seen in animals, enables children to take risks in a relatively safe environment, which fosters the acquisition of skills needed for communication, negotiation, and emotional balance and encourages the development of emotional intelligence. It enables risk taking and encourages the development of empathy because children are guided not to inflict harm on others. 25 , 30 , 40 The United Kingdom has modified its guidelines on play, arguing that the culture has gone too far by leaching healthy risks out of childhood: new guidelines on play by the national commission state, “The goal is not to eliminate risk.” 41

Outdoor play provides the opportunity to improve sensory integration skills. 36 , 37 , 39 These activities involve the child as an active participant and address motor, cognitive, social, and linguistic domains. Viewed in this light, school recess becomes an essential part of a child’s day. 42 It is not surprising that countries that offer more recess to young children see greater academic success among the children as they mature. 42 , 43 Supporting and implementing recess not only sends a message that exercise is fundamentally important for physical health but likely brings together children from diverse backgrounds to develop friendships as they learn and grow. 42

This type of play occurs when children experiment with different social roles in a nonliteral fashion. Play with other children enables them to negotiate “the rules” and learn to cooperate. Play with adults often involves scaffolding, as when an adult rotates a puzzle to help the child place a piece. Smiling and vocal attunement, in which infants learn turn taking, is the earliest example of social play. Older children can develop games and activities through which they negotiate relationships and guidelines with other players. Dress up, make believe, and imaginary play encourage the use of more sophisticated language to communicate with playmates and develop common rule-bound scenarios (eg, “You be the teacher, and I will be the student”).

Play has also been grouped as self-directed versus adult guided. Self-directed play, or free play, is crucial to children’s exploration of the world and understanding of their preferences and interests. 19 , 32 , 44 Guided play retains the child agency, such that the child initiates the play, but it occurs either in a setting that an adult carefully constructs with a learning goal in mind (eg, a children’s museum exhibit or a Montessori task) or in an environment where adults supplement the child-led exploration with questions or comments that subtly guide the child toward a goal. Board games that have well-defined goals also fit into this category. 45 For example, if teachers want children to improve executive functioning skills (see the “Tools of the Mind” curriculum), 46 they could create drum-circle games, in which children coregulate their behavior. Familiar games such as “Simon Says” or “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” ask children to control their individual actions or impulses and have been shown to improve executive functioning skills. 47 Guided play has been defined as a child-led, joyful activity in which adults craft the environment to optimize learning. 4 , 48 This approach harkens back to Vygotsky 28 and the zone of proximal development, which represents the skills that children are unable to master on their own but are able to master in the context of a safe, stable, and nurturing relationship with an adult. The guidance and dialogue provided by the adult allow the child to master skills that would take longer to master alone and help children focus on the elements of the activity to guide learning. One way to think about guided play is as “constrained tinkering.” 14 , 48 This logic also characterizes Italy’s Emilio Reggio approach, which emphasizes the importance of teaching children to listen and look.

According to Vygotsky, 28 the most efficient learning occurs in a social context, where learning is scaffolded by the teacher into meaningful contexts that resonate with children’s active engagement and previous experiences. Scaffolding is a part of guided play; caregivers are needed to provide the appropriate amount of input and guidance for children to develop optimal skills.

How does play develop? Play progresses from social smiling to reciprocal serve-and-return interactions; the development of babbling; games, such as “peek-a-boo”; hopping, jumping, skipping, and running; and fantasy or rough-and-tumble play. The human infant is born immature compared with infants of other species, with substantial brain development occurring after birth. Infants are entirely dependent on parents to regulate sleep–wake rhythms, feeding cycles, and many social interactions. Play facilitates the progression from dependence to independence and from parental regulation to self-regulation. It promotes a sense of agency in the child. This evolution begins in the first 3 months of life, when parents (both mothers and fathers) interact reciprocally with their infants by reading their nonverbal cues in a responsive, contingent manner. 49 Caregiver–infant interaction is the earliest form of play, known as attunement, 50 but it is quickly followed by other activities that also involve the taking of turns. These serve-and-return behaviors promote self-regulation and impulse control in children and form a strong foundation for understanding their interaction with adults. The back-and-forth episodes also feed into the development of language.

Reciprocal games occur with both mothers and fathers 51 and often begin in earnest with the emergence of social smiles at 6 weeks of age. Parents mimic their infant’s “ooh” and “ah” in back-and-forth verbal games, which progress into conversations in which the parents utter pleasantries (“Oh, you had a good lunch!”), and the child responds by vocalizing back. Uncontrollable crying as a response to stress in a 1-year-old is replaced as the child reaches 2 to 3 years of age with the use of words to self-soothe, building on caregivers scaffolding their emotional responses. Already by 6 months of age, the introduction of solid foods requires the giving and receiving of reciprocal signals and communicative cues. During these activities, analyses of physiologic heart rate rhythms of infants with both their mothers and fathers have shown synchrony. 49 , 52

By 9 months of age, mutual regulation is manifested in the way infants use their parents for social referencing. 53 , 54 In the classic visual cliff experiment, it was demonstrated that an infant will crawl across a Plexiglas dropoff to explore if the mother encourages the infant but not if she frowns. Nonverbal communication slowly leads to formal verbal language skills through which emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger are identified for the child via words. Uncontrollable crying in the 1-year-old then becomes whining in the 2-year-old and verbal requests for assistance in the 3-year-old as parents scaffold the child’s emotional responses and help him or her develop alternative, more adaptive behaviors. Repetitive games, such as peek-a-boo and “this little piggy,” offer children the joy of being able to predict what is about to happen, and these games also enhance the infants’ ability to solicit social stimulation.

By 12 months of age, a child’s experiences are helping to lay the foundation for the ongoing development of social skills. The expression of true joy and mastery on children’s faces when they take their first step is truly a magical moment that all parents remember. Infant memory, in Piagetian terms, develops as infants develop object permanence through visible and invisible displacements, such as repetitive games like peek-a-boo. With the advent of locomotor skills, rough-and-tumble play becomes increasingly available. During the second year, toddlers learn to explore their world, develop the beginnings of self-awareness, and use their parents as a home base (secure attachment), frequently checking to be sure that the world they are exploring is safe. 55 As children become independent, their ability to socially self-regulate becomes apparent: they can focus their attention and solve problems efficiently, they are less impulsive, and they can better manage the stress of strong emotions. 56 With increased executive functioning skills, they can begin to reflect on how they should respond to a situation rather than reacting impulsively. With the development of language and symbolic functioning, pretend play now becomes more prominent. 57 Fantasy play, dress up, and fort building now join the emotional and social repertoire of older children just as playground activities, tag, and hide and seek develop motor skills. In play, children are also solving problems and learning to focus attention, all of which promote the growth of executive functioning skills.

Play is not frivolous; it is brain building. Play has been shown to have both direct and indirect effects on brain structure and functioning. Play leads to changes at the molecular (epigenetic), cellular (neuronal connectivity), and behavioral levels (socioemotional and executive functioning skills) that promote learning and adaptive and/or prosocial behavior. Most of this research on brain structure and functioning has been done with rats and cannot be directly extrapolated to humans.

Jaak Panksepp, 11 a neuroscientist and psychologist who has extensively studied the neurologic basis of emotion in animals, suggests that play is 1 of 7 innate emotional systems in the midbrain. 58 Rats love rough-and-tumble play and produce a distinctive sound that Panksepp labeled “rat laughter.” 42 , 59 , – 64 When rats are young, play appears to initiate lasting changes in areas of the brain that are used for thinking and processing social interaction.

The dendritic length, complexity, and spine density of the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) are refined by play. 64 , – 67 The brain-derived neurotrophic factor ( BDNF ) is a member of the neurotrophin family of growth factors that acts to support the survival of existing neurons and encourage the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses. It is known to be important for long-term memory and social learning. Play stimulates the production of BDNF in RNA in the amygdala, dorsolateral frontal cortex, hippocampus, and pons. 65 , 68 , – 70 Gene expression analyses indicate that the activities of approximately one-third of the 1200 genes in the frontal and posterior cortical regions were significantly modified by play within an hour after a 30-minute play session. 69 , 70 The gene that showed the largest effect was BDNF . Conversely, rat pup adversity, depression, and stress appear to result in the methylation and downregulation of the BDNF gene in the PFC. 71

Two hours per day of play with objects predicted changes in brain weight and efficiency in experimental animals. 11 , 66 Rats that were deprived of play as pups (kept in sparse cages devoid of toys) not only were less competent at problem solving later on (negotiating mazes) but the medial PFC of the play-deprived rats was significantly more immature, suggesting that play deprivation interfered with the process of synaptogenesis and pruning. 72 Rat pups that were isolated during peak play periods after birth (weeks 4 and 5) are much less socially active when they encounter other rats later in life. 73 , 74

Play-deprived rats also showed impaired problem-solving skills, suggesting that through play, animals learn to try new things and develop behavioral flexibility. 73 Socially reared rats with damage to their PFC mimic the social deficiencies of rats with intact brains but who were deprived of play as juveniles. 66 The absence of the play experience leads to anatomically measurable changes in the neurons of the PFC. By refining the functional organization of the PFC, play enhances the executive functioning skills derived from this part of the brain. 66 Whether these effects are specific to play deprivation or merely reflect the generic effect of a lack of stimulation requires further study. Rats that were raised in experimental toy-filled cages had bigger brains and thicker cerebral cortices and completed mazes more quickly. 67 , 75

Brain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine made by cells in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmentum, are also related to the reward quality of play: drugs that activate dopamine receptors increase play behavior in rats. 76

Play and stress are closely linked. High amounts of play are associated with low levels of cortisol, suggesting either that play reduces stress or that unstressed animals play more. 23 Play also activates norepinephrine, which facilitates learning at synapses and improves brain plasticity. Play, especially when accompanied by nurturing caregiving, may indirectly affect brain functioning by modulating or buffering adversity and by reducing toxic stress to levels that are more compatible with coping and resilience. 77 , 78

In human children, play usually enhances curiosity, which facilitates memory and learning. During states of high curiosity, functional MRI results showed enhanced activity in healthy humans in their early 20s in the midbrain and nucleus accumbens and functional connectivity to the hippocampus, which solidifies connections between intrinsic motivation and hippocampus-dependent learning. 79 Play helps children deal with stress, such as life transitions. When 3- to 4-year-old children who were anxious about entering preschool were randomly assigned to play with toys or peers for 15 minutes compared with listening to a teacher reading a story, the play group showed a twofold decrease in anxiety after the intervention. 24 , 80 In another study, preschool children with disruptive behavior who engaged with teachers in a yearlong 1-to-1 play session designed to foster warm, caring relationships (allowing children to lead, narrating the children’s behavior out loud, and discussing the children’s emotions as they played) showed reduced salivary cortisol stress levels during the day and improved behavior compared with children in the control group. 81 The notable exception is with increased stress experienced by children with autism spectrum disorders in new or social circumstances. 82 Animal studies suggest the role of play as a social buffer. Rats that were previously induced to be anxious became relaxed and calm after rough-and-tumble play with a nonanxious playful rat. 83 Extrapolating from these animal studies, one can suggest that play may serve as an effective buffer for toxic stress.

