Introduction
Holistic development is vital to every individual in order to fully function in a modern society. The development of an individual occurs since birth and continues throughout in life. The developments are divided in stages. The medical society gives high importance to the developments that occur during childhood and how individuals acquire certain skills. Our development is the product of the combined efforts of our growth and environmental influences.
Overall developments of the body are significant to be able to function properly. One of the most important aspects of development is cognitive development. Cognition is one of the relevant mechanisms that are needed in acquiring pertinent knowledge and information. Cognition is a concept that is utilized in various fields. In the field of psychology, cognition refers to the processing of information viewed by the psychologists in human’s psychological functions. It can also be interpreted as gaining perceptions and opinions.
It is vital to cultivate and enhanced the process of cognitive development as it helps in the holistic development of a person and through enriching or reinforcing the process of cognitive development, a person will achieve his maximum potentials as a person.
The topic is quite interesting as it reveals the different skills acquired by a person during this particular stage of cognitive development. By deeply delving and investigating this topic, I was able to enlighten myself of the different facets of cognitive development in school age children. I learned that the skills acquired by a person allow them to fully adapt on the existing complicated environment. I want to know the different techniques that may be useful in fully enhancing and unlocking the potentials of a person during this particular stage of development. I will be able to utilize this information in devising other and innovative techniques in enriching the skills and abilities acquired by school age children during this stage of development.
Cognitive Development
The term cognition refers to the various mental processes used to acquire learning. This includes “gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning” (Wagner, 2008). It also involves various processes of human beings such as learning, attention, memory, thought, perception, problem-solving, reading and concept formation. It is a concept that is very broad and involves abstract processes such as thinking (Ireland On-Line, n.d.).
Cognition also involves adjusting to the internal processes of the external world. The adjustment period is accomplished through process of experience and discovery and the assimilation of interaction and the resulting adaptation. The very task of cognition is learning (Alpiner & McCarthy, 2000). Therefore, cognitive development pertains to the gradual acquisition of knowledge essential for the person’s total development. Cognitive development “is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.” (Wells, 2008).
Cognition and thought play significant roles in the whole learning process. Cognition is regarded with high value of importance especially during childhood, as majority of the knowledge and information acquired by an individual happens through the early stages of development. It is a part of child’s learning as they move along the various stages of development. Cognition evolves through the entire life span of a person, but the development is rapid during childhood years (Alpiner & McCarthy, 2000).
One of the significant milestones of cognitive development occurs during the 7 to 11 years of age. This is one of the crucial stages of cognitive development as it is coined as the “concrete operations stage” by the French psychologist Jean Piaget which made an extreme observation on children for decades. Jean Piaget is one of the most influential researchers and profounder of developmental psychology during the twentieth century. Piaget is a trained professional in the field of biology and philosophy but his interest was poured on the biological influences or the nurture aspect of things (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).
As a biologist, he was interested on the human’s capability to adapt on the environment which he refers to as the “intelligence”. Piaget examined two important processes that people used in order to adapt to the environment. These are assimilation and accommodation. “Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment. Both processes are used simultaneously and alternately throughout life.” (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).
This stage of concrete operations is characterized with the ability to think “concretely”, which refers to thinking tangibly, definite, exact and one direction terms based on real and concrete experiences. Piaget noted that this is one of the most important stages of cognitive development of a child. Children acquire certain skills such as classification which is the ability to group things according to features. They also know how to arrange through serial ordering or grouping according to the logical progression. Some children also learn and understand the cause-effect relationships which are relevant in mathematics and science (Interaction Media Group, n.d.).
Egocentrism is one of the characteristics of preoperational cognitive abilities. This is the inability to understand other people’s views and opinions. But during the school-age years, children usually learn that other people have their own views, feelings and perspectives. School age children also improve their memory and remembrance than when they are younger. As they start to accumulate more experiences within the world, they draw more encoding and recall vital information. This helps a lot in their school activities and learning as they start to learn the use of memory devices such as mnemonics and acronyms as it helps in memorizing large amounts and different types of information (CliffsNotes.com, 2009).
Conclusion
Development is one of the most vital processes occur in a human being. Development occurs in different stages of human life characterized by different acquired skills and learning. Holistic development is important for a person to function properly and appropriately in a community or society.
Cognitive development is one of the most vital aspects of development as it pertains to learning and acquisition of skills and abilities. Cognition plays an important role in the learning process and is given high importance during childhood as majority of knowledge and information is acquired during this stage of cognitive development. Cognition plays an important role as a person moves along the different stages of development and it evolves in the entire life span but cognitive development is rapid during the childhood years.
Cognitive development is characterized by different skills and abilities acquired and learned by a person. One of the crucial stages of cognitive development is during the “concrete operations” stage which occurs during the 7 to 11 years of age. Many important skills and learning are acquired during this stage by school-aged children.
Cognitive development should be given importance and enhanced as it is the key for full learning process. It is the major process that defines learning and knowledge. Full development of the person’s cognition means that he or she acquires adequate or enough knowledge needed to function in the society and surpass the challenges posed in the society.
References
Alpiner, J.G. & McCarthy, P.A. (2000). Rehabilitative Audiology. Baltimore, Maryland: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
CliffsNotes.com. (2009). Cognitive Development: Age 7–11. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/topicArticleId-26831,articleId-26782.html.
Huitt, W. &Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html
Interaction Media Group. (n.d.). Cognitive Development at Age 7-11. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://articles.directorym.co.uk/Cognitive_Development_At_Age_7_11-a1049212.html.
Ireland On-Line. (n.d). What is Cognition? Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.iol.ie/~cq/elearning/What_is_Cognition_.htm.
Wagner, K.V. (2008). What is Cognition? About.com. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/def_cognition.htm.
Wells, K.R. (2008). Cognitive Development. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.healthofchildren.com/C/Cognitive-Development.html.
