CAREGIVERS CAN PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE STIMULATION BY CREATING LANGUAGE-RICH ENVIRONMENTS AND ENGAGING THEM IN ACTIVITIES THAT STIMULATE LEARNING.

Cognitive development refers to growth in mental processes associated with perception, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, language-learning, and other aspects of brain development that occur with increasing age. Typical cognitive development can be defined as expected gains in language, thinking and understanding.

Neuroscience has shown that brain development is rapid in the first years of life. Additionally, environmental factors can alter brain architecture and biological function. The brain is relatively malleable (plastic) in the early years. As such, young children are more open to learning and enriching experiences, shaping typical cognitive development.

Active inquiry and learning are children's natural inclinations. They are not only “ready to learn” but already actively learning when they are born. From birth, children’s minds are active and inquisitive, and early thinking is insightful and complex. Adults can foster cognitive growth by supporting children's active engagement with new experiences and providing developmentally appropriate stimulation of new learning through responsive, secure, and sustained caregiving relationships.

Providing opportunities for babies to explore and discover has a long-term impact on their current and later cognitive development. A longitudinal study of 130 infants of 5 to 19 months old found that babies who develop more efficient ways to explore objects were more likely to display higher cognitive development and intelligence at three years old.

Exploration and cognitive development are causally related. Studies have found that smarter babies might explore more efficiently or efficient exploration might contribute to intelligence.

Studies have shown that parents who understand their children, and are equipped with skills to interact with them, can develop their cognitive abilities beyond the schooling years. In a systematic review of 111 studies held in 40 developing countries, studies of early intervention efforts among lower-income families showed that early childhood interventions can have a reliable and positive effect on cognitive development.

It also showed that parent-focused interventions may cause beneficial changes in parents, which are consequently reflected in their relationships with their children and the general atmosphere of the home. This contextual change may promote continuous cognitive development and support children’s learning beyond the intervention period.

Another longitudinal study of a low-income sample made up of 2,089 children and families in the Early Head Start Programme in USA, found that family resources and parenting quality uniquely contributed to children’s cognitive performance at 14, 24, and 36 months. Parenting quality was shown to mediate the effects of family resources on children’s performance at all ages.

Parental cognitive stimulation can be defined as “parents’ didactic efforts to enrich their children’s cognitive and language development by engaging them in activities that promote learning and by offering language-rich environments to their children”. It has also been identified as a predictor of children’s later cognitive abilities.

Short-term interventions were effective for children under 18 months, but interventions that lasted at least two years were shown to have sustainable positive effects on older children.

Parenting has traditionally been thought of as an external influence that affects child development. However, studies have shown that children can also influence the quality of parenting that they receive.

Children who receive cognitive stimulation earlier in life are more likely to influence parents to provide cognitive stimulation in later life. Longitudinal data from 650 identical and fraternal twins (1,300 babies) found that cognitive stimulation by parents at two years, as coded from video-recorded behaviours during a dyadic task, predicted subsequent reading ability at age four years.

Moreover, controlling for cognitive stimulation at two years, children’s cognitive ability predicted the quality of stimulation received from their parents at four years.

Genetic and environmental factors differentially contributed to these effects. Parenting practices were co-related with subsequent cognitive development through a family-level environmental pathway. In contrast, children’s cognitive ability could be impacted by subsequent parenting through a genetic pathway. These results suggest that genetic influences on cognitive development occur through a transactional process, in which genetic predispositions lead children to evoke cognitively stimulating experiences from their environments.