Ways to Promote Cognitive Development in Toddlers

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Ways to Promote Cognitive Development in
Toddlers
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What are cognitive skills?
When parents think about cognitive development
activities, they usually mean learning academic
skills and building a knowledge base. This
understanding limits them to know about colours,
recognizing shapes, learning the alphabet and the
3Rs reading, writing and arithmetic. This is
why most of us are often surprised to find out
that there is a clear distinction between what is
meant by cognitive and academic skills. Actually,
this difference is really huge.
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Cognitive development in early childhood helps
solve a persistent learning challenge by
strengthening the childs basic processing or
cognitive skill set. When these individual mental
skills are weak, academic learning turns into a
stressful, anxiety-inducing struggle. When
cognitive skills are strong, academic learning
becomes a breeze fast, easy, efficient, and
enjoyable! Cognitive development in early
childhood may seem mysterious because it is not
easy to see or recognize, but without them, a
child will not be able to process the information
she receives from sources around her through her
sense of sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell.
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Learn to foster cognitive development early
As a parent, it is important to focus on
nurturing your childs cognitive development as
soon as she is born, because doing so lays the
foundation for your childs success later in
life. Research shows that children who are able
to distinguish sounds at an early age are better
at acquiring the skills for learning to read by
the time they are three and four years of
age. These crucial skills enable children to
process sensory information and eventually lead
to learning to evaluate, analyze, remember, make
comparisons and understand cause and effect.
Strong cognitive skills are critically important
to success in life!
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Work on increasing attention spans
When your child learns to pay attention, it
enables her to concentrate on one task or
conversation for an extended period of time.
Learning to pay attention is an important
cognitive skill that your child will use
effortlessly when it comes to all her future
learning. Parents can help a child develop her
ability to focus by pointing out things that seem
important or interesting and then asking the
child to comment on her observations. For
instance, when visiting the zoo, ask pointed
questions such as, which animal is your
favourite? or Why did you like that specific
animal? Questions like these help the child pay
closer attention to what she is exposed to and
also challenge her ability to choose specific
words to describe her thoughts.
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Helping build a strong memory
Memory is an important cognitive skill that
equips a child to retain what she has learned and
experienced and therefore helps build a future
base of knowledge. Children who are less than
five years old find it difficult to retain in
their memory what they may have learned. But, as
a child grows up and progresses into the school
years, her long-term memory increases and allows
the child to progressively build on the previous
knowledge.
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Teaching to think clearly differently
Thinking clearly enables a child to find the
right reasons to sort tasks and find the right
solutions easily and quickly. This cognitive
skill helps a child to know whether shes
accomplishing what she set out to do or whether
she needs to ask for help. Research has clearly
shown that interaction with peers, parents, and
other caregivers over the first five years is far
more educational and vital for cognitive
development.
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Activities to help cognitive development in
toddlers
Throughout the history of mankind, babies were
thought of as passive beings. They were often
seen simply as miniature versions of adults. It
wasnt until psychologists and modern thinkers
proposed that children actually think differently
than adults do. This is what made parents view
early childhood as a unique period of growth and
development. While the brain can be influenced at
any age, it is most impressionable in the first
five years of an infants life. You will be
surprised at how easy it really is to help boost
your babys natural cognitive skills.
Incorporating simple yet effective cognitive
development games into your daily routine can
help your child in the areas of memory, focus,
and concentration, and enhance the power of their
senses.
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Conclusion
To find out more about how My Gym supports
whole-child development through cognitive
development games, please visit any of our
centres. Choose a day when you will be relatively
free and come over with your child in tow. Your
child could be an infant (as young as 6 months),
a toddler, or a preschooler, age is not a bar for
enrolling.
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Our Branches
My Gym Buona Vista 35, Rochester Drive,
Rochester Mall, 03-24/25/26 Singapore
138639 Phone [phone]
My Gym Jurong East 3 Gateway Drive, Westgate,
04-39 Singapore 608532 Phone [phone]
My Gym Great World 1 Kim Seng Promenade 03-106
Great World City Singapore 237994 Phone (65)
6235 4070
My Gym Punggol 681 Punggol Drive, Oasis
Terrace, 03-02/03/04 Singapore 820681 Phone
(65) 6787 1178
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Income, 05-05, Singapore 529653 Phone (65)
6789 7061
My Gym Parkway Parade 80 Marine Parade Road,
15-03 Parkway Parade, Singapore 449269 Phone
(65) 6440 9916
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