Cognitive Child Development

There are four main domains of children's development: physical, cognitive, psychosocial, and creative. Each of these areas are crucial in a growth of each child, forming children into adults they are to be due to their development. The main focus in this discussion will be cognitive development of a twenty-eight year old child. “Cognitive development is viewed as a fertile and complex concept.” (Nicolson & Shipstead, 1998, p. 27). Theory of mind, representation, memory, language, and more are indicators of child's cognitive development. At the age of twenty eight months of age it is easy to track the one's development as a child usually speaks in sentences and obtain other characteristics for an easy identification for a development, therefore

“The remarkable advancement in cognition form the infant or young child hinges on the expanding ability to think representationally, that is, to make something-a mental symbol, a word, or an object-stand for or represent something else which is not present.” (Nicolson & Shipstead, 1998, p. 28). For example, if you ask the two year where their favorite toy is is, they will most likely remember where it is, even if it’s in another room, and bring it to you. Also, they are able to point at the objects after you ask them where is that object and even repeat after you the name of the object. Moreover, at this age children start to recognize basic colors and identify

“The development of representational thought provides the means for children to understand that words can stand for people, objects, actions, places, feelings, and ideas” (Nicolson & Shipstead, 1998, p. 28). At this age a child’s language is expended to the point that he/she is able to communicate his/her desired or ideas, rather than pointing toward an object or saying separate words in order for their caregiver to understand what he/she wants. Child’s language ability is increasing rapidly at this age, by talking to his/her parents, siblings or peers. Even Though child knows many words and can talk in a sentence, their pronunciation and grammar is yet to come. “Proponents argue that children’s mental representations of words closely resemble adult surface forms, in contrast to their pronunciation which is characterized by errors that are governed by rules that change during phonological acquisition” (Dodd & Mcintosh, 2009, p.1028). The pronunciation is acquiring through child’s practice by talking to parents and peers. Also, child is not able to apply grammar to their language, rather they learn as they hear how other people use the language and repeat after them but maybe switching words around or missing some of them as they