The benefits of play are extensive and well documented and include improvements in executive functioning, language, early math skills (numerosity and spatial concepts), social development, peer relations, physical development and health, and enhanced sense of agency. 13 , 32 , 56 , 57 , 84 , – 88 The opposite is also likely true; Panksepp 89 suggested that play deprivation is associated with the increasing prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. 90

Executive functioning, which is described as the process of how we learn over the content of what we learn, is a core benefit of play and can be characterized by 3 dimensions: cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory. Collectively, these dimensions allow for sustained attention, the filtering of distracting details, improved self-regulation and self-control, better problem solving, and mental flexibility. Executive functioning helps children switch gears and transition from drawing with crayons to getting dressed for school. The development of the PFC and executive functioning balances and moderates the impulsiveness, emotionality, and aggression of the amygdala. In the presence of childhood adversity, the role of play becomes even more important in that the mutual joy and shared attunement that parents and children can experience during play downregulates the body’s stress response. 91 , – 94 Hence, play may be an effective antidote to the changes in amygdala size, impulsivity, aggression, and uncontrolled emotion that result from significant childhood adversity and toxic stress. Future research is needed to clarify this association.

Opportunities for peer engagement through play cultivate the ability to negotiate. Peer play usually involves problem solving about the rules of the game, which requires negotiation and cooperation. Through these encounters, children learn to use more sophisticated language when playing with peers. 95 , 96

Play in a variety of forms (active physical play, pretend play, and play with traditional toys and shape sorters [rather than digital toys]) improves children’s skills. When children were given blocks to play with at home with minimal adult direction, preschool children showed improvements in language acquisition at a 6-month follow-up, particularly low-income children. The authors suggest that the benefits of Reach Out and Play may promote development just as Reach Out and Read does. 97 When playing with objects under minimal adult direction, preschool children named an average of 3 times as many nonstandard uses for an object compared with children who were given specific instructions. 98 In Jamaica, toddlers with growth retardation who were given weekly play sessions to improve mother–child interactions for 2 years were followed to adulthood and showed better educational attainment, less depression, and less violent behavior. 3

Children who were in active play for 1 hour per day were better able to think creatively and multitask. 22 Randomized trials of physical play in 7- to 9-year-olds revealed enhanced attentional inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and brain functioning that were indicative of enhanced executive control. 99 Play with traditional toys was associated with an increased quality and quantity of language compared with play with electronic toys, 100 particularly if the video toys did not encourage interaction. 101 Indeed, it has been shown that play with digital shape sorters rather than traditional shape sorters stunted the parent’s use of spatial language. 102 Pretend play encourages self-regulation because children must collaborate on the imaginary environment and agree about pretending and conforming to roles, which improves their ability to reason about hypothetical events. 56 , 57 , 103 , – 105 Social–emotional skills are increasingly viewed as related to academic and economic success. 106 Third-grade prosocial behavior correlated with eighth-grade reading and math better than with third-grade reading and math. 17 , 107

The health benefits of play involving physical activity are many. Exercise not only promotes healthy weight and cardiovascular fitness but also can enhance the efficacy of the immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems. 37 Outdoor playtime for children in Head Start programs has been associated with decreased BMI. 39 Physical activity is associated with decreases in concurrent depressive symptoms. 108 Play decreases stress, fatigue, injury, and depression and increases range of motion, agility, coordination, balance, and flexibility. 109 Children pay more attention to class lessons after free play at recess than they do after physical education programs, which are more structured. 43 Perhaps they are more active during free play.

Play also reflects and transmits cultural values. In fact, recess began in the United States as a way to socially integrate immigrant children. Parents in the United States encourage children to play with toys and/or objects alone, which is typical of communities that emphasize the development of independence. Conversely, in Japan, peer social play with dolls is encouraged, which is typical of cultures that emphasize interdependence. 110

Playing with children adds value not only for children but also for adult caregivers, who can reexperience or reawaken the joy of their own childhood and rejuvenate themselves. Through play and rereading their favorite childhood books, parents learn to see the world from their child’s perspective and are likely to communicate more effectively with their child, even appreciating and sharing their child’s sense of humor and individuality. Play enables children and adults to be passionately and totally immersed in an activity of their choice and to experience intense joy, much as athletes do when they are engaging in their optimal performance. Discovering their true passions is another critical strategy for helping both children and adults cope with adversity. One study documented that positive parenting activities, such as playing and shared reading, result in decreases in parental experiences of stress and enhancement in the parent–child relationship, and these effects mediate relations between the activities and social–emotional development. 111 , – 113

Most importantly, play is an opportunity for parents to engage with their children by observing and understanding nonverbal behavior in young infants, participating in serve-andreturn exchanges, or sharing the joy and witnessing the blossoming of the passions in each of their children.

Play not only provides opportunities for fostering children’s curiosity, 14 self-regulation skills, 46 language development, and imagination but also promotes the dyadic reciprocal interactions between children and parents, which is a crucial element of healthy relationships. 114 Through the buffering capacity of caregivers, play can serve as an antidote to toxic stress, allowing the physiologic stress response to return to baseline. 77 Adult success in later life can be related to the experience of childhood play that cultivated creativity, problem solving, teamwork, flexibility, and innovations. 18 , 52 , 115

Successful scaffolding (new skills built on previous skills facilitated by a supportive social environment) can be contrasted with interactions in which adults direct children’s play. It has been shown that if a caregiver instructs a child in how a toy works, the child is less likely to discover other attributes of the toy in contrast to a child being left to explore the toy without direct input. 38 , 116 , – 118 Adults who facilitate a child’s play without being intrusive can encourage the child’s independent exploration and learning.

Scaffolding play activities facilitated by adults enable children to work in groups: to share, negotiate, develop decision-making and problem-solving skills, and discover their own interests. Children learn to resolve conflicts and develop self-advocacy skills and their own sense of agency. The false dichotomy between play versus formal learning is now being challenged by educational reformers who acknowledge the value of playful learning or guided play, which captures the strengths of both approaches and may be essential to improving executive functioning. 18 , 19 , 34 , 119 Hirsh-Pasek et al 34 report a similar finding: children have been shown to discover causal mechanisms more quickly when they drive their learning as opposed to when adults display solutions for them.

Executive functioning skills are foundational for school readiness and academic success, mandating a frame shift with regard to early education. The goal today is to support interventions that cultivate a range of skills, such as executive functioning, in all children so that the children enter preschool and kindergarten curious and knowing how to learn. Kindergarten should provide children with an opportunity for playful collaboration and tinkering, 14 a different approach from the model that promotes more exclusive didactic learning at the expense of playful learning. The emerging alternative model is to prevent toxic stress and build resilience by developing executive functioning skills. Ideally, we want to protect the brain to enable it to learn new skills, and we want to focus on learning those skills that will be used to buffer the brain from any future adversity. 18 The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University offers an online resource on play and executive functioning with specific activities suggested for parents and children ( http://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Enhancing-and-Practicing-Executive-Function-Skills-with-Children-from-Infancy-to-Adolescence-1.pdf ). 120

Specific curricula have now been developed and tested in preschools to help children develop executive functioning skills. Many innovative programs are using either the Reggio Emilia philosophy or curricula such as Tools of the Mind (developed in California) 121 or Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies–Preschool and/or Kindergarten. 122 Caregivers need to provide the appropriate amount of input and guidance for children to develop optimal problem-solving skills through guided play and scaffolding. Optimal learning can be depicted by a bell-shaped curve, which illustrates the optimal zone of arousal and stress for complex learning. 123

Scaffolding is extensively used to support skills such as buddy reading, in which children take turns being lips and ears and learn to read and listen to each other as an example of guided play. A growing body of research shows that this curriculum not only improves executive functioning skills but also shows improvement in brain functioning on functional MRI. 6 , 124 , – 126

Focusing on cultivating executive functioning and other skills through playful learning in these early years is an alternative and innovative way of thinking about early childhood education. Instead of focusing solely on academic skills, such as reciting the alphabet, early literacy, using flash cards, engaging with computer toys, and teaching to tests (which has been overemphasized to promote improved test results), cultivating the joy of learning through play is likely to better encourage long-term academic success. Collaboration, negotiation, conflict resolution, self-advocacy, decision-making, a sense of agency, creativity, leadership, and increased physical activity are just some of the skills and benefits children gain through play.

For many families, there are risks in the current focus only on achievement, after-school enrichment programs, increased homework, concerns about test performance, and college acceptance. The stressful effects of this approach often result in the later development of anxiety and depression and a lack of creativity. Parental guilt has led to competition over who can schedule more “enrichment opportunities” for their children. As a result, there is little time left in the day for children’s free play, for parental reading to children, or for family meal times. Many schools have cut recess, physical education, art, and music to focus on preparing children for tests. Unsafe local neighborhoods and playgrounds have led to nature deficit disorder for many children. 127 A national survey of 8950 preschool children and parents found that only 51% of children went outside to walk or play once per day with either parent. 128 In part, this may reflect the local environment: 94% of parents have expressed safety concerns about outdoor play, and access may be limited. Only 20% of homes are located within a half-mile of a park. 129 , 130 Cultural changes have also jeopardized the opportunities children have to play. From 1981 to 1997, children’s playtime decreased by 25%. Children 3 to 11 years of age have lost 12 hours per week of free time. Because of increased academic pressure, 30% of US kindergarten children no longer have recess. 42 , 129 An innovative program begun in Philadelphia is using cities (on everyday walks and in everyday neighborhoods) as opportunities for creating learning landscapes that provide opportunities for parents and children to spark conversation and playful learning. 131 , 132 For example, Ridge et al 132 have placed conversational prompts throughout supermarkets and laundromats to promote language and lights at bus stops to project designs on the ground, enabling children to play a game of hopscotch that is specifically designed to foster impulse control. By promoting the learning of social and emotional skills, the development of emotional intelligence, and the enjoyment of active learning, protected time for free play and guided play can be used to help children improve their social skills, literacy, and school readiness. Children can then enter school with a stronger foundation for attentional disposition based on the skills and attitudes that are critical for academic success and the long-term enjoyment of learning and love of school.

Media (eg, television, video games, and smartphone and tablet applications) use often encourages passivity and the consumption of others’ creativity rather than active learning and socially interactive play. Most importantly, immersion in electronic media takes away time from real play, either outdoors or indoors. Real learning happens better in person-to-person exchanges rather than machine-to-person interactions. Most parents are eager to do the right thing for their children. However, advertisers and the media can mislead parents about how to best support and encourage their children’s growth and development as well as creativity. Parent surveys have revealed that many parents see media and technology as the best way to help their children learn. 133 However, researchers contradict this. Researchers have compared preschoolers playing with blocks independently with preschoolers watching Baby Einstein tapes and have shown that the children playing with blocks independently developed better language and cognitive skills than their peers watching videos. 34 , 134 Although active engagement with age-appropriate media, especially if supported by cowatching or coplay with peers or parents, may have some benefits, 135 real-time social interactions remain superior to digital media for home learning. 136

It is important for parents to understand that media use often does not support their goals of encouraging curiosity and learning for their children. 137 , – 141 Despite research that reveals an association between television watching and a sedentary lifestyle and greater risks of obesity, the typical preschooler watches 4.5 hours of television per day, which displaces conversation with parents and the practice of joint attention (focus by the parent and child on a common object) as well as physical activity. For economically challenged families, competing pressures make it harder for parents to find the time to play with children. Encouraging outdoor exercise may be more difficult for such families given unsafe playgrounds. Easy access to electronic media can be difficult for parents to compete with.

