Cognitive Child Development Stages

Cognitive development refers to a child's abilities to collect and process sensory information, including the ability to remember, to solve problems, construct thoughts and make decisions. Cognitive development is influenced by both genetics and the learning environment; it begins when the child is first conceived (still in the womb) and continues through adulthood.

Innate Abilities

• Innate abilities are the cognitive skills that an unborn baby develops in the womb; they are the genetic factors a child inherits from his parents. Some of us are gifted with vocal skills, music talents or artistic abilities; these are examples of innate abilities. Bear in mind that anyone can develop talents in any area, but those with innate abilities in that area are naturally more gifted. Innate abilities are the factors about our natural self that we cannot change.

Sensory Skills

• As a child's sensory skills develop, he develops the ability to see things and understand what they are, hear things and know what direction the sound came from and touch things and learn what things feel good and what things feel bad. Sensory skills begin to develop as soon as the child is born; the child will begin to see things, follow things with his eyes and grow accustomed to familiar objects and people.

Motor Skills

• Motor skills develop at the same time sensory skills are developing and refer to a child's ability to produce muscle movement. Motor skills take more time to develop and include activities such as crawling, walking, running, speaking and writing. Motor skills allow the child to express how he feels about an experience.

Perception and Cognition

• Cognitive skills develop as a result of the other three stages and build on each of them, giving the child the ability to remember things, speak, read, think critically, and understand and perceive the world around him. Cognitive skills are easily manipulated and can be strengthened to make learning new concepts easier for a child.

Instructional Skills

• Instructional skills are dependent on a child's cognitive abilities and are taught to children in a school environment. Instruction skills include things such as languages, composition and arithmetic. Although this stage is about learned skills that can be expanded upon, a base of cognitive skills is required for the child to maintain and understand these new instructional skills.

Considerations

• Understanding these stages of cognitive child development allows parents to recognize when their child may have a problem, such as autism or cerebral palsy. Along with the early recognition of problems, understanding the stages allows parents to help their child with development of each skill.