Cognitive development of toddlers aged 1-5 years

The development of cognitive abilities of toddlers or children's brain development is more complicated to understand, when compared to physical development, such as height or weight. There is no measuring instrument that can determine the extent to which toddlers are developing in terms of brain abilities. Then, what is the cognitive abilities of toddlers and how important is it in the development of your little one?

What is toddler cognitive development?

Launching from Simply Psychology, toddlers' cognitive abilities are a development in terms of children's thinking skills. Some of these abilities are attention, thinking, children's memory, and problem solving (problem solving).

This skill is very important for child development because it is related to the child's ability to process sensory information.

This ability is also needed by toddlers to learn to evaluate, analyze, remember, compare, and understand cause and effect.

Toddler's cognitive abilities are closely related to genetic factors. Therefore, the ability of parents can be passed on to their children. Even so, children's cognitive development can be trained and enhanced in several appropriate ways, according to the child's age.

Is it true that the cognitive development of toddlers is related to mother's care?

Research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Petersburg. Louis found that children who were in pre-school maternal care had higher volume growth in the part of the cerebellum (hippocampus) when they entered school into adulthood.

In contrast, children who were not or were not under their mother's care before school had less growth in brain volume. This occurs even after the child starts schooling the child is under the care of the mother.

The researchers conducted a study of 127 children whose brain growth began when they were children into adulthood.

The children who participated in the study underwent three magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. MRI scan is a technology that measures the dimensions and blood flow to brain structures.

The rate of maternal care during childhood was also measured in this study.

How is the cognitive development of toddlers aged 1-5 years?

Toddlers cognitive development generally increases with age. Following are the cognitive abilities of children from 1-5 years of age:

Toddlers aged 1-2 years

With age, children's abilities also increase. Quoting from the official website of the University of Michigan, your little one is more curious about many things and this is included in the cognitive development of toddlers aged 1 year.

Not only that, he began to like to open and close drawers, push doors, and even scribble.

At the age of 1-2 years, children can look for objects that are hidden by you and vice versa. Your little one hides the toys for you. He also likes to play hide and seek with people at home.

2-3 years old

Toddler cognitive abilities, also known as intellectual and thinking abilities. In children aged 2 years, this condition is developing very rapidly.

Launching from the Aussie Child Care Network, the cognitive abilities of toddlers aged 2-3 years include:

• Be able to know very distinctive characters (for example, color, size, shape)
• Mention and show objects in the image
• State the body part you are asking for.

In line with this, when viewed from the Denver II graph, the cognitive development of 2 years old toddlers already knows the activities that are being carried out. Including when he plays cooking, reads books, or tidies up toys.

Children aged 2-3 years can sort objects according to color and size, solve puzzles with 3-4 parts, and role-play with dolls. These various abilities are one of the cognitive development of toddlers.

3-4 years old

Children aged 3 years to age 4 years are increasingly asking "why" on something they see because of their high curiosity.

As a parent, you may often find yourself confused about answering questions with simple and easy to understand answers. These questions include the cognitive abilities of children aged 3-4 years old.

At this age, the cognitive development of toddlers includes the ability to:

• Mention and designate the color seen
• Understand the differences and similarities then begin to compare them
• Understand the concept of counting

The little one is also able to play more creatively, able to remember parts of the story which include the social and emotional development of early childhood.

4-5 years old

At 4-5 years old, the development of toddler's cognitive abilities is getting better, marked by the ability to speak very fluently and easily understood by others.

Given that children aged 4 to 5 years have started school, their cognitive abilities include:

• Like to dance, or children like to sing, hum
• Create new vocabulary when interacting with friends
• Be able to count to 10
• Correctly mentions 4 colors and 3 shapes
• Understand the concept of daily activities, for example, breakfast in the morning, shower in the afternoon

In addition, children can not only answer questions, but also be able to express their feelings well.

How to improve cognitive development for toddlers aged 1-5 years?

The ability of children's brains is closely related to genetic factors, but you can train them so that toddlers' cognitive abilities improve and get better. Here's how to train children's cognitive abilities from 1-5 years of age.

1-2 years old

There are several activities that can be done with your little one to improve the cognitive development of toddlers aged 1-2 years, such as:

Make a unique sound

Quoting from Day Early Learning, you can play making unique sounds from objects in the house, for example the sound of paper blowing or a pot being hit.

Let your little one imitate the sounds you make, this trains the child's hearing and absorption in imitating activities.

Hide toys

You don't need to hide, you can also hide certain toys or objects and let your little one look for them. Tell the child what toys are hiding and give a clue where it is.

It trains hearing and problem solving (problem solving) in children aged 1-2 years.

2-3 years old

Some activities that can be done with children to train toddlers' cognitive abilities, such as:

Sort shapes

Given that at this age children are familiar with shapes and colors, you can invite your little one to play sorting the shapes of the blocks and match them with the same color.