In the 2015 symposium, 137 the AAP clarified recommendations acknowledging the ubiquity and transformation of media from primarily television to other modalities, including video chatting. In 2016, the AAP published 2 new policies on digital media affecting young children, school-aged children, and adolescents. These policies included recommendations for parents, pediatricians, and researchers to promote healthy media use. 139 , 140 The AAP has also launched a Family Media Use Plan to help parents and families create healthy guidelines for their children’s media use so as to avoid displacing activities such as active play, and guidelines can also be found on the HealthyChildren.org and Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org) Web sites.

There are barriers to encouraging play. Our culture is preoccupied with marketing products to young children. 142 Parents of young children who cannot afford expensive toys may feel left out. 143 Parents who can afford expensive toys and electronic devices may think that allowing their children unfettered access to these objects is healthy and promotes learning. The reality is that children’s creativity and play is enhanced by many inexpensive toys (eg, wooden spoons, blocks, balls, puzzles, crayons, boxes, and simple available household objects) and by parents who engage with their children by reading, watching, playing alongside their children, and talking with and listening to their children. It is parents’ and caregivers’ presence and attention that enrich children, not elaborate electronic gadgets. One-on-one play is a time-tested way of being fully present. Low-income families may have less time to play with their children while working long hours to provide for their families, but a warm caregiver or extended family as well as a dynamic community program can help support parents’ efforts. 144 The importance of playtime with children cannot be overemphasized to parents as well as schools and community organizations. Many children do not have safe places to play. 145 Neighborhood threats, such as violence, guns, drugs, and traffic, pose safety concerns in many neighborhoods, particularly low-income areas. Children in low-income, urban neighborhoods also may have less access to quality public spaces and recreational facilities in their communities. 145 Parents who feel that their neighborhoods are unsafe may also not permit their children to play outdoors or independently.

Public health professionals are increasingly partnering with other sectors, such as parks and recreation, public safety, and community development, to advocate for safe play environments in all communities. This includes efforts to reduce community violence, improve physical neighborhood infrastructure, and support planning and design decisions that foster safe, clean, and accessible public spaces.

Pediatricians can advocate for the importance of all forms of play as well as for the role of play in the development of executive functioning, emotional intelligence, and social skills ( Table 1 ). Pediatricians have a critical role to play in protecting the integrity of childhood by advocating for all children to have the opportunity to express their innate curiosity in the world and their great capacity for imagination. For children with special needs, it is especially important to create safe opportunities for play. A children’s museum may offer special mornings when it is open only to children with special needs. Extra staffing enables these children and their siblings to play in a safe environment because they may not be able to participate during crowded routine hours.

Recommendations From Pediatricians to Parents

Adapted from pathways.org ( https://pathways.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/PlayBrochure_English_LEGAL_FOR-PRINT_2022.pdf ).

The AAP recommends that pediatricians:

Encourage parents to observe and respond to the nonverbal behavior of infants during their first few months of life (eg, responding to their children’s emerging social smile) to help them better understand this unique form of communication. For example, encouraging parents to recognize their children’s emerging social smile and to respond with a smile of their own is a form of play that also teaches the infants a critical social–emotional skill: “You can get my attention and a smile from me anytime you want just by smiling yourself.” By encouraging parents to observe the behavior of their children, pediatricians create opportunities to engage parents in discussions that are nonjudgmental and free from criticism (because they are grounded in the parents’ own observations and interpretations of how to promote early learning);

Advocate for the protection of children’s unstructured playtime because of its numerous benefits, including the development of foundational motor skills that may have lifelong benefits for the prevention of obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes;

Advocate with preschool educators to do the following: focus on playful rather than didactic learning by letting children take the lead and follow their own curiosity; put a premium on building social–emotional and executive functioning skills throughout the school year; and protect time for recess and physical activity;

Emphasize the importance of playful learning in preschool curricula for fostering stronger caregiver–infant relationships and promoting executive functioning skills. Communicating this message to policy makers, legislators, and educational administrators as well as the broader public is equally important; and

Just as pediatricians support Reach Out and Read, encourage playful learning for parents and infants by writing a “prescription for play” at every well-child visit in the first 2 years of life.

A recent randomized controlled trial of the Video Interaction Project (an enhancement of Reach Out and Read) has demonstrated that the promotion of reading and play during pediatric visits leads to enhancements in social–emotional development. 112 In today’s world, many parents do not appreciate the importance of free play or guided play with their children and have come to think of worksheets and other highly structured activities as play. 146 Although many parents feel that they do not have time to play with their children, pediatricians can help parents understand that playful learning moments are everywhere, and even daily chores alongside parents can be turned into playful opportunities, especially if the children are actively interacting with parents and imitating chores. Young children typically seek more attention from parents. 46 Active play stimulates children’s curiosity and helps them develop the physical and social skills needed for school and later life. 32

Cultural shifts, including less parent engagement because of parents working full-time, fewer safe places to play, and more digital distractions, have limited the opportunities for children to play. These factors may negatively affect school readiness, children’s healthy adjustment, and the development of important executive functioning skills;

Play is intrinsically motivated and leads to active engagement and joyful discovery. Although free play and recess need to remain integral aspects of a child’s day, the essential components of play can also be learned and adopted by parents, teachers, and other caregivers to promote healthy child development and enhance learning;

The optimal educational model for learning is for the teacher to engage the student in activities that promote skills within that child’s zone of proximal development, which is best accomplished through dialogue and guidance, not via drills and passive rote learning. There is a current debate, particularly about preschool curricula, between an emphasis on content and attempts to build skills by introducing seat work earlier versus seeking to encourage active engagement in learning through play. With our understanding of early brain development, we suggest that learning is better fueled by facilitating the child’s intrinsic motivation through play rather than extrinsic motivations, such as test scores;

An alternative model for learning is for teachers to develop a safe, stable, and nurturing relationship with the child to decrease stress, increase motivation, and ensure receptivity to activities that promote skills within each child’s zone of proximal development. The emphasis in this preventive and developmental model is to promote resilience in the presence of adversity by enhancing executive functioning skills with free play and guided play;

Play provides ample opportunities for adults to scaffold the foundational motor, social–emotional, language, executive functioning, math, and self-regulation skills needed to be successful in an increasingly complex and collaborative world. Play helps to build the skills required for our changing world; and

Play provides a singular opportunity to build the executive functioning that underlies adaptive behaviors at home; improve language and math skills in school; build the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships that buffer against toxic stress; and build social–emotional resilience.

For more information, see Kearney et al’s Using Joyful Activity To Build Resiliency in Children in Response to Toxic Stress . 147

American Academy of Pediatrics

brain-derived neurotrophic factor

prefrontal cortex

Dr Yogman prepared the first draft of this report and took the lead in reconciling the numerous edits, contributions, and suggestions from the other authors; Drs Garner, Hutchinson, Hirsh-Pasek, and Golinkoff made significant contributions to the manuscript by revising multiple drafts and responding to all reviewer concerns; and all authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.

The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University or the Department of Defense.

FUNDING: No external funding.

This document is copyrighted and is property of the American Academy of Pediatrics and its Board of Directors. All authors have filed conflict of interest statements with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Any conflicts have been resolved through a process approved by the Board of Directors. The American Academy of Pediatrics has neither solicited nor accepted any commercial involvement in the development of the content of this publication.

Clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics benefit from expertise and resources of liaisons and internal (AAP) and external reviewers. However, clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics may not reflect the views of the liaisons or the organizations or government agencies that they represent.

The guidance in this report does not indicate an exclusive course of treatment or serve as a standard of medical care. Variations, taking into account individual circumstances, may be appropriate.

All clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics automatically expire 5 years after publication unless reaffirmed, revised, or retired at or before that time.

Michael Yogman, MD, FAAP

Andrew Garner, MD, PhD, FAAP

Jeffrey Hutchinson, MD, FAAP

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, PhD

Roberta Golinkoff, PhD

Virginia Keane, MD, FAAP

Michael Yogman, MD, FAAP, Chairperson

Rebecca Baum, MD, FAAP

Thresia Gambon, MD, FAAP

Arthur Lavin, MD, FAAP

Gerri Mattson, MD, FAAP

Lawrence Wissow, MD, MPH, FAAP

Sharon Berry, PhD, LP – Society of Pediatric Psychology

Amy Starin, PhD, LCSW – National Association of Social Workers

Edward Christophersen, PhD, FAAP – Society of Pediatric Psychology

Norah Johnson, PhD, RN, CPNP-BC – National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners

Abigail Schlesinger, MD – American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Karen S. Smith

David L Hill, MD, FAAP, Chairperson

Nusheen Ameenuddin, MD, MPH, FAAP

Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, MD, FAAP

Corinn Cross, MD, FAAP

Rhea Boyd, MD, FAAP

Robert Mendelson, MD, FAAP

Megan A Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH, FAAP

Jenny Radesky, MD, FAAP

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE, FAAP

Justin Smith, MD, FAAP

Kristopher Kaliebe, MD – American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH – American Public Health Association Health Law Special Interest Group

Brian Wilcox, PhD – American Psychological Association

Thomas McPheron

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Cognitive development includes reasoning, memory, problem-solving, and thinking skills that help young children understand and organize their world. For preschoolers, this evolves into complex mathematical thinking and scientific reasoning.

Children play an active role in their own cognitive development by exploring and testing the world around them, but they also need support from parents, teachers, and other adults. When infants and toddlers feel safe and secure, they are more willing to experiment with their world, such as discovering how a pull toy works, observing what happens when they turn on a faucet, and trying out different behaviors to see how people react. In the process, they begin to understand basic mathematical, spatial, and causal relationships. Toddlers also explore concepts through a variety of symbolic activities, such as drawing and pretend play. More and more, young children can rely on their developing memory to help them make sense of the world. All this activity in the first three years lays the foundation for the more complex cognitive skills that preschoolers develop.

Cognitive development is presented as two different domains for preschoolers— Mathematics Development and Scientific Reasoning—to reflect the increasingly complex and more differentiated cognitive abilities of this age period. Mathematics development in preschoolers refers to understanding numbers and quantities, their relationships, and operations, such as what it means to add to and take away. Mathematics also includes shapes and their structure, reasoning, measurement, classification, and patterns. Preschoolers are eager to measure their height to see how much they have grown and to chime in with repeating patterns in books and songs.

