Ten tiny fingers and toes…this is your little box of happiness. You have captured every stage of its birth on camera, from the nursery, tiny clothes, motherhood, birth, and your new birth as a mother.
Despite sleepless nights and countless diaper changes, you have enjoyed a time full of love, affection, and wonder with the little miracle that was held in your hands.
This is the time when your child will grow fourfold day and night. Living by watching that little life grow gives a different feeling. Children learn a lot in the first year and it is difficult to know whether they are moving in the right direction. All children learn and grow at their own pace. You can keep an eye on some milestones in the general category.
Today we will discuss cognitive development. Cognitive development is characterized by how a child learns, acquires knowledge, and interacts with the environment around him. There are various cognitive skills that a child acquires during childhood which require completing certain milestones. As a parent, you can encourage your child’s cognitive development in the areas of memory, concentration, attention and perception.
From birth, children are aware of their surroundings and want to explore them. As your baby plays and interacts with the people and objects around him, he learns about his body, his home, and the world around him.
How to promote cognitive development?
1. Read, read a lot, and read to the child. Children learn many things at this age.
2. Communicate with your child – do not talk to him about childish talk but talk about informative and deep things. Tell him what you are cooking, eating, feeding him, changing his diaper, etc.
3. Touch and talk about body parts while changing his diaper or bathing him.
4. Tell the child about the sounds of letters and numbers. Count and read everything and tell.
5. Play the game with instructions. Your child becomes increasingly able to follow simple commands and instructions and becomes proud of himself when he realizes he is able to do what you ask.
6. Stock up on toys that fit into each other, like boxes and cups. Show the child how to place them one on top of the other. My child takes great pleasure in demolishing the tower I have built.
7. In this stage, tell the child about the permanence of objects – show him hiding big toys under the blanket. When you ask him to find the toy, he will notice that the blanket is not flat and remember that you hid the toy under it. He will remove the blanket and find the toy.
8. By this stage, the child starts exploring the surrounding environment by crawling and standing with help. Provide simple exercises accompanied by music to help strengthen walking and balance.
9. Give kitchen utensils and ladle to the child. He’ll kick it, imitate cooking or just play with it, but let him do whatever he wants. You will be surprised to see the artistry of the child.
10. Make sure you allow your child to play with a maximum of 2 or 3 toys at a time. This brings concentration, increases the ability to concentrate, and brings respect towards the game.
As we conclude the first of many articles on cognitive development, my advice is that “learning and development can happen anywhere and everywhere, the most important thing is to always stay focused and take advantage of the opportunities.” Lose”
Here are the cognitive milestones for the first big year –
1. Knowing about things by feeling, hearing, seeing, and smelling. It starts with crawling on the chest and gradually the baby understands and reacts not only to the parents but also to the environment.
2. Repeating movements and gestures starts to help in brain development and memory – You will notice that in this year, babies repeatedly make specific gestures to express milk, happiness, discomfort and many other stimuli.
3. Try to identify things like toys and milk bottles by shaking, banging and throwing them. Holding a small object with a finger and holding a big object with both hands.
4. Finding hidden objects easily – When you hide a rattle under a blanket or sheet, he understands that removing the blanket will give him the rattle.
5. Understanding how objects can be used. For example, banging blocks on the floor, shaking a rattle, or pressing buttons on a toy.
6. In this year the baby will imitate a variety of actions such as saying goodbye, and shaking his head, indicating a significant jump in brain development.
7. In this year the child will imitate various types of actions like waving goodbye, shaking the head, etc. This shows significant progress in the development of the child’s brain.
8. The child will follow one-step commands such as “Please give me the ball.”, “Come here.”
9. Turning the pages of a book, knocking down shapes made of blocks, avoiding obstacles, and eating food on their own are just some of the tasks that children will learn and master.
10. The child will start associating objects with their proper uses such as drinking from a cup, combing hair, putting on pants by lifting one leg at a time, putting on a shirt with hands up, etc.
11. The child will learn to use fingers in his daily activities. Putting and taking out things from the box will become his favorite game.