Cognitive Growth- Your Child's Ability to Grasp From Books

Your little angel's cognitive skills are fast growing. Your child is immersed in a highly social world from the moment she was born. This social world includes not only people such as parents, siblings, teachers and classmates, but also objects and values that are part of their culture. All of these things provide a context for a child’s cognitive growth and development.

What you need to know
During the ages of 2 to 3, child’s thinking skills are undergoing tremendous change. Their ability to use representational thought and symbols to stand for objects, people and events, which began in toddlerhood, is becoming even more complex. Preschoolers also begin to use logic to think about how and why things work in the world around your child.

Despite huge cognitive gains in the preschool years, however, they are not little adults and still display many cognitive limitations. As part of their social environment, teachers play an important role in preschoolers’ cognitive development. By understanding their advances and limitations in thinking, teachers can best support preschoolers in their cognitive growth. One way for teachers to engage preschoolers’ thinking skills is through reading quality children’s books that promote aspects of cognition such as reasoning and problem solving, symbolic play, book recommendations and activities that can be used to encourage cognitive development in each of these areas.