Increasingly, children use math strategies to solve problems during daily activities, such as figuring out how many more cups are needed at snack time. Because math includes generalizations and abstractions, math skills help young children connect ideas, develop logical and abstract thinking, and analyze, question, and understand the world around them. Children develop math concepts and skills through active exploration and discovery in the context of stimulating learning opportunities and intentional teaching strategies.

Scientific Reasoning refers to the emerging ability to develop scientific knowledge about the natural and physical worlds, learn scientific skills and methods, and continue developing reasoning and problem-solving skills. For preschoolers, scientific investigation includes making observations, recording them, talking about them, and analyzing them. Their investigations reflect their natural interests in how things work, in plants and animals, their bodies, and weather. In the process of investigating, they can learn to use measurement and observational tools, such as a ruler and a magnifying glass. During the early childhood years, science provides opportunities for rich vocabulary learning and collaboration with peers and fosters a sense of curiosity and motivation to learn. Problem-solving and reasoning become more complex as preschoolers gain new abilities to ask questions and gather information. Their inclination to be curious, explore, experiment, ask questions, and develop their own theories about the world makes science an important domain for enhancing learning and school success.

Because cognitive development encompasses a broad range of skills, behaviors, and concepts, children display great individual variation in their development from birth to 5. Prior experiences, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, temperament, and many other factors can impact the rate and course of cognitive development. Children with disabilities may require extra support as they use their senses and bodies to explore or as they describe their scientific investigations. The instruction and learning opportunities young children experience set the stage for their cognitive development and success.

Cognitive development from birth to 5 is influenced by children's cultural and linguistic backgrounds, temperament, and many other factors. Children who are dual language learners (DLLs) may express their knowledge and understanding differently—depending on the content of the skills and the context in which they were learned.

Resource Type: Article

National Centers: Office of Head Start

Last Updated: May 21, 2024

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Viewers & Players

Problem-Solving

Child putting together the Wooden Wobble Puzzle from The Problem Solver Play Kit

Learning & Cognitive Skills

8 to 11 months

Sorting & Matching, Stacking, Executive Function, Concentration

From tackling a complex project at work to figuring out how to manage your busy schedule, every day you use problem-solving skills like critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity. How did you learn these skills? Just as your child will: through exploration and play. Support their problem-solving skills through activities that let them independently try new things, learn from their mistakes, and test out different ways of thinking.

In this article:

What is problem-solving?

What are examples of problem-solving skills, when do children develop problem-solving skills , why are problem-solving skills important in child development.

Problem-solving games & activities for babies and toddlers

Problem-solving and frustration tolerance

Developmental concerns with problem-solving.

Problem-solving is the process by which your child spots a problem and comes up with a solution to overcome it. Your child uses problem-solving skills in all sorts of contexts, from figuring out how to get a ball out of a cup to interacting with a child who took their toy.

Children don’t inherently understand different approaches to solving problems—these skills develop gradually over time, starting in the earliest days of life. As your child gains experience, tests out strategies, plays with various materials, and watches people around them, they learn how to problem-solve.

Think about strategies you might use to tackle a project at work—for example, creating an outline, breaking the project into steps, or delegating tasks. With your help, your child will develop problem-solving skills like these:

Breaking a large problem into smaller steps
Persevering through challenges or setbacks
Using creativity to think “outside the box” about different solutions
Being resourceful by using available items as tools to reach a goal
Taking the initiative to try a possible solution and see if it works
Seeking help when you get stuck
Using compromise or negotiation to help resolve a conflict
Using critical thinking to discover what the next step should be

As early as 8 to 11 months, you may see the earliest signs of your child’s problem-solving skills at work. If you hide a toy under a blanket or basket, for example, they may use basic problem-solving to try to uncover it.

As a toddler, your child will grow more experienced with different types of playthings and the challenges they offer. They’ll also develop more focus and patience to work through problems on their own. Support their emerging problem-solving skills by observing their efforts—without stepping in right away to help. It’s tempting to intervene when you see your toddler struggle to fit the pieces of a puzzle, align blocks so they won’t fall, or get a stuck car out of the Race & Chase Ramp . Banging, rotating, failing, and trying again are all important parts of the process. Your toddler gains more problem-solving experience with every attempt.

RELATED: Subtle signs of your toddler’s developing focus

By 3 years of age, your child will have more skills to help them solve a problem. They’ve learned how to communicate and follow directions. They also have more control over their emotions and their body. Not only are they ready to solve more complex puzzles and games, they’re learning how to solve social problems, like working through conflict and negotiating with peers during play.

If your child is accustomed to tackling problems, they’re more likely to at least attempt to get the cup they need off the high shelf, or try to buckle those tricky sandal straps. Practicing problem-solving can help your child overcome challenges, try flexible ways of thinking, and become more confident and independent in the process.

Problem-solving skills are also crucial to your child’s cognitive development. They encourage your child’s brain to make new connections and process information in new ways. This is why so many of the best games, toys, and activities for young children stress some element of problem-solving, critical thinking, or creativity.

Your child can develop better social skills when they practice problem-solving, too: Understanding how to resolve conflicts and compromise with peers is a crucial problem-solving skill they’ll take with them into preschool and beyond.

Problem-solving activities & games

You don’t need elaborate planning or fancy equipment to help your child develop these skills. Many problem-solving activities for kids can be incorporated into daily life or during playtime.

Problem-solving activities for babies

It will be years before your baby is ready for advanced problem-solving skills, like compromising with others and project planning. For now, they’ll experiment with different ways to solve simple problems, showing initiative, perseverance, and creativity. Here are a few activities that help spark your baby’s problem-solving skills.

Reaching for a toy: Setting a goal is the very first step in problem-solving. Once your baby can sit independently, place toys one at a time in front of them, behind them, beside them, between their legs, or on a nearby shelf. This allows them to practice setting a goal—get the toy!—and making a plan to achieve it.

Emptying a container: Dumping objects out of containers sounds like a mess, but it’s a valuable skill for babies to learn. Place a Wood Ball in a Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cup and show your baby how to tip over the cup to empty it. Then, put the ball back into the cup and let your baby figure out how to get the ball out of the container on their own.

Finding hidden objects: Your baby practices problem-solving with the Sliding Top Box every time they work to figure out how to slide the top to reveal the ball inside. This also builds fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Posting: The Wooden Peg Drop lets your baby experiment with “posting,” or fitting an object into its container, a much-loved fine motor activity. The tab release is an engaging problem-solving task for your baby, as they discover how to press down to release the pegs from their slots.

Explore playthings that encourage problem-solving

The Thinker Play Kit

The Thinker Play Kit encourages your 11 – 12 month old baby’s curiosity as they start solving problems, working on hand strength and investigating everything in their path.

Problem-solving activities for toddlers

At 12 to 18 months, your toddler’s problem-solving skills are still taking shape. But you may begin to see them work to figure out more complex problems, like pulling toys around obstacles or getting objects “unstuck.” Encourage your toddler through play with activities that challenge their creative thinking.

Object interactions: What happens when you push a squishy ball through a small opening? How does a bendy thing react when it hits something hard? Understanding how different objects interact helps your child learn to use tools for problem-solving.

As you play with your toddler, demonstrate different ways playthings can interact. Two blocks can be banged together, stacked, or lined up side by side. The insects from the Fuzzy Bug Shrub can be stuck to the outside of the shrub or put inside. Give your child pieces from different playthings and see how they can make them interact. Perhaps the balls from the Slide and Seek Ball Run and the rings from the Flexible Wooden Stacker can interact in some new, fun way?

Asking questions : Once your toddler learns how to push the Carrots through the Carrot Lid for the Coin Bank, the question becomes how to get them out. Ask your toddler simple questions to spark their problem-solving skills: “Where did the carrots go?” or “How can we get them out?” Encourage your child to explore the Coin Bank and give them time to discover a solution on their own.

Simple challenges: Your toddler may be ready for some problem-solving challenges with their playthings. For example, when your toddler can pick up a toy in each hand, offer a third toy and see if they can figure out how to carry all three at once. Or place parts of a toy—like the rings for the Flexible Wooden Stacker—in different locations around the room, so your child needs to plan how to retrieve the pieces. Pack as many Quilted Critters as will fit in The Lockbox and let your toddler discover how to get them out. This type of challenge may seem simple, but your child has to problem-solve how to navigate their hand into the box to pull out the Critters.

Cause and effect: Your toddler may discover how to pull on a string attached to a toy to make it move. They understand that the toy and the string are linked, and use simple problem-solving skills to test—and re-test—what happens when they move the string differently. This type of problem-solving can be supported by pull toys such as The Pull Pup . As your toddler encounters different obstacles—like the corner of the couch—with The Pull Pup, they’ll have to problem-solve to keep the toy moving.

RELATED: Pull toys are classic for a reason

Puzzles are a classic childhood problem-solving activity for good reason. Your child learns how things fit together, how to orient and rotate objects, and how to predict which shape might fit a particular space. Puzzles come in such a wide variety of difficulty levels, shapes, sizes, and formats, there’s a puzzle that’s right for almost every stage of development.

Lovevery co-founder Jessica Rolph explains how Lovevery puzzles are designed to progress with your child’s problem-solving and fine motor skills:

Babies can begin exploring simple one-piece puzzles around 6 to 8 months of age. Puzzles that have round slots and easy-to-hold pieces with knobs, like the First Puzzle , are ideal for this age. Around 13 to 15 months of age, they can try simple puzzles with several pieces in the same shape, like the Circle of Friends Puzzle .

By 18 months, your toddler is probably ready to work with puzzle shapes that are geometric, animal, or organic, like the Community Garden Puzzle . This reinforces your toddler’s newfound understanding that different shapes fit in different places. As they progress, they may start to enjoy stacking and nesting puzzles, like the 3D Geo Shapes Puzzle . This type of puzzle requires problem-solving on a new level, since your child may have to turn the shapes in different directions to orient and place them correctly.

As your toddler approaches their second birthday, they may be ready for classic jigsaw puzzles. Puzzles with large pieces that are easy for your toddler to hold, like the Chunky Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle , are a great place to start. At this age, your toddler may also find 3D puzzles, like the Wooden Posting Stand , an engaging problem-solving challenge. Since the dowels are different diameters, your child will likely use trial and error to determine which size fits in the correct slot. At first, you may have to guide them a bit: Point out that the dowels need to go in straight in order to fit.

How to encourage puzzle play for active toddlers

Depending on your toddler’s temperament, they may love to sit quietly and work on a puzzle—or they may be constantly on the move. Highly active toddlers may seem like they never sit still long enough to complete an activity. Here are a few ways to combine their love of movement with puzzle play:

Play “hide-and-seek” with toys (or puzzle pieces) by placing them on top of furniture that’s safe to cruise along or climb on.
Place puzzle pieces in different places around the room, so they have to retrieve them one by one to solve the puzzle.
Place the puzzle pieces on stairs or in different rooms so your toddler has to walk or climb to find them.

Stacking toys

Stacking toys such as blocks or rings engage babies and toddlers in a challenging form of problem-solving play. Your child’s skills are put to the test as they plan where to place each item, work to balance their stack, and wrestle with gravity to keep the stack from toppling.

