Bright Beginnings: Cognitive Development in Babies and Toddlers
Babies aged 0-6 months typically reach several cognitive milestones, including recognising familiar faces and objects, following moving objects with their eyes, beginning to understand cause and effect, and exploring objects with their hands and mouth.
You can support your baby’s cognitive development by engaging in activities such as playing peek-a-boo to help develop object permanence, providing tummy time to enhance motor skills and exploration, and offering sensory play with safe objects of various textures, shapes, and colours.
Between 6-12 months, babies develop cognitive skills such as understanding simple instructions, exploring objects through banging, shaking, and throwing, recognizing their own name, and starting to use simple gestures like waving or pointing.
Beneficial activities for 6-12-month-old babies include playing hide and seek with toys to develop problem-solving skills, reading interactive books with flaps and textures, and engaging in mimicking games to promote social interaction and communication skills.
Toddlers aged 1-2 years typically reach milestones such as saying simple words and forming short sentences, following simple directions, engaging in pretend play, and recognizing themselves in a mirror.
You can help your toddler by providing simple puzzles to enhance problem-solving and fine motor skills, encouraging pretend play with dolls or everyday objects to foster imagination and social skills, and singing songs and nursery rhymes to support language development and memory.
Children aged 2-3 years develop more advanced cognitive skills, including following two-step instructions, understanding basic concepts of time, engaging in complex pretend play, and showing interest in counting and sorting objects.
Activities that support cognitive development in 2-3-year-olds include counting games during everyday activities, encouraging storytelling with pictures or toys, and providing opportunities to sort objects by color, shape, or size to enhance logical thinking and categorization.
Excessive screen time can reduce interaction with caregivers, which is essential for language development, decrease attention span and focus, and impair sleep patterns. It’s important to limit screen time and ensure it involves high-quality content and co-viewing with parents.
To be more mindful of your screen use, set boundaries for screen time, engage in joint media activities with your child, be a role model by demonstrating balanced screen use, create tech-free zones in your home, and prioritize quality time through face-to-face interactions and play.