As parents observe their child grow through the various stages of development they can sometimes take for granted how important and essential these stages are in developing a firm foundation for cognitive and language acquisition. Here are some milestones of cognition to be aware of:
Birth – 1 month
- Exploring and becoming more aware of the environment using limited motor skills
1 – 4 months
- Awareness of many physical properties, including object permanence, object solidity and gravity, as suggested by drop and expectation experience.
- Categorization of perceptually similar stimuli
4 -8 months
- Improved physical and numerical knowledge
- Categorization of many objects and events conceptually by similar function, color or behaviour of action
8 – 12 months
- Ability to search for hidden objects after it has been covered or dropped out of sight
- Ability to solve simple problems by analogy to a previous problem or experience
12 – 18 months
- Ability to search in several locations for a missing object
- Awareness and expectation that objects will be there upon leaving and return
- Expectation of deferred action by an adult upon their return and across a change of context
- Active object sorting into single categories
18 months – 2 years
- Ability to find an object moved out of sight when not present
- Deferred imitation of actions an adult tries to produce, indicating a capacity to infer others intentions
- Active object sorting into 2 categories
2 – 4 years
- Demonstrates a dramatic increase in representational activity as reflected by the development of language, make believe play, drawing and understanding dual representation
- Takes the perspective of others in simplified, familiar situations and in everyday face to face communications
- Distinguishes animate objects from inanimate objects
- Grasps conversations, notices transformations and understand many cause and effect relationships in familiar contexts
- Categorizes objects into more defined sorts by function, common characteristics and behaviour
- Distinguishes make believe from reality
4 – 7 years
- Is firmly aware that make believe and other thought processes are representational activities
- Replaces fantasy with plausible explanations of reality
- Is using language more competently to plan, express and problem solve
- Makes inferences and forms judgements based on presented information, including basic forms of deductive reasoning, supposition and conjecture
7 – 11 years
- Is thinking in a more organised, logical fashion about concrete information by gradual mastery of the Piagetian conservation, class inclusion and inference.
- Is using more complex visual and spatial reasoning
- Developing more complex forms of abstract thinking
11 years – 18 years
- Reasons abstractly in situations that offer many opportunities for hypothetical- deductive reasoning and propositional thought
- Can evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real world circumstances
- The concept of Imaginary Audience is starting to diminish. The belief that they are the focus of everyone else`s attention and concern. As does the concept of Personal Fable, that is the belief that because everyone else is concerned and thinking about them, they develop an over inflated opinion of themselves and their performance. They are in some way special and unique
- Grasps the logical necessity of propositional thought, permitting reasoning about premises that contradict reality
- Improves in decision making strategies
These stages of cognitive development are essential for the developing child to encounter, manage and eventually acquire. They are the foundation of their thinking skills that will enable them to grow and develop not only true and meaningful language but the life skills of reasoning, problem solving and decision making.
If you or a loved one is concerned about speech, language or cognitive skill development, then please seek the opinion of an experienced Speech Pathologist or Psychologist.
Mr Craig Gorman
Speech Pathologist
Melbourne Speech Clinics
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