You can introduce your baby to stacking play around 9 to 10 months with playthings that are easy to work with, like the Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cups . Stacking takes coordination, precision, and patience, and if they try to stack items that are too difficult to keep upright, they may become frustrated and give up.

You can also make basic blocks easier to stack by using a larger item as a base. Demonstrate how to stack a block on top of the base, then knock the tower down. Hand a block to your toddler and allow them to try stacking and knocking it down. As their movements become more controlled and purposeful, introduce another block to stack.

Stacking a tower with the pegs from the Wooden Stacking Pegboard is a fun way to introduce goal-setting, an important aspect of problem-solving. The pegs nest together securely, allowing your toddler to build a higher, more stable tower than they could create with regular blocks. You can gently suggest a goal for your child—“Can we stack it higher?”—and see if they’re ready for the challenge. Then, sit and support them as they try to solve any problems that arise: “Is the tower too tall? Can we make it wider so it won’t fall so easily?”

Hide-and-seek

The classic childhood game of hide-and-seek offers your toddler many problem-solving opportunities. Your child has to use reasoning to figure out what would be a good hiding spot. They also use the process of elimination when they think about where they have and haven’t looked. They might even use creative thinking skills to discover a new place to hide.

The game doesn’t always have to involve you and your child hiding. When your child is around 12 months, you can introduce them to the concept using toys or other objects. Hide a small ball in one of two identical containers that you can’t see through, like upside-down cups. Make sure your child sees you put the ball under one of the containers, then mix them up. Lift the empty container to show your toddler that the ball isn’t inside and say, “Where is the ball?” If your toddler looks at the other container, say, “Yes! The ball is under this one.” Let your toddler lift the second container to find the ball.

Your toddler might enjoy a game of hide-and-seek with The Lockbox . Hide a small toy, like one of the Quilted Critters or a small ball, inside The Lockbox. This activity challenges your toddler’s problem-solving skills on two levels: figuring out how to unlock the different mechanisms to open the doors, and feeling around inside to discover what’s hidden. Add another layer of fun to the challenge by letting your child try to guess the object just by touching it—no peeking.

Using tools to solve problems

Around 17 to 24 months of age, your child may begin using tools to solve simple problems. For example, if you ask your child to pick up their toys, their hands may become full quickly. You can model how to load toys into a bucket or bag to carry them to another spot. This might seem like an obvious choice, but the ability to use a tool to make a task easier or solve a problem is an important cognitive skill.

Here are a few ways you and your toddler can explore using tools to solve a problem:

Show your child how to make a “shirt bowl” by using the upturned edge of their shirt as a cradle to hold toys or playthings.
If a toy gets stuck behind the sofa, model how you can use a broomstick to push the toy to a place where you can reach it.
Provide a child-size stool that your child can use to reach the sink or counter.

The Transfer Tweezers are a simple tool that your toddler can use to pick up other items besides the Felt Stars . They could try picking up the animals from the Quilted Critter Set or other child-safe items. Whenever you model how to use tools in everyday life, your child learns to think about new and different ways to solve problems.

Pretend play

Pretend play supports your child’s problem-solving skills in many ways. Research suggests that children’s pretend play is linked to different types of problem-solving and creativity. For example, one study showed that pretend play with peers was linked to better divergent problem-solving—meaning that children were able to “think outside the box” to solve problems.

Pretend play is also a safe place for children to recreate—and practice solving—problems they’ve seen in their lives. Your 2- to 3-year-old may reenact an everyday challenge—for example, one doll might take away another doll’s toy. As practice for real-world problem-solving, you can then help them talk through how the dolls might solve their issue together

Pretend play may help children be more creative and open to new ideas. In pretend play, children put together play scenarios, act on them, and develop creative solutions. A 3- or 4-year-old child might be ready to explore creative problem-solving through pretend play that uses their playthings in new ways. Help your child start with an idea: “What do you want to pretend to be or recreate — a favorite storybook scene or someone from real life like a doctor or server at a restaurant?” Then encourage them to look for playthings they can use to pretend. Maybe a block can be a car or the beads from the Threadable Bead Set serve as “cups” in your child’s pretend restaurant. As your child gains practice with creative pretend play, they may start to form elaborate fantasy worlds.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as creative, you can model creative thinking by showing your child how a toy can be used in many different ways. Research finds that parents who model “out of the box” ways to play can encourage creative thinking and problem-solving in their children, starting in toddlerhood.

It can be difficult for young children to manage their frustration, but giving your child opportunities to solve problems on their own helps build both confidence and frustration tolerance . Research suggests that the ability to set goals and persist in them through challenges—sometimes called “grit”—is linked to school and career success. Here’s how you can play an important role in helping your child develop problem-solving persistence.

Model persistence. You know your toddler closely observes everything you do 🙃 A 2017 study shows that young children who watch their parents persist in their own challenge were more likely to show persistence themselves. Allow your toddler to see you attempting an activity, failing, and talking yourself through trying again. While playing with blocks, try stacking a few off balance so they fall. Notice aloud what went wrong and continue to narrate as you move slowly to carefully stack the blocks again.

Give them time. A little frustration can go a long way toward learning. It can take enormous restraint not to point out where to put the puzzle piece or how to slot the peg in place—but try to give them time to problem-solve on their own. You’re helping them feel capable and confident when faced with new challenges.

RELATED: 11 ways to build your toddler’s frustration tolerance

Ask questions to encourage new strategies. If your toddler gets frustrated with a problem, encourage their problem-solving process by asking questions: “Are you trying to race the car down the ramp but it got stuck? Is the car too long to go down sideways?” This may help your child refocus their attention on their goal instead of what they have already unsuccessfully tried. With a little time and creative problem-solving, your child may figure it out on their own.

Problem-solving skills are just one component of your child’s overall cognitive development. By around 12 months of age, you should see signs that your child is attempting to solve simple problems, like looking for a toy under a blanket. By about 30 months, your child may show slightly more advanced problem-solving skills, like using a stool to reach a high counter. Their attempts might not always be successful at this age, but the fact that they’re trying shows they’re thinking through different options. If you don’t see signs of your child trying to solve problems in these ways, talk to your pediatrician about your concerns. They can assess your child’s overall development and answer any questions.

Posted in: 7 - 8 Months , 9 - 10 Months , 11 - 12 Months , 13 - 15 Months , 16 - 18 Months , 19 - 21 Months , 22 - 24 Months , 25 - 27 Months , 28 - 30 Months , Learning & Cognitive Skills , Cause and Effect , Problem Solving , Cognitive Development , STEM , Independent Play , Puzzles , Child Development , Learning & Cognitive Skills

Meet the Experts

Learn more about the lovevery child development experts who created this story..

Research & Resources

Alan, S., Boneva, T., & Ertac, S. (2019). Ever failed, try again, succeed better: Results from a randomized educational intervention on grit . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134 (3), 1121-1162.

Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children’s cognitive development . Early Childhood Research & Practice , 4(1), n1.

Bruner, J. S. (1973). Organization of early skilled action . Child Development , 1-11.

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92 (6), 1087.

Hoicka, E., Mowat, R., Kirkwood, J., Kerr, T., Carberry, M., & Bijvoet‐van den Berg, S. (2016). One‐year‐olds think creatively, just like their parents . Child Development , 87 (4), 1099-1105.

Keen, R. (2011). The development of problem solving in young children: A critical cognitive skill. Annual Review of Psychology , 62 , 1-21.

Mullineaux, P. Y., & Dilalla, L. F. (2009). Preschool pretend play behaviors and early adolescent creativity . The Journal of Creative Behavior , 43(1), 41-57.

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Formal Operational Stage – Piaget’s 4th Stage (Examples)

Would you say that you think abstractly? Do you think about the “bigger picture?” I don’t mean thinking about your life 10 years in the future. I mean thinking about the purpose of existence and why humans have evolved as we have. We’re not tackling all of these questions today, but we will talk about how we came to ask them and how we answer them.

Children in elementary or middle school typically do not possess these skills. Until children reach the formal operational stage in Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, they go through three concrete development stages that only allow them to think concretely. They can follow the rules of how the world works but are limited by these concrete concepts.

What Is the Formal Operational Stage?

Once children reach adolescence, they enter the Formal Operational Stage. This is the last stage in Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. The Formal Operational Stage doesn’t end - there are ways that you can heighten your abstract problem-solving skills from age 12 to age 112!

The formal operational stage begins between around 11-12. Children are usually in grade school around this time. They can take on more responsibilities than they did in earlier stages of development, but they are still considered young children. Health organizations still categorize ages 11 and 12 as "middle childhood."

Entering the Formal Operational Stage

Children ages 11 and 12 have just finished the concrete operational stage. This stage lasts from ages 6-11. By the time a child enters the formal operational stage, they should be able to:

Arrange items in a logical order
Build friendships based on empathy
Understand that 5mL of water in one glass is the same amount as 5mL of water in a separate glass
Recognize that a ball of pizza dough is the same as flattened pizza dough

Playing games and doing science experiments with children is much more fun at this age. They understand so much more!

During this stage, individuals develop the ability to think abstractly, reason logically, and solve problems in a systematic manner. Here are 14 examples of behaviors and thought processes that are characteristic of the formal operational stage:

Hypothetical Thinking : The ability to consider hypothetical situations and possibilities. For instance, a teenager might ponder, "What would happen if the sun never rose?"
Abstract Thought : Thinking about concepts not directly tied to concrete experiences, such as justice, love, or morality.
Systematic Problem Solving : When faced with a problem, individuals can systematically test potential solutions. For example, if a science experiment doesn't produce the expected result, a student might change one variable at a time to determine which one is responsible.
Metacognition : The ability to think about one's own thought processes. Students might reflect on how they study best or recognize when they do not understand a concept.
Moral Reasoning : Moving beyond black-and-white thinking to consider the nuances of moral dilemmas. For instance, understanding that stealing is generally wrong but pondering whether it's justified if someone is stealing food to feed their starving family.
Scientific Reasoning : Formulating hypotheses and conducting experiments in a methodical manner to test them.
Understanding Sarcasm and Metaphors : Recognizing that the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs" doesn't mean animals are falling from the sky.
Planning for the Future : Considering future possibilities and making plans based on them, such as choosing college courses based on a desired future career.
Evaluating the Quality of Information : Recognizing the difference between opinion and fact or understanding that just because something is on the internet doesn't make it true.
Logical Thought : Thinking logically and methodically, even about abstract concepts. For example, if all roses are flowers and some flowers fade quickly, then some roses fade quickly.
Considering Multiple Perspectives : Understanding that others might have a different point of view and trying to see things from their perspective.
Propositional Thought : Understanding that a statement can be logical based solely on the information provided, even if it's untrue. For instance, "If all dogs can fly and Fido is a dog, then Fido can fly" is logically sound, even though we know dogs can't fly.
Complex Classification : Classifying objects based on multiple characteristics. For example, organizing books by both genre and author.
Understanding Abstract Relationships : Recognizing relationships like "If A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C."

What Characterizes the Formal Operational Stage?

