The child born is a whole being with a potential underestimated by many of us.
By temperament, personality, strengths and weaknesses, it will develop thousands of skills at a pace all its own.
Each child will develop all the skills of the five areas of development: gross motor (sitting, walking, running, jumping, etc..), Fine motor (grasping, writing, cutting, etc..), The cognitive aspect ( intelligence, learning, etc..), language (words, sentences, understanding, etc..) and social (interaction with peers, with adults).
In the next lines, skills and some ways to stimulate cognitive development in children are discussed. Could be defined as the cognitive development of all mental activities that require the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of knowledge.
These activities include cognitive processes such as perception, learning, memory, language and thought. While all this sounds complex, the child acquires at birth, simple skills that will cause him and lead him still further. Try to see things more clearly, together ...
0-6 months
From birth, the baby is developing at an accelerated pace. Between 0 and 6 months, the baby is already interested in his surroundings. He is able to recognize people and objects known, to distinguish day and night and to coordinate various actions such as entering an object to bring it to his mouth. To stimulate cognitive development, you can:
- place him on your stomach and drop various objects around him he will be able to catch;
- leave at his disposal attractive brightly colored objects;
- talk to your baby of actions that you take and what surrounds him. Discover him with its environment by walking through your arms by browsing through the house, the park, outside, etc..
6-12 months
From 6 months, the child begins to show an intention in his behavior (he poses such a gesture for such a thing) and begins to understand the relationship of cause and effect. "I see a bottle, which means milk," for example. He loves games and cuckoo begins to search for a toy he drops to the ground, lays an object in a container by imitation and he is also able to find an object hidden under a container of some sort. Here are some activities appropriate to that age.
Take plastic containers, like yogurt. Drill-y a square about an inch in diameter. Use small blocks of wood and show the child how to insert them into the container.
Reuse of metal lids frozen juice boxes. Paste in images interesting for the child. Use a plastic container and cut a slit to the size of juice lids. Then insert the lids in the container. Noise is also interesting for the child.
Sit the child in the highchair. Give him two opaque containers and hide it any object. Invite children to look for it.
Make games of all kinds of cuckoo with a blanket, a washcloth, play hide and seek, hide an object under a cloth, etc.. Children love this game at this age.
1 year to 2 years
During this period, the child acquires object permanence, that is to say that he is able to understand one thing continues to exist even if we no longer see. Moreover, he is able to recognize his image in the mirror. Through play, his mimics a situation of daily life, it changes the function of objects. Moreover, he is able to match objects to pictures representing them. He can also point to body parts on request, be advanced when asked where he is.
Here are some activities appropriate to that age.
- Play with the child before the mirror. Use of cosmetic pencils and draw pictures on his face.
- Play pretend with the child. Use figures, like dolls or plastic figurines and play with her activities of daily living (eating, sleeping, playing, dressing, etc..). This technique may allow you to understand certain things which the child is unable to reveal, for example, how he loves to sleep, his favorite food ...
- Create a scrapbook for the child with images of everyday life. Paste the pictures of food, animals, everyday objects, familiar people. Leave it at the disposal of the child.
- During the bath, tell the child that you need such as washing her belly and ask him where his belly is hidden. Wait for it points the body part named.
2 to 3 years
At this age, your child will really enjoy doodling and found great pleasure in changing the names of people or animals. He can understand the difference between one and several objects, may have two objects and may also tell her age. On request, he can also indicate which object is which object is large and small. They also know the spatial concepts such as "in" "on", "above" and "below".
Here are some activities that might appeal to your child that age.
- On all occasions, ask the child to count its fruit pieces on his plate, the number of objects on the table, the number of buttons on his shirt. Count up with him two. Once acquired this number, count to three, and so on.
- Show the child to say his age and the show with his fingers.
- Look at books and name all the pictures. Ask him to tell which object is one that is big and small.
- Psychomotor made a route to the inside or outside the home. Ask the child to pass on the cushions, the table below. Emphasize spatial concepts.
- Use a cardboard box that you can decorate with the child. - - Take any subject of interest to him, such a car, a doll, a ball. Move the object and ask the child where he places the object (in the box, the box, below, on top, etc..). You can also make this game as a reference, like ask him to put the car in the box. Show him a good example if having difficulty.
3-4 years
At this age, your child can create an imaginary friend. He began drawing, but only he can identify his drawing. He has up to ten mechanically and can take three to six objects placed before him. Moreover, he is able to understand the words "today" "yesterday", "tomorrow". He differentiates a boy and a girl can also indicate which object is which object is heavier and lighter. He is able to complete a puzzle of six pieces. They can appoint three colors on request and appoint the three basic forms.
Draw pictures with the child. Offer him only three colors first. Once the child is able to differentiate and name, add a color, and so on. Draw shapes such as circle, square and triangle and ask the child to imitate you.
Use a piggy bank and plastic bingo chips. Make available to the child three objects to get started. Count them all and put them in the piggy bank. Repeat the experiment. Once this concept acquired, adds one chip, and so on.
Make a personalized calendar with the child that you can hang in the kitchen or in his room. Draw in the boxes the activity of the day (day care, family outings, birthdays, etc..) Choose an image with the child as you move throughout the day. Look at the calendar with him and ask what you did yesterday, what you will do today. The child is well over time.
Take a water tank and several light and heavy objects (rock, paper, utensil, pen, etc..). Give the child a heavy object and a light object. Ask him which is heavy and which is light. Then place these objects in the water tank and watch them flow together and which float. You can even make assumptions about which object will drop into the tray and which object will float.
4-5 years
Your child is at large. He can now draw a snowman tadpole. He loves the stories, read them and invent. He distinguishes the parts of the day, like morning, afternoon and evening. Remembers four observed objects in an illustration may appoint eight colors and count from 1 to 20. His skills are developing to prepare children to enter kindergarten.
Here are some activities that will appeal to your older children.
- Make up stories with the child. Cut out pictures from magazines that you stick on the leaves. Then make up a story with the child and write your story so you can review them later.
- Read stories to children regularly, but leave them the chance to tell you.
- Hide under a blanket four different objects. Ask the child to watch them and name them. Then, hide and remove objects in a. Ask the child to name the object disappeared.
- Whether for one or the other spheres of development, the child passes through all stages, chronologically. By cons, the pace may vary from one child to another. That's the importance of never compare two children the same age.
If you think your child has already acquired the skills of its normal stage of development, you have every reason to see the next age category and to stimulate learning noted.
By cons, if you are worried the development of your child, consult your health care professional who will reassure you or if the need arises and will refer you to a specialist to customize an intervention with your child, if necessary.