COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
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.