Four specific skills are signs that a child is in the formal operational stage:

Deductive Reasoning

Abstract thought, problem-solving.

Metacognition

The child learns to apply logic to certain situations during the Concrete Operational Stage . But they are limited to inductive reasoning. In the Formal Operational Stage, they start to learn (and learn the limits of) deductive reasoning.

Inductive reasoning uses observations to make a conclusion. Say a student has six teachers throughout their life, all strict. They are likely to conclude that all teachers are strict. They may find that later in life, they will change their conclusion, but until they observe a teacher who is not strict, this is the conclusion they will come to.

Deductive reasoning works differently. It uses facts and lessons to create a conclusion. The child will be presented with two facts:

“All teachers are strict.”

“Mr. Johnson is a teacher.”

Using deductive reasoning, the child can conclude that Mr. Johnson is strict.

Throughout the child’s development, they start to expand their world. In the sensorimotor stage, their world consists of only what is directly in front of them. If something is out of sight or earshot, it no longer exists.

As they develop object permanence, they understand that the world exists beyond what they can physically see, hear, or touch. In the concrete operational stage, children begin to apply the rules of logic to things and rules they know exist.

In this final stage, they begin to expand their worldview further. They begin to develop abstract thought. They can apply logic to situations that don’t follow the rules of the physical world.

Piaget's Third Eye Question: The Difference Between Concrete Operational and Formal Operational Stages

One of the ways that Piaget tested this skill was to ask the children questions. Here’s an example of a question that Piaget asked children:

“If you had a third eye, where would you put it?”

Children in the Concrete Operational Stage were limited to answering that they would put the eye on their forehead or face. They were typically only exposed to animals and humans with eyes on their faces. But children in the Formal Operational Stage were likelier to branch out and think of more useful and abstract answers. They considered putting the eye on their hand, back, or elsewhere where it would serve a greater purpose.

These skills make solving problems a whole lot easier. Children can only solve problems through trial and error in the Concrete Operational Stage and earlier stages. As they enter the Formal Operational Stage, they can look back at the problem, use past experience and reasoning to form a hypothesis, and test out what they believe will happen. This can save them a lot of time.

To determine when children had developed these skills, Piaget used another testing method. He gave them a scale with a set of weights and asked them to balance the scale with the weights. But simply putting the same amount of weight on each side wasn’t enough. The children had to determine that the distance between the weights and the scale's center also impacted the balance.

Children under the age of 10 heavily struggled with the task because they could not understand the concept of balance (if they were in the Preoperational Stage) or could not grasp that the center of balance is also important. (These children were in the early stages of the Concrete Operational Stage.) At age 10, the children could solve the problem, but at a much slower pace due to their process of trial and error.

It wasn’t until age 11 or 12 that children could look at the problem from a distance and use logic to use both the distance and size of the weights to balance the scale.

MetaCognition

Not all of these thought processes are perfect the first time around. You know that I know that, and children in the Formal Operational Stage are just starting to discover that. By using MetaCognition, they are more likely to assess their thinking and transform it into a more effective form of problem-solving.

MetaCognition is simply “thinking about thinking.” It is the ability to run through your own thought process, figure out how you developed that process, and maybe unwind some things that aren’t logical or can be disproven. This can help you “rebuild” your thought process as if it were building blocks, creating a more solid structure for you to solve problems.

Piaget did not actually coin this term while developing his theory on the Formal Operational Stage. John Flavell, an American psychologist, actually proposed the theory on MetaCognition in the late 1970s.

We’ve seen throughout these videos that the Theory of Cognitive Development has continued to grow and change with additional input and studies. Our minds can also change their thought processes and begin to notice imperfections and flawed logic as they come up. But this often requires going back and asking yourself how you built certain thought processes and where you could have made flawed conclusions.

How to Support a Child in the Formal Operational Stage

Children in the formal operational stage (typically 12 years and older) begin thinking more abstractly and logically, engaging in hypothetical reasoning and considering multiple variables in problem-solving. To best support and nurture their cognitive development outside of school, consider these activity suggestions:

Play Strategic Board Games: Introduce games that require planning, strategizing, and critical thinking. Games like chess, Risk, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride can enhance their deductive reasoning and promote patience. These games also often require players to predict opponents' moves, honing their skills in understanding perspectives.
Engage in Thought Experiments: Stimulate abstract thinking by posing hypothetical questions. Asking imaginative yet thought-provoking questions like, "If you could invent a new school subject, what would it be and why?" or "How would our lives change if we had no electricity for a year?" can spark interesting discussions and foster creativity.
Encourage Scientific Experiments: Let them set up a mini-lab at home. Whether it's a simple vinegar and baking soda reaction or a more complex examination of plant growth under different conditions, hands-on experiments can solidify their understanding of cause and effect.
Delve into Philosophy and Ethics: Discuss moral dilemmas or philosophical conundrums suitable for their age. Questions like, "Is it ever okay to lie?" or "What makes something 'right' or 'wrong'?" can challenge them to consider multiple viewpoints and refine their moral reasoning.
Read and Analyze Stories Together: Choose books or movies with deeper themes or complex characters. Discuss the motives, the plot's implications, or any symbolism. This improves their comprehension skills and teaches them to think critically about media.
Involve Them in Real-Life Problem-Solving: Whether planning a family trip, budgeting for a big purchase, or deciding on the best route for a journey, including them in the process can provide practical applications for their developing logical reasoning skills.
Respect and Respond to Their Queries: Children at this stage are brimming with questions, many of which can be profound or reflective. When they approach you with a query, respond with patience and logic. If you don't know the answer, consider researching it together. This collaborative approach provides them with information and models a proactive attitude toward learning.

By actively engaging with children in these ways, parents and caregivers can provide invaluable support as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of the formal operational stage.

Formal Operational Stage vs. Other Stages of Development

Jean Piaget is not the only psychologist to create stages of development. Other psychologists have offered their theories on how a child develops social skills and how their experiences during each stage impact their relationships and behavior. Some theories, like Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, last for the span of the person's life. Other theories, like Piaget's, only cover childhood and early adolescence. When we compare Piaget's theory to other theories, we see some overlap and other perspectives on what makes a child the person they grow up to be.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

At ages 11-12, a child exits the Industry vs. Inferiority stage and enters the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage. The child should be aware that they are responsible for their own decisions and how they affect others. They also start to see that they are different from other children. They will successfully exit these stages if they feel confident that they can advocate for themselves and live the way they want. Otherwise, they may develop insecurities. Erikson coined the term "identity crisis." This crisis could take place in the identity vs. role confusion stage!

Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

During the ages of 11-12, a child is in the latent stage of psychosexual development and may be entering the genital stage. The change in stages all depends on when the child goes through puberty. Freud's controversial stages focused on a child's erogenous zones and sexual interests. As the child discovers sexual interests in the latent stage, they must learn to channel their energy into intellectual activities. The child can form healthy relationships by letting the superego tame the id. In the genital stage, teenagers and adults learn to explore their maturing sexual interests.

Which Theory is "Right?"

All these theories can play out simultaneously, but remember, these are just theories. Some ideas, like Freud's Oedipal Complex that occurred in earlier stages of development, have been discredited and largely rejected by today's psychologists. We continue to learn about Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and other psychologists to understand how psychology developed into the field we know today.

Thanks for checking out these pages on the Theory of Cognitive Development! I hope these will allow you to look at your own thinking and build a stronger foundation for solving problems and understanding the world around you - no matter how old you are!

Piaget's Influence on Modern Educational Practices

Jean Piaget's groundbreaking theories on cognitive development have left an indelible mark on the realm of education. Even today, educators worldwide employ strategies rooted in Piaget's insights. Here's how Piaget’s theories continue to shape contemporary educational practices:

Active Learning: Piaget emphasized the importance of active learning. He believed children learn best when interacting with their environment and manipulating objects. This belief has shifted from passive rote memorization to hands-on, experiential learning. Schools often incorporate field trips, lab experiments, and interactive activities to facilitate this.
Developmentally Appropriate Practices: Recognizing that children progress through specific stages of cognitive development, educators design curricula tailored to these stages. For instance, in the pre-operational stage (2-7 years), children benefit from using concrete objects and visuals. Meanwhile, older children in the formal operational stage (12 years and up) are more equipped for abstract thinking and can engage in more complex problem-solving tasks.
Focus on the Process, Not Just the Outcome: Piaget believed that the process of thinking and the journey of arriving at an answer are just as necessary as the answer itself. This philosophy has encouraged educators to value and assess how students approach problems, not just the correctness of their answers.
Peer Interaction: Piaget felt that peer interaction is crucial for cognitive development. He observed that children often learn best when discussing, debating, and collaborating with classmates. Group work, cooperative learning, and classroom discussions are now staples in many classrooms, promoting social interaction as a valuable learning tool.
Incorporating Real-life Situations: To make learning meaningful, Piaget suggested relating it to real-life situations. This has led to problem-based learning and the inclusion of real-world issues in the curriculum, ensuring that students see the relevance and applicability of their learning.
Role of the Teacher: In line with Piaget's theories, the teacher's role has evolved from the traditional "sage on the stage" to more of a "guide on the side." Teachers now often act as facilitators, providing resources, posing guiding questions, and helping students make their discoveries.
Assessment Practices: Piaget's emphasis on stages of cognitive development has led to more nuanced and stage-sensitive assessment methods. Teachers are more attuned to the developmental readiness of their students, ensuring that assessments are appropriate for their cognitive level.
Constructivist Classrooms: Stemming from Piaget's idea that learners construct knowledge based on their experiences, many modern classrooms adopt a constructivist approach. Here, students are encouraged to construct their understanding and knowledge of the world by experiencing and reflecting on those experiences.

While educational practices have evolved and integrated various theories, Piaget's influence is unmistakably prevalent. His focus on the child as an active learner, the stages of cognitive development, and the significance of hands-on, relevant learning continues to shape how education is delivered in the 21st century.

Concrete Operational Stage (3rd Cognitive Development)
Piaget's Theory of Moral Development (4 Stages + Examples)
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Havighurst’s Developmental Task Theory
The Psychology of Long Distance Relationships

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Trust vs Mistrust

Autonomy vs Shame

Initiative vs Guilt

Industry vs inferiority

Identity vs Confusion

Intimacy vs Isolation

Generativity vs Stagnation

Integrity vs Despair

Attachment Styles

Avoidant Attachment

Anxious Attachment

Secure Attachment

Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Piaget's Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage

Object Permanence

Preoperational Stage

Concrete Operational Stage

Formal Operational Stage

Unconditional Positive Regard

Birth Order

Zone of Proximal Development

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Building blocks: enhancing cognitive development and problem-solving skills.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Building blocks enhance cognitive development and problem-solving skills.
Building blocks improve spatial awareness and visual perception.
Building blocks contribute to fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Building blocks support language development and social skills.

