Cognitive And Language Development Milestones

Development milestones are the stages in a child’s development whether to know what an average child is able to do at a particular stage (Gilles G., n.d). Cognitive milestones are essential in the growth of a child. It describes how the child’s brain would develop and function. The skills involved are thinking, problem solving and learning (Help Me Grow, n.d). The first words a child speaks are music to the ears. Thus, indicating language development and non-verbal communication is in play. Cognitive development works hand in hand with the language development.

I chose an infant stage which its age bracket is between newborn to twelve months. This stage is also known as the sensorimotor stage. Jean Piaget a psychologist stated that this is the stage that children understand the world through motor abilities such as movement, vision, taste and touch (Bremner JG, et. Al., 2014).

Infants’ Typical Day

A typical day also known as a normal day for an infant, nothing much happens. It revolves around eat, changing of diapers and sleeping. The baby tends to wake up in the morning and is fed for about twenty to thirty minutes. Changing of the diapers is most common for infants having almost six or more diapers either wet or poopy ones. Infants will tend to eat every one to three hours a day. So the more the baby is fed the more one has to change diapers. Infants tend to have three to four naps a day where they may sleep for about two hours depending on how old they are.

Cognitive Milestones of an Infant

The cognitive milestones for an infant is how they will think and learn skills. I will breakdown the skills a baby should have so to know that the development is on track in different ages. For a new born baby they must be able to kick their legs and be sensitive to sounds close by. They tend to startle if they hear loud noises. Babies at this stage are able to see objects clearly at a distance of about 14 inches. For kids about six months, they tend to be reactive as they look around for things, they also move their heads towards the direction of the sound. Babies at this stage are familiar with certain faces mostly parents or a guardian. The baby can recognize a breast and bottle and know that they are supposed to feed. At twelve months, a baby is active where they play so much with you, example of these games are ‘peek-a-boo’. They are able to look for toys where they saw you hiding them. They mostly use their thumbs and index finger while picking up things and being able to exchange items from one hand to another at ease. With the use of their hands they are able to put and remove items from containers. Babies at this stage tend to look at pictures and responding to gestures and sounds. Kids tend to understand and follow simple instructions like ‘sit down’ or ‘don’t do that’.

Language Milestones of an Infant

Language development being on track is what a parent or an educator strives for. Language development milestones in an infant varies differently across the ages. A newborn child will mostly cry so s to communicate something o the parent. As this is usually a major step in the language development milestone. At the age of three months, a baby should be able to recognize your voice as a parent and mostly smile when they see a familiar face. At this age, the baby tends to smile or remain quiet when they are spoken to. Babies would communicate by crying for example if they soil on themselves or if they are hungry. At the age of six months, a child will be able to make variety of sounds such as babbling or gurgling while playing. They will also be able to pay attention to toys that make sound and also listen to soothing music. Children at this age would communicate using sounds either they are happy or sad. By the end of 12 months, a baby should be able to say the common names such as “mama”, “uh-oh”. A kid at this age should also be able to understand simple instructions such as “come here”, “sit down”. Imitation of sounds they hear is also common at this age.

References

1. Bremner JG, Slater AM, Johnson SP. (2014). Perception of Object Persistence: The Origins of Object Permanence in Infancy. Child Development Perspectives. p9 (1):7-13. doi:10.1111/cdep.12098
2. Gilles Gary (n.d). What Are Developmental Milestones in Children? – Table, Definition & Examples. Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-are-developmental-milestones-in-children-table-definition-examples.html
3. Help Me Grow. (n.d). Cognitive Milestones. Available at: http://helpmegrowmn.org/HMG/DevelopMilestone/CognitiveMilestones/index.html