Ages and Stages of Cognitive Development

It is your role to help staff members understand the critical elements of child development. This lesson provides a brief overview of how cognition (thinking skills) develops from birth through age 12. Staff members have read similar information in their own lessons, so this is intended to provide you with consistent information and terminology. The information and resources are intended as a reference for you or as something you can provide to staff members as a refresher.

Infant and Toddler Milestones

Infants’ and toddlers’ thinking skills grow as they interact with the world and people around them. As you learned in the first lesson, early experiences matter. Consistent, nurturing, and responsive interactions and experiences help infants and toddlers make sense of the world. Those repeated experiences build the architecture of the brain. As infants and toddlers develop, they begin to understand and predict how things work: they open and close a cabinet door over and over, they fill and dump a cup of water in the water table, they bang a spoon on a high chair to hear the sound.

You will help staff members understand these milestones. Direct care staff received a chart about infant and toddler development in their own lessons. It’s important that you help them remember individual differences exist when it comes to the specific age at which infants and toddlers achieve milestones. As highlighted in the Communication & Language Development and Physical Development courses, milestones provide a guide for when to expect certain skills or behaviors to emerge. The information in the table below is a comprehensive list of cognitive developmental milestones. A brief version of this information aimed at parents can also be found in an easy-to-use checklist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Preschool Milestones

During the preschool years, amazing changes happen in children's thinking skills. Their memories are becoming stronger-they often remember surprising details. They can share their ideas in new and interesting ways. Their imaginations are becoming a primary vehicle for play and learning. They begin to compare, contrast, organize, analyze, and come up with more and more complex ways to solve problems. Math and scientific thinking become more sophisticated.

Read the table below that lists some cognitive developmental milestones in preschool.

School-Age Milestones

School-age children's thinking skills become increasingly sophisticated as they encounter new people, places, and ideas. They develop the ability to learn in abstract ways from books, art, movies, and experiences. The chart below highlights cognitive development during the school-age years.

Helping Staff Members Use their Knowledge of Cognitive Development

Staff members must use their knowledge of child development to support the learning of children and youth in their care. As a manager, you should be prepared to support staff by providing strategies for developing children’s cognitive skills. When working with staff members in the classroom, observe as they engage with children to ensure they do the following:

Meeting the Cognitive Development Needs of All Learners Including those with Disabilities

Teach staff members about your program’s commitment to serving all children and youth, including children with disabilities. In their own courses, staff members have learned strategies for meeting the needs of individual learners. Staff members may need your support to know how and when to use the strategies they have learned. Collaborate with the Training & Curriculum Specialist to teach staff members to recognize the range of abilities in their classrooms or programs. All children and youth need individualization, but it is critical to understand the needs of children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or Individual Family Service Plans (IFSPs). Help staff consider and plan for the preschooler who needs an extra challenge, the toddler who is learning more than one language, or the pre-teen who sits quietly by herself. Work with the T&CS to identify training needs for the staff in your programs to make sure that all children are getting the support they need.

Management Practices that Support Understanding of Cognitive Development

As a program manager, you are accountable for supporting the development of all children and youth. You can use the following strategies to help staff members understand the development of children and youth with a range of needs and abilities:

• Hold high expectations for all staff members when it comes to children and youth outcomes by setting learning goals for all age groups. Have a strengths-based approach. Begin conversations by discussing what the child, youth, or family brings to the program and what they can do.
• Focus on outcomes. Discuss with staff members the development and learning goals that are appropriate for each individual child. Then help plan experiences to meet those goals.
• Seek out knowledge of the cultures, values, and preferences of the families served and ensure those preferences are integrated throughout the program. Ensure that you know how culture may influence development and interactions.
• Support staff in the development of knowledge and skills needed to understand child development by seeking out resources and providing encouragement. Recognize when a child is able to do more than is being offered. Make sure all children have the opportunity to challenge themselves and participate as much as possible.
• Provide community-based resources such as guest speakers; support attendance at workshops and conferences for staff.
• Use multiple data sources such as classroom observations and lesson plans to evaluate and provide feedback on how effectively teachers are implementing the curriculum cycle
• Ensure professional development plans have identified goals for effectively implementing the curriculum cycle based on classroom observations
• Recognize skilled staff who demonstrate an understanding of child development and have them mentor other staff. Arrange for staff members to observe others who have effective methods for observing and documenting children’s development.
• Interact. Talk to every child. Communicate that every child has a place in your program. Jump in and help when needed.

Every day, you and your staff influence the development of children and youth. As a result, it’s important that you and your staff are intentional about the decisions you make. Intentional means that you and your staff know why you do what you do and are purposeful in everything you do. In other words, intentionality doesn’t leave anything to chance. You support intentionality by scheduling time for staff and coaches to meet and discuss the goals they have for children and youth based on their observations. When staff members have time for meaningful conversations, it leads to the planning of meaningful experiences, which in turn leads to positive outcomes for children and youth.

Watch this video that summarizes the main ideas of this lesson and affirms your role in supporting cognitive development.