Cognitive Development Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Contents How to Use This Guide to Set Goals Introduction Developmental Sequence Overview Infancy                               (0-2 years) Early Childhood           (2-7 years) Middle Childhood      (7-11 years) Adolescence       …

How to Use This Guide to Set Goals Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development How to Use This Guide to Set Goals Read the definition at the beginning of the introduction to familiarise yourself with the topic (decide if you want to read more of the introduction) Establish the child’s current point of development – where…

Introduction Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Cognitive Development Cognitive development refers to the construction and use of thought processes across the lifespan. It is the emergence of the ability to think and understand and, as such, is relevant to all aspects of emotional and social development. Figure 1 illustrates different areas of cognitive development. Figure…

Developmental Sequence Overview Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Developmental Sequence Overview Please note that developmental ranges and ages vary substantially from child to child within typical/neurotypical development. The sequence should be used only as a guide when determining a child’s current development. In writing this guide we have been mindful that every child is unique…

Infancy (0-2 years) Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Infancy (0-2 years) New born babies are born with innate reflexes which function to satisfy their basic needs within the first few months of life (for example, the rooting and sucking reflexes which cause the infant to find their mother’s breast and suck to receive milk). During…

Early Childhood (2-7 years) Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Early Childhood (2-7 years) physical development allows the child to interact with the environment in increasingly complex ways which facilitates cognitive development relating to those experiences the development of language facilitates cognitive processing – this mediates our understanding of sensory and physical experience (see Language Development)…

Middle Childhood (7-11 years) Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Middle Childhood (7-11 years) solves problems using appropriate logical principles centration no longer limits thinking – the child considers and relates multiple aspects of a problem resulting in improved problem solving. This allows the development of new skills: understands that a given quantity remains that same…

Adolescence (11-19 years) Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Adolescence (11-19 years) transition from concrete to formal operational thinking increase in ability to think abstractly and hypothetically engages in propositional thought (i.e. abstract reasoning) improved systematic reasoning enhanced reasoning about emotions (see Awareness and Understanding of Others and Self-Awareness) recognises emotions in self and others enhanced…

Progression through Adolescence Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Progression through Adolescence Early adolescence (11-14 years) reasoning becomes more advanced uses deductive reasoning to solve hypothetical problems (vs. inductive reasoning in which a hypothesis derived from a specific example is generalised and verified by further observations) may overgeneralise the use of logic when problem solving may…

Cognitive Development: Example Objectives, Goals and Plans Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Cognitive Development: Example Objectives, Goals and Plans These examples were developed for pupils attending Beech Lodge School.   Pupil A is 8 years old. He is easily distracted and struggles to maintain focus in class. His teacher would like to first develop his…

Glossary Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development Glossary Centration: the tendency to focus on only one part of a problem, situation or object Chunking: organising complex information into manageable groups to aid memory Classification: grouping of objects into categories based upon a common characteristic Conservation: understanding that a given quantity remains the same despite changes in…

References Fagus Guides > Cognitive Development References Anderson, P. (2002). Assessment and development of executive function (EF) during childhood. Child Neuropsychology, 8(2), 71-82. Astington, J. W., & Edward, M. J. (2011). The development of Theory of Mind in early childhood. In P. D. Zelazo (Ed.), Social cognition (pp. 16-20). Retrieved from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/sites/default/files/dossiers-complets/en/social-cognition.pdf#page=16. Baillargeon, R., &…