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Activities to Enhance Cognitive Development in children – An Early Beginning!

Have you ever wondered why ‘peek-a-boo’ is all time favorite game of all generations? Or Guess what – riddle solving is best family playmate? Well, we shall surely talk about it later, but first things first. Why do we need to do activities to boost cognition development in children as small as three years to five years?

Cognition Development among children begins as early as under 3 years –

Cognitive learning or brain development is an early start of stimulating the brain to learn from the environment. Our tiny tots look at us and learn from imitating our actions or reactions. This is the most crucial time of brain development in a child, the brain is in its highest reception phase. Scientific research has found that an under three years child’s brain makes 700 to 1000 neural connections every second.

Pre-schooler kids are inquisitive to learn and gather information about their surroundings. As parents, our focus should be on channelizing this energy into a positive framework. Balanced nutrition and brain food also mark a huge importance during this phase in the child’s life. As mothers, our focal concentration is on Feed IQ to our children through various fun-to-learn brain exercises. Along with the brain development, this also strengthens the bond between the child and the nurturer.

Answer those doubts and brainstorm with them –

Kavya was in pre-school ‘nursery’ when during one Parents Teacher Meeting the class teacher informed me about her over-inquisitiveness. This got me rattled as she was not the first one who raised the point. I decided to take this up with the pediatrician if she was a hyper child? However, the meeting with the expert shelved all my fears and introduced me to a newer aspect of channelizing energy. We started doing many activities from building card games to puzzles.

Cognition or Brain development must be initiated in the children from the very beginning. Peek-a-boo is a brain exercise where the child tries to recognize faces and hidden places. During our recent visit to the family home, I met my 16-month-old nephew. Such a cherub he is, cute and smart. We played peek-a-boo a few times, and he learned the trick quite fast. Thereafter, wherever he would find me, he would giggle and keep a hand on his eyes.

That’s cognition; brain recognition as his memory stored the activity and associated it with my face. Hence, the peek-a-boo is such a famous play among families with infants.

Activities that boost Cognition in Children – 

Puzzles –

Puzzles are everyone’s favorite, be it adults or children. Solving puzzles works on body and mind coordination. It also helps in problem-solving skills and developing fine motor skills too.

Building Blocks –

Another great way to hone brain development in children. This is my daughter’s favorite and she has been doing it since the very beginning. She likes making architectural buildings with spaces for parking and penthouses along with helipads and train-stations. This helps in two ways, one the child is deeply involved in creating and it boosts imagination. Different shapes, colors, designs and models bring reasoning and logical coordination in children.

I SPY –

We played this in our childhood days, and kids love it equally today. I Spy – Simon Says tell me the color ‘Pink’, she is almost 6 now and we still enjoy playing this. The only difference is now we do it with words and spellings. Children grasp the things in sight and memorize the sequence with I Spy. Pre-School classic game to sharpen cognitive development.

ABC Letter Sounds –

We began this game little late, but she learned it nevertheless on time. Phonics is crucial for reading and learning. Her school advocates reading a lot, from the early start which is really good. Books are a mecca for knowledge, and there is nothing as good as gaining knowledge. Jolly Phonic sound songs are fun and children memorize the sound with the respective Our favorite is – We are clicking castanets \c\c\c\ we are clicking castanets. Try them they are fun.

Pretend Play –

This is a classic activity to work on creativity and give them space to think aloud. Imaginary games not only sharpen the brain but also boost situation handling in children. They learn about the surroundings and connects to the environment I remember in her play-school they had games on ‘I am the community helper?’ Each kid had to learn about one community helper, like a doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician, cobbler, etc and then pretend in school.

Baby’s brain growth and cognitive development is crucial –

These are few of the brain-stimulating activities which we can do with kids to boost their cognitive development. Brain development is a natural process, kids learn at their own pace and time. A little push from our side by feeding IQ to our children through brain development activities, we not only help their brain development but also ensure a well-rounded child.

Knowledge of surroundings, clear speech, face recognition, fine and gross motor skills are all part of cognitive development process. We have the role of a provider, by teaching them the right way and make learning interesting.

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