In the Mental Up website, it is explained that this type of child's play can help your little one understand cause and effect, visual intelligence, and hand-eye coordination.

When your child matches it correctly, don't forget to give your little one an appreciation so that he feels happy and even more enthusiastic.

Paper cutting

mentalup.co

To train toddlers' cognitive abilities, games using scissors can be an option. The materials needed are quite easy, only scissors and unused books or magazines.

Encourage the children to separate the pictures according to the group, for example in the magazine there are pictures of animals, groups with the like, humans, flowers, and others.

The benefit, children learn to classify and know the differences between one picture and another. In addition, cutting is also able to develop early childhood motor skills.

After that, cut out the pictures according to the lines that match the shape. Let the child concentrate with this game. Supervise your little one while cutting to avoid minor accidents that can interfere with the toddler's cognitive abilities.

3-4 years old

There are at least two types of children's games that can help parents to support toddler cognitive development, namely:

Matching cards

theshirleyjourney.com

At the age of 3-4 years the child understands the similarities and differences in simpler concepts. Matching cards can be a way to train toddlers' cognitive abilities in terms of your little one's memory.

There are many card games on the market, adjust it to your child's taste so that toddlers' cognitive abilities run well.

How to play, randomize the cards so that they are not in sequence, then open one card and ask the child to look for the same image as the card he opened. Limit the chances of opening cards, after which it's your turn to play.

When he gets a suitable picture, ask him what picture it is and explain what the child saw on the card. This can improve the cognitive abilities of toddlers.

Play stacking blocks

This toy, better known as lego, is very useful for stimulating the cognitive abilities of toddlers aged 3-4 years. Stacking blocks have very diverse colors and 3-dimensional shapes, so your little one can be creative by arranging these blocks.

There are several sizes of stacking blocks that can be shaped into something, according to the child's imagination.

These games hone problem-solving skills or problem solving in children 3-4 years. Toddlers need to figure out how to arrange blocks into towers from smaller blocks.

4-5 years old

When toddlers are 4-5 years old, activities that can help develop cognitive abilities, such as:

Play puzzles

Raising Children explained that playing puzzles can be a game to train toddlers' cognitive abilities (toddler cognitive development). You can start this game with a large puzzle piece to make it easier for children to play it.

When the child is fluent, they can switch to the medium size until the small one. Avoid letting the children play alone, you can participate in composing the pictures while occasionally inviting a discussion about the shape and arrangement of the puzzle.

Train two languages ​​(bilingual)

Learning a second language from an early age, aka bilingual is indeed beneficial for the cognitive development of toddlers. Children and adults who speak more than one language have fairly active and flexible brains.

According to research from the Royal Society Open Science, children who since childhood learn to bilingual will pick up new information more quickly than other children.

Experts are trying to figure out whether the more complex language environment in a bilingual home can encourage babies to develop their focus.

In the study, there were 102 babies between the ages of 7 and 9 months. Half of them grew up bilingual or more.

In addition, babies in this bilingual group also heard their primary language by no more than 75 percent. The rest are in a group that hears the main language of the neighborhood.

Training children to use two languages ​​can be started from infancy to pre-school, such as at the age of 4-5 years.

How to improve memory for toddler cognitive development

Memory is included in the cognitive development of toddlers who need to be trained at an early age. Here are some simple ways you can improve your little one's long-term memory.

1. Play while learning

Source: My Kids Time

Playing is a way to improve the memory of your little one that is most liked by all children.

Some games that you can do with your little one to stimulate their memory are puzzles, flash card , coloring, playing with various shapes and colors, and pasting numbers, letters or pictures.

2. Tell a story together

You can tell various types of bedtime stories and during your spare time. After finishing the storytelling, invite your little one to recall the storyline, such as character names, place names and so on.

Doing repetition makes children accustomed to listening and recording it in their memory. Apart from story books, you can also use hand puppets, pictures that can be changed and attract attention.

3. Invite to sing

You can also improve your child's memory with music and invite him to sing, for example, singing the steps for tying shoelaces. Do not forget to also invite your little one to dance and clap their hands to increase their joy and enthusiasm.

If this activity is carried out regularly, children will gradually try to imitate the tones and lyrics of songs they often sing and remember the information contained in the songs.

4. Get enough sleep

A study conducted by Northwestern University found that getting enough sleep is the key to maintaining memory. This is because during sleep the brain stores important things that have been learned during the day.

That is why, make sure your little one gets good quality sleep every day. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends 11-13 hours of sleep per day (including naps).

5. Pay attention to nutritional intake

In addition to some of the simple habits mentioned above, you must also pay attention to toddler nutrition. Providing nutritious food for your little one in fact also plays an important role as a way to improve children's memory.

Provide adequate nutritional intake for children by providing toddler food that is rich in vitamins, folic acid, essential fatty acids, iron, and zinc to stimulate brain function which ultimately affects their memory.

x