The Theories of Cognitive Development

As discussed in the previous chapter the first few years of a child’s life are important for its mental and physical development. This is because it is in the early years of a child’s life that there is the most significant lifetime growth of the brain and the nervous system. This is specifically with regard to new neural connections and the strengthening of existing connections. Furthermore, the early years of a child’s life are also important with regard to overall motor development. This is due to the fact that in the early years of a child’s life the roots of the advanced motor responses, such as being able to jump up in the air and land on two feet, of later life are put down due to the physical interactions of the infant with its external environment. Imaging of the brain suggests that motor activity and the completion of cognitive tasks co-activate both the neo-cerebellum and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This causality is also supported by the experiences of psychologists and educationalists specialising in childhood development. Moreover, the theories associated with childhood development rely upon the causality between motor and cognitive development. Piaget’s theory on the childhood development of cognition is associated with the actualisation of the brain associated with thinking due to physical movements. Similarly, Systems Theory proposes that the movement of body parts such as the limbs and eyes is caused by the joint action of cognitive and motor processes. Moreover, the theory of the Ecological Perspective suggests that infants can draw upon and process visual information so as to produce physical movements. Those motor skills more closely associated with interaction with cognition were those associated with picking up and holding objects as well as the timing of the associated movements, these effects being stronger in the pre-teenage years of a child than in its teenage years. A bi-directionality has also been detected with regard to the cognition-academic nexus. In other words, consistent exposure to high-quality schooling will aid the development of a child’s cognitive and academic ability. Pre-school education is also important, as it is at this stage of development that a child acquires the beginnings of the Theory of Mind concepts, perpetual awareness and the start of inductive and deductive reasoning. The pre-school enrolment will help the child develop his/her language and mathematics skills. It has also been found that early pre-school enrolment will have a positive impact on a child’s cognitive development from an age of 6 to late adolescence, aged 18. The level of development accessible to a child in the first three years of its life will have a lifetime impact. However, it is at this stage that parents struggle with balancing work with childcare—more free time for the parents may allow them to give quality parenting to their child. Families would benefit from the public provision of in-kind quality child care, in this case. Although it is only in late childhood that children acquire or complete the development of inferential awareness, relational and deductive reasoning and the awareness of cognitive processes. The link between the development of cognitive abilities in children and specific parts of the brain has been established by such programmes as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which makes available baseline data on the brain development of over 11,000 US children. The data associated with brain development is acquired using magnetic resonance imaging. Other studies have shown that the causality between motor skills and cognitive activity is strongest in infants. In the study of cognition in infants, executive functions such the ability to concentrate, working memory and mental agility have been used as measures of cognition. The level of development of executive functions in infants is seen as an efficient indicator of a child’s school academic performance. This has been specifically associated with the level of working memory. The development of working memory will also allow young children to develop the ability to order events. The lateral prefrontal cortex of the brain is associated with the development of behaviour, language and cognition. Some studies have also shown a strong connection between the level of agility and working memory as well as between the level of agility and the depth of concentration. However, although the inter-relatedness of motor development and cognitive ability has been recognised through research, the emotional development of the child is also important in facilitating the development of learning in a child’s early years. Nevertheless, the motor development of a child up to the age of 4 will have a positive impact on the child’s cognitive capacity in terms of working memory capacity and the ability to solve problems from the age of 6 to the age of 11. But the facilitation of the development of the motor skills of very young children will also facilitate the lifelong development of cognitive ability. There is therefore the possibility that the development of cognition from a very young age to adulthood and beyond may follow in sequential stages.