The Impact of Building Blocks on Spatial Awareness and Visual Perception

Enhancing Fine Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Coordination Through Building Blocks

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The Role of Building Blocks in Language Development and Social Skills

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Emotional Development and Sensory Benefits of Building Blocks

Building Blocks: A Catalyst for Cognitive Development and Problem-Solving Skills

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some specific examples of building blocks that can enhance cognitive development and problem-solving skills, how can building blocks be used to promote critical thinking and effective problem-solving strategies.

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Are There Any Specific Activities or Games That Can Be Played With Building Blocks to Enhance Spatial Reasoning Skills?

Can building blocks be used to improve other areas of development, such as creativity or social skills, are there any recommended age ranges for using building blocks to enhance cognitive development and problem-solving skills.

Elaine’s journey with Healthy Kid Play began with a simple yet profound observation: the unparalleled potential within every child. With her extensive experience in early childhood, Elaine saw the need for a space where learning and fun converge seamlessly.

Career Paths in Child Development: From Early Intervention to Advocacy

Unlocking the School-Age Stage: Growth, Learning, and Milestones

The Benefits of Magnetic Blocks in Early Childhood Education

How Magnetic Blocks Foster Creativity and Imagination

Enhancing Cognitive Development Through Magnetic Block Play

Exploring STEM Concepts With Magnetic Blocks

Encourages hands-on exploration and experimentation
Develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Enhances spatial awareness and geometry understanding
Promotes creativity and imagination through open-ended play
Builds strong foundation for future STEM learning

Developing Fine Motor Skills With Magnetic Blocks

Incorporating Magnetic Blocks in the Montessori Curriculum

Tips for Maximizing Learning Potential With Magnetic Blocks

Inspiring problem-solving and critical thinking with magnetic blocks.

How Do Magnetic Blocks Improve Concentration in Children?

Can magnetic blocks be used for children younger than 3 years old.

Are the Magnets in the Blocks Safe for Children to Handle?

Can magnetic blocks be used to teach math concepts, what is the recommended age range for using magnetic blocks.

Enhance Learning and Development With Qizfun Busy Board and Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter

The Qizfun Busy Board and Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter combination provides a variety of interactive and educational toys.
This combination enhances engagement and entertainment for hours.
It promotes learning and development in a fun way.
Both toys are made from durable and safe materials, ensuring a safe playtime experience.

The Benefits of Using Qizfun Busy Board for Learning and Development

How Qizfun Busy Board Enhances Fine Motor Skills and Cognitive Development

The importance of practical life skills in child development with qizfun busy board.

Boosting Creativity and Imagination Through Play With Qizfun Busy Board

Provides a variety of interactive activities that allow children to think and problem-solve.
Offers open-ended play opportunities, allowing children to create their own stories and scenarios.
Stimulates imaginative play by introducing educational concepts in a fun and engaging way.
Encourages children to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to challenges.
Fosters independent thinking and decision-making skills.

Why Qizfun Busy Board and Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter Make a Perfect Combination for Learning

How Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter Enhances Learning and Development

Encourages fine motor skills development through grasping and manipulating shapes.
Promotes cognitive skills by teaching children to recognize shapes and colors.
Fosters problem-solving skills as children figure out which shape goes where.
Enhances hand-eye coordination as children match and fit the shapes.
Stimulates creativity and imagination as children explore different ways to play with the toy.

The Power of Interactive and Educational Toys in Enhancing Learning With Qizfun Busy Board and Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter

Can the Qizfun Busy Board Be Used by Children Older Than 4 Years Old?

Is the qizfun busy board machine washable, can the qizfun busy board be used as a sensory toy, does the melissa & doug shape sorter come with different shape options.

Are There Any Additional Accessories or Attachments That Can Be Purchased for the Qizfun Busy Board?

Enhance Skills and Creativity With Wooden Stacking Stones and Brain Flakes!

The BESTAMTOY 36 PCS Wooden Stacking Stones are a fantastic toy that helps improve fine motor skills, visual-spatial skills, and logical thinking.
The wooden stacking stones are made of high-quality wood and coated with eco-friendly paint, making them a safe and durable option for play.
The size of the blocks may be smaller than expected, so age appropriateness should be considered.
The VIAHART Brain Flakes set offers a complement to the wooden stacking stones, providing a different type of tactile engagement and promoting STEM learning, critical thinking, and experimentation.

The Benefits of Wooden Stacking Stones

Unleashing Creativity With Brain Flakes

Developing essential skills through play.

Exploring the World of Building and Creating

Enhancing Problem-Solving Abilities With Stacking Stones and Brain Flakes

Maximizing Learning Potential With Versatile Toys

How Do I Clean and Maintain the Wooden Stacking Stones?

Can the Wooden Stacking Stones Be Used Outdoors?

Are there any additional accessories or expansion packs available for the wooden stacking stones, can the brain flakes be combined with other building sets or toys, are there any age restrictions or recommendations for using the brain flakes.

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As an affiliate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. We get commissions for purchases made through links on this website from Amazon and other third parties.

Constantly on the lookout for toys that ignite creativity and foster learning, I immerse myself deeply in the field of...

Engaging Stacking Blocks: Boost Creativity and Motor Skills

Empowering Kids for Success: Independence & Decision-Making

Empowering Children Through Personalized Learning: Fostering Independence, Confidence, and Success

Egocentrism: Understanding a Child’s Perspective

The Benefits of Dramatic Play in Child Development

The Importance of Socialization in Child Development

Sensory Play: Boosting Brain Development and Learning

Symbolic Thinking: A Key Milestone in Cognitive Development

The Power of Cooperative Play in Child Development

The Role of PIES in Toddler Development: Enhancing Growth and Skills

The PIES Model: A Holistic Approach to Child Development

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What Is Cognitive Development

Talking with your baby and naming commonly used objects.
Letting your baby explore toys and move about.
Singing and reading to your baby.
Exposing your toddler to books and puzzles.
Expanding on your child's interests in specific learning activities. For example, your toddler might show an early interest in dinosaurs, so you can take him/her on a trip to the natural history museum to learn more about the time that these creatures roamed the earth.
Answering your child’s “why” questions.

If you have concerns about a child's development and think a child might need extra help to learn and grow , don't hesitate to refer a child.

The family will be contacted by the local school district to arrange for a screening or evaluation to determine if their child is eligible for Infant and Toddler Intervention or Preschool Special Education services in Minnesota.

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Play or Pandemonium? Balancing Fun with Order

Posted: June 4, 2024 | Last updated: June 4, 2024

<p><strong>Managing children’s playtime effectively involves balancing supervision, allowing freedom, and planning structured activities to maximize developmental benefits. Both spontaneous backyard play and organized classroom games are crucial for a child’s growth, as they contribute to development in various ways.</strong></p>

Managing children’s playtime effectively involves balancing supervision, allowing freedom, and planning structured activities to maximize developmental benefits. Both spontaneous backyard play and organized classroom games are crucial for a child’s growth, as they contribute to development in various ways.

<p><span>Research has shown that a supportive family environment is associated with better mental health outcomes and higher self-esteem in children. A longitudinal study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that family cohesion and warmth predicted greater psychological well-being in adolescents. Parents can foster a supportive environment by offering praise and encouragement, providing opportunities for autonomy and independence, and demonstrating unconditional love and acceptance.</span></p>

1. Enhancing Cognitive Development

Unstructured play encourages creativity and problem-solving skills. Kids who engage in free play often display advanced cognitive abilities as they learn to navigate their own stories and solutions.

<p><span>Facilitate social activities and encourage participation in community events or clubs to support your children in building positive relationships with peers and adults.</span></p>

2. Promoting Physical Health

Active play is crucial for physical development. It builds strength, coordination, and motor skills, and helps prevent childhood obesity by keeping kids moving.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Jacob Lund <p>Playtime is a social classroom for children. Through games and shared activities, kids learn vital interpersonal skills like sharing, negotiating, and empathy.</p>

3. Fostering Social Skills

Playtime is a social classroom for children. Through games and shared activities, kids learn vital interpersonal skills like sharing, negotiating, and empathy.

Image Credit: Shutterstock / RossHelen <p><span>Picking the right attractions can make your family trip memorable for all the right reasons. Remember, what works for one family might not thrill another, so tailor your choices to your family’s interests and energy levels. Happy travels!</span></p>

4. Encouraging Emotional Growth

During play, children experiment with different emotions and outcomes, which enhances their emotional intelligence and resilience by facing various in-game scenarios.

Image credit: Shutterstock / George Rudy <p>Communicative play, such as storytelling or group games, enhances language development. Children learn new words and how to use them effectively in social contexts.</p>

5. Supporting Language Skills

Communicative play, such as storytelling or group games, enhances language development. Children learn new words and how to use them effectively in social contexts.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Evgeny Atamanenko <p>Despite the risks, screens are powerful educational tools when used correctly. Are you utilizing technology to enhance your child’s learning?</p>

6. Building Confidence and Independence

As children navigate play environments, they make decisions and learn from their mistakes, which builds confidence and a sense of independence.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Gorloff-KV <p>Whether imagining they are astronauts on a space mission or doctors in a hospital, creative play allows children to explore various roles and scenarios, expanding their imagination and creativity.</p>

7. Stimulating Creativity and Imagination

Whether imagining they are astronauts on a space mission or doctors in a hospital, creative play allows children to explore various roles and scenarios, expanding their imagination and creativity.

Image credit: Shutterstock / fizkes <p>Play often involves conflicts, and children learn how to resolve these through compromise and negotiation, essential skills for personal and professional success.</p>

8. Teaching Conflict Resolution

Play often involves conflicts, and children learn how to resolve these through compromise and negotiation, essential skills for personal and professional success.

Image Credit: Pexel / Kampus Production <p>Montessori play environments encourage self-directed learning, which fosters independence and a love for learning by allowing children to explore activities at their own pace.</p>

9. Montessori and Self-Directed Learning

Montessori play environments encourage self-directed learning, which fosters independence and a love for learning by allowing children to explore activities at their own pace.

Image credit: Shutterstock / ibragimova <p>Forest schools use the natural environment to teach children about the world around them, instilling a respect for nature and promoting scientific curiosity.</p>

10. Forest Schools and Environmental Awareness

Forest schools use the natural environment to teach children about the world around them, instilling a respect for nature and promoting scientific curiosity.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Elena Dijour <p>Structured play teaches children the importance of following rules and the basics of fair play, preparing them for classroom settings and later life.</p>

11. Structured Play and Rule-Following

Structured play teaches children the importance of following rules and the basics of fair play, preparing them for classroom settings and later life.

Image credit: Shutterstock / RMC42 <p>Adaptive play setups help integrate neurodivergent children by catering to their specific developmental needs and helping them engage comfortably with their peers.</p>

12. Integration of Neurodivergent Children

Adaptive play setups help integrate neurodivergent children by catering to their specific developmental needs and helping them engage comfortably with their peers.

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Ground Picture <p><span>Tag is an exhilarating game that promotes physical fitness and reflex development. It encourages laughter and joy, essential for reducing stress and building emotional connections between players of all ages.</span></p>

13. Reducing Screen Time

Engaging in physical play can help offset the passive engagement of screen time, promoting active learning and reducing the risks associated with prolonged media exposure.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Lordn <p>Interactive apps that encourage active engagement can enhance learning, contrasting with passive video watching, which should be limited due to its lower educational value.</p>

14. Cultural and Social Awareness

Through play, children encounter diverse scenarios and characters, broadening their cultural and social understanding, and enhancing their ability to navigate a diverse world.

