Cognitive skills are extremely important to develop during the early years of life as they help your brain think, read, learn, reason, pay attention and remember. These skills help process incoming information and distribute it to the appropriate areas of the brain. Improving and mastering these skills results in a better and easier experience in school by being able to understand and complete tasks successfully.
Furthermore, as children continue to learn and improve their abilities, these skills also come in handy in their professional and personal lives.
Below are the nine cognitive skills every child should develop.
Cognitive Skills
Sustained Attention
Allows a child to stay focused on a single task for long periods of time.
Selective Attention
Allows a child to place their focus on one single task despite other distractions around them. An example of this is doing their homework when the television is on and avoid getting distracted by it.
Divided Attention
On the other hand, divided attention allows a child to multitask and perform two tasks at once without forgetting information about either action.
Long-Term Memory
This allows children to retain information from the past. This cognitive skill is crucial when taking tests, or recalling formulas, or names during school activities.
Working Memory
Working memory allows children to retain information while using it. This is helpful when following a series of instructions without having to stop and look back at the tasks over and over again.
Logic and Reasoning
Improving this skill will result in better problem solving and idea generation. This ability will also reduce the sense of feeling overwhelmed when presented with difficult situations.
Auditory Processing
This critical skill allows a child’s brain to better analyze, blend, and segment information. Auditory processing is especially useful when learning to read by helping better understand the information being presented.
Visual Processing
Just like auditory processing, visual processing helps interpret visual information better. Things such as images, maps, graphs, and tables will be much easier to analyze and understand.
Processing Speed
Performing tasks faster and accurately is a result of processing speed ability. Children will be able to interpret information faster and improve productivity in school tasks.
Learning with International School of Arizona
While developing all these cognitive skills will improve a child’s academic experience and performance, it is important to understand that every child learns at their own pace and will excel in some areas more than others. At the International School of Arizona, we specialize in education beginning with PK1 all the way to 8th grade. We focus on immersion in French and Spanish language programs. With over 22 years of bilingual education experience, we can help your child develop and improve their cognitive skills while giving them the gift of a second language. Contact us today to learn more.
