Ensuring their kids grow up strong and healthy is a lifelong task all parents shoulder as soon as they lay eyes on them. Naturally, it’s best to start while they’re still young since their bodies are still adjusting. Given how delicate that makes children, their adjustment period may not bode well for their physical well-being. However, the same can’t be said for their cognitive abilities.
With how fresh their minds are, children have an easier time absorbing new information than adults. Although that may seem like a good thing, their ability to learn quickly is a double-edged sword. Their brains will retain everything they’ve learned from their interactions, even if they’re playing. That’s why using technology at an extremely young age could affect their well-being in the long run.
Here are some games and activities that ensure your kids’ cognition develops healthily:
- Hiding Games
Object permanence is one of the earliest developmental milestones that babies must overcome to start curbing their cognition. It is demonstrated when you hide something from them, and they quickly get confused about where it disappeared, even if you only have it behind your back. And because they’re confused, that can only escalate into a temper tantrum.
Playing peek-a-boo is an excellent starting point for honing their object permanence. Because even though all you’re doing is hiding your face behind your hands, babies easily forget what you look like as soon as you’re ‘out of sight.’ Do this while they’re still a few months old to train their memory and recognition.
When they’re toddlers, teach them how to play hide-and-seek. Let them be the seeker to help hone their object permanence once they take one step further. However, this involves much more space than peek-a-boo, so ensure you only play this in a small area. Otherwise, your kid might wander off, looking for you.
- Playing Puzzles
Puzzles have an all-around benefit for children’s development. Because aside from honing their motor skills, playing puzzles can also train their cognition to broaden and hone their mental capacity. However, with a wide variety available, different puzzles exercise different aspects of your kid’s development, especially cognition-wise.
Out of all the puzzles, having the largest selection of jigsaw puzzles in your arsenal is the best starting point for developing children’s mental capacity. After all, jigsaw puzzles encourage children to look for clues in each puzzle piece and connect the image they’re creating. And based on how these pieces are positioned in space, they can even start familiarizing themselves with their spatial relations, among other things.
- Explore New Places
Children are notorious for being curious about everything they lay their eyes on. Since they’re still getting used to their bodies and everything they see, even something as simple as turning the faucet might blow their minds. However, for parents who want to take it one step further, encourage kids to get out more.
The more sights they see, the more stimulated their sensory experience gets. After all, experiencing new sceneries is one way you can broaden your kid’s cognition. Accompany them by taking short trips nearby the house. Be sure to keep an eye on them when traveling somewhere farther. Although it doesn’t hurt to make new memories while they cultivate their minds, so use this opportunity to enjoy your time together.
- Singing
Music is extremely effective when it comes to cognition. Similar to playing puzzles, singing songs also work all around since it hones the child’s motor skills, especially when it pairs with dancing while letting them learn how to listen and language comprehension simultaneously. Using simple rhymes for song lyrics with a catchy rhythm would be enough to get them started.
- Doing Arts And Crafts
Having the freedom to express themselves lets children’s creativity run wild. And considering how many materials and mediums can be used for arts and crafts, the sky’s the limit once they learn how to manipulate them properly to express whatever’s running through their minds. All you have to do is be mindful of the materials they need for their craft to avoid any allergic reactions.
- Sleeping
Sleep must still take priority no matter what kind of games you’ve subjected your kid to. After all, it gets extremely exhausting to process so much information. Be consistent when establishing a sleep schedule, and let them get used to the routine.
Avoid letting them use gadgets to help them find sleep when they’re having trouble falling asleep. Otherwise, their cognitive functions might keep looking for that habit constantly. Because of how many processes benefit from it, sleeping properly encourages children to reach milestone after milestone when growing older.
Takeaway
Raising your children to be the best individuals possible in the future is any good parent’s lifelong dream. However, this can only be possible when parents are vigilant in providing for them, especially while they’re extremely young. Among the developmental milestones they’ll experience day after day is how well their cognition is cultivated. Fortunately, there are many ways for parents to accomplish that over time.