Image credit: Shutterstock / Rawpixel.com <p>Educational play that incorporates math, reading, and science concepts can improve academic skills in a fun and engaging way, making learning enjoyable.</p>

15. Linking Play to Academic Skills

Educational play that incorporates math, reading, and science concepts can improve academic skills in a fun and engaging way, making learning enjoyable.

Image Credit: Pexel / RDNE Stock project <p>Early positive experiences with active play can set a foundation for lifelong physical activity, promoting long-term health and wellness.</p>

16. Encouraging Lifelong Physical Activity

Early positive experiences with active play can set a foundation for lifelong physical activity, promoting long-term health and wellness.

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Prostock-studio <p>Activities like drawing, building blocks, or crafting during play help develop fine motor skills, which are crucial for writing, typing, and other precise movements.</p>

17. Developing Fine Motor Skills

Activities like drawing, building blocks, or crafting during play help develop fine motor skills, which are crucial for writing, typing, and other precise movements.

Image Credit: Pexel / Kampus Production <p>Play provides a vital outlet for stress relief, allowing children to have fun and relax, which is crucial for emotional and mental health.</p>

18. Stress Relief and Fun

Play provides a vital outlet for stress relief, allowing children to have fun and relax, which is crucial for emotional and mental health.

Image Credit: Pexel / Keira Burton <p>Supervised play allows children to take safe risks, teaching them to assess and manage risk in a controlled environment, which can prevent anxiety and fearfulness.</p>

19. Promoting Safe Risk-Taking

Supervised play allows children to take safe risks, teaching them to assess and manage risk in a controlled environment, which can prevent anxiety and fearfulness.

Image Credit: Pexel / Kampus Production <p>Play fosters friendships and can build long-term social bonds, teaching cooperation and building a sense of community among peers.</p>

20. Building Long-Term Social Bonds

Play fosters friendships and can build long-term social bonds, teaching cooperation and building a sense of community among peers.

Image credit: Shutterstock / fizkes <p>Treat children fairly, but not necessarily equally. Customize your approach to meet their individual needs, recognizing that fairness does not always mean sameness.</p>

Celebrating the Joy of Play

Embracing the multifaceted benefits of play ensures children not only enjoy their childhood but also develop into well-rounded individuals. As parents and educators, fostering diverse play opportunities means we can turn every potential moment of mayhem into a productive and joyful growth experience.

The post Play or Pandemonium? Balancing Fun with Order first appeared on Peachy Fours .

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Rawpixel.com.

For transparency, this content was partly developed with AI assistance and carefully curated by an experienced editor to be informative and ensure accuracy.

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COMMENTS

Child Cognitive Development: Essential Milestones and Strategies
Child cognitive development involves the growth of mental abilities and occurs through various stages. Language and communication are significant factors in cognitive development, shaping a child's ability for abstract thought and problem-solving. Early intervention and supportive environments can play a crucial role in fostering healthy ...
The Development of Problem Solving in Young Children: A Critical
Problem solving is a signature attribute of adult humans, but we need to understand how this develops in children. Tool use is proposed as an ideal way to study problem solving in children less than 3 years of age because overt manual action can reveal how the child plans to achieve a goal. Motor errors are as informative as successful actions. Research is reviewed on intentional actions ...
Piaget's Stages: 4 Stages of Cognitive Development & Theory
Unlike younger children who haphazardly approach problems, children in the formal operational stage can apply their reasoning skills to apply more complicated problems in a systematic, logical manner. Piaget's Theory vs Erikson's. Piaget's theory of cognitive development is one of several theories about how children develop.
Cognitive Development
Problem-solving and cognitive development progress from establishing object permanence, causality, and symbolic thinking with concrete (hands-on) learning to abstract thinking and embedding of implicit (unconscious) to explicit memory development. Birth to two months: The optical focal length is approximately 10 inches at birth.
Piaget's 4 Stages of Development
preoperational. concrete operational. formal operational. The goals of each stage are understanding: object permanence. symbolic thought. operational thought. grasping abstract concepts. Piaget ...
How to Promote Cognitive Development: 23 Activities & Games
Memory, Concentration, and Matching games are fun and easy activities for kids to play to encourage cognitive development. 11. Stroop effect games. Stroop effect activities involve reading a word written in a different color or saying the color of the ink and not the actual word. It requires focus and attention.
The development of problem solving in young children: a critical
R37 HD27714/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States. Problem solving is a signature attribute of adult humans, but we need to understand how this develops in children. Tool use is proposed as an ideal way to study problem solving in children less than 3 years of age because overt manual action can reveal how the child plans to achieve a goal. Motor er ….
What Is Cognitive Development? 3 Psychology Theories
In psychology, the focus of cognitive development has often been only on childhood. However, cognitive development continues through adolescence and adulthood. It involves acquiring language and knowledge, thinking, memory, decision making, problem solving, and exploration (Von Eckardt, 1996).
Cognitive Development Theory: What Are the Stages?
Piaget published his theory of cognitive development in 1936. This theory is based on the idea that a child's intelligence changes throughout childhood and cognitive skills—including memory, attention, thinking, problem-solving, logical reasoning, reading, listening, and more—are learned as a child grows and interacts with their environment.
The Sweet Spot: When Children's Developing Abilities, Brains, and
Thus, 5-year-olds' more limited cognitive abilities seem to aid their problem-solving when devising more unconventional, creative solutions. Finally, ongoing cognitive development can also explain age-related changes in children's ability to remember goal-irrelevant information.
Jerome Bruner Theory of Cognitive Development & Constructivism
In his research on the cognitive development of children, Jerome Bruner proposed three modes of representation: Enactive representation (action-based) ... Bruner (1961), the purpose of education is not to impart knowledge, but instead to facilitate a child's thinking and problem-solving skills which can then be transferred to a range of ...
Importance of Problem-solving in Child Development
The development of problem-solving skills is an essential aspect of child development. Learning how to approach and solve problems, both at home and school, can affect the quality of a child's relationships with others. ... Furthermore, problem-solving plays a vital role in children's cognitive development. It encourages creativity because it ...
The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young
Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage toxic stress. Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. Furthermore, play supports the formation of the ...
Cognition
Cognition. Cognition, or cognitive development, includes reasoning, memory, problem-solving, and thinking skills. Young children use these abilities to make sense of and organize their world. By the time children reach the preschool years, their cognitive skills have grown so much that they can engage in complex mathematical thinking and ...
Cognition
Cognition. Cognitive development includes reasoning, memory, problem-solving, and thinking skills that help young children understand and organize their world. For preschoolers, this evolves into complex mathematical thinking and scientific reasoning. Children play an active role in their own cognitive development by exploring and testing the ...
The Ultimate List of Creative Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers
Problem Solving Activities For Children Age 2-3. Sort objects by color, size, and shape. Help your child "write" his own book by writing his words while he or she draws the pictures. Teach the words; on, under, behind, around by playing games like Simon Says. Provide a "dress-up" box for your child for imaginative play.
Problem-solving: Why is it important and how to practice it
Developmental concerns with problem-solving. Problem-solving skills are just one component of your child's overall cognitive development. By around 12 months of age, you should see signs that your child is attempting to solve simple problems, like looking for a toy under a blanket. By about 30 months, your child may show slightly more ...
Cognitive control, intentions, and problem solving in skill learning
Cognitive control uses highly generalised representations and problem solving methods which are an inefficient means for producing the specialised responses of skill (Anderson, 1982 ). In other words, cognitive control is specialised for reasoning, not action control, and it is a clumsy tool to use for action control.
Formal Operational Stage
This is the last stage in Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development. The Formal Operational Stage doesn't end - there are ways that you can heighten your abstract problem-solving skills from age 12 to age 112! Age Range. The formal operational stage begins between around 11-12. Children are usually in grade school around this time.
Building Blocks: Enhancing Cognitive Development and Problem-Solving
The impact of interactive learning toys on cognitive development is significant as they promote problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making abilities. Advertisement The Qizfun Busy Board, with its various activities that require fine motor skills and problem-solving, provides a fun and engaging way for children to learn and develop ...
FWhat Is Cognitive Development
Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them. Brain development is part of cognitive development. As a parent, it is important to foster your child's cognitive ...
44 Powerful Problem Solving Activities for Kids
By honing their problem-solving abilities, we're preparing kids to face the unforeseen challenges of the world outside. Enhances Cognitive Growth: Otherwise known as cognitive development. Problem-solving isn't just about finding solutions. It's about thinking critically, analyzing situations, and making decisions.
The Role of Puzzles in Child Development: Boosting Cognitive Skills
Cognitive Flexibility: Puzzles often present multiple solutions and require children to think flexibly. They must adapt their thinking, try different strategies, and consider alternative approaches. By engaging in such cognitive flexibility, children broaden their problem-solving repertoire and become more adaptable thinkers.
The cognitive development of young children includes four components
he cognitive development of young children includes four components: Exploration and discovery, memory, problem solving, and imitation and symbolic play. Young babies enter the world ready to learn and begin immediately to acquire and process new information. Based on this understanding, identify the importance of promoting cognitive development for infants and toddlers and note indicators and ...
Play or Pandemonium? Balancing Fun with Order
Unstructured play encourages creativity and problem-solving skills. Kids who engage in free play often display advanced cognitive abilities as they learn to navigate their own stories and solutions.

Child Cognitive Development: Essential Milestones and Strategies

Key Takeaways

Child Cognitive Development Stages

Sensorimotor Stage

Preoperational Stage

Concrete Operational Stage

Formal Operational Stage

Key Factors in Cognitive Development

Environmental Influences

Nutrition and Health

Emotional and Social Factors

Language and Communication Development

Nonverbal Communication

Parent and Caregiver Interaction

Cognitive Abilities and Skills

Reasoning and Problem Solving

Attention and Memory

Decision-Making and Executive Function

Academic and Cognitive Milestones

Developmental Delays and Early Intervention

Resources and Support for Parents

Professional Evaluations and Intervention Strategies

Fostering Healthy Cognitive Development

Supportive Home Environment

Promoting Independence and Decision-Making

Healthy Lifestyle Habits

Frequently Asked Questions

What factors influence cognitive development in children?

How do cognitive skills vary during early childhood?

What are common examples of cognitive development?

How do cognitive development theories explain children’s learning?

Why is it essential to support cognitive development in early childhood?

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What Is Cognitive Development? 3 Psychology Theories

This Article Contains:

Nature vs nurture debate

Language and other cognitive skills

Thinking skills

Developing knowledge

Memory development

Perceptual skills

Exploring and solving problems

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Decision making

Recognition of faces

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Piaget’s cognitive development theory

Vygotsky’s theory

Ecological systems theory

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development – Sprouts

1. A cognitive habilitation program for children

2. Bilingual babies and enhanced learning

3. Unusual autobiographical memory

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