Cognitive thinking refers to the mental processes of knowing, learning, understanding, and problem-solving, involving skills like paying attention, remembering, reasoning, judging, and comprehending information to make decisions and form knowledge. It's how your brain takes in data, processes it through neurons, and turns it into useful actions, impacting everything from learning a new skill to navigating daily life.

Key Stages & Skills

• Early Childhood (Birth - 5 years): Learning through senses, developing object permanence (peekaboo), symbolic thinking (pretend play), basic counting, shape/color recognition, and language.

• School Age (6 - 12 years - Concrete Operations): Thinking logically about concrete events, combining/separating/ordering objects (math), understanding conservation (mass/volume), and multiple viewpoints.

• Adolescence (12+ years - Formal Operations): Developing abstract thinking, hypothetical reasoning, deductive logic, considering multiple perspectives, and understanding moral/ethical issues.

Examples of Cognitive Skills

• Memory & Attention: Focusing on tasks, recalling information.
• Problem-Solving: Following recipes, playing games, building with blocks.
• Language: Understanding and using words, stories, and instructions.
• Metacognition: Thinking about one's own thought processes (later adolescence).

Key Stages & Skills

• Early Childhood (Birth - 5 years): Learning through senses, developing object permanence (peekaboo), symbolic thinking (pretend play), basic counting, shape/color recognition, and language.

How we support Congnitive Thinking

• Talk about experiences, read books, ask open-ended questions.
• Provide opportunities for sorting, building, and pretend play.
• Follow routines to help children predict activities.