Cognitive development is defined as the building of thought process which includes problem-solving ability, remembering stuff and making decisions from the childhood to adolescent phase and then adulthood.

Cognitive development in the infant phase
During the infant phase, the child starts focusing on objects, sounds, and colors. At 3 months, the child starts recognizing the faces of his or her family and imitates their expressions. At 6 months, babies start recognizing their names and understand how the world works around them. At 9- 12 months, babies start imitating gestures and actions performed by people around them. The baby starts understanding simple words and learns how parents respond.

Cognitive development at the toddler phase
During the toddler phase, the cognitive development enhances further and the child starts understanding the permanence of people and objects around them. The child starts striving for independence, learns manners and discipline.

Cognitive development at kindergarten phase
At the age of 4-6 years, the child starts developing their memory and imagery skills. They start learning, memorizing and building their social skills to interact with other children at school. Their attention span starts to increase, they start reading, writing and learning new things at school. So it is better to avoid bullying, lying or using bad words and manners in front of the child.

How to improve cognitive development of your child?
1. Listen to your child’s questions and what they think. It boosts up the confidence of your child and he starts knowing his or her worth.
2. Start asking questions to your child to boost up his thinking skills.
3. Encourage your kid to join in activities like painting, drawing, reading, writing, and acting a skit or building a model. It helps your child learn new things and enhance their problem-solving skills.
4. Take your children to interesting places such as museums, local business places, markets, libraries, and others. It increases their sense of curiosity and they start wondering about it further.
5. Practice counting with them on everyday items like counting their shoes, dresses, and others.
6. Practice colors and shapes on your child’s toys.
7. Practice alphabets by singing alphabet song with them or making an alphabet puzzle.
8. Identify noises with them by relating to everyday objects.
9. Give your child a restful sleep of around 7-8 hours each day which also increases cognitive development.
10. Play various games with your child like board games, puzzles, hide and seek, memory games and others which helps in child development.
11. Choose toys for your child which encourages their problem-solving ability and enhances their creativity.
12. Allow your kid to make choices in everyday routine like choosing clothes, shoes and other accessories.

Cognitive development is an important part of a child’s health. It is characterized by how the child learns, interacts with the surrounding environment and acquires new knowledge. Parents should pay important attention to a child’s healthy cognitive development as it enhances their essential skills for performing everyday activities.

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