Cognitive Development

Cognitive development in infancy and toddlerhood refers to how children think, explore, and make sense of their environment. According to Piaget, infants begin in the sensorimotor stage, where learning occurs through sensory experiences, movement, and repeated actions that help them form schemas and understand cause-and-effect relationships. As toddlers grow, they start to demonstrate early symbolic thinking through imitation, problem-solving, and pretend play (Piaget, as cited in Garvis et al., 2018).

The first three years are when the brain grows most rapidly, making this a critical time for cognitive stimulation, with infants and toddlers benefiting most from sensory-rich, repetitive, problem-solving, and symbolic play opportunities (Kaywork, 2019)

Teaching Competencies to Support Cognition

Responding to children’s cues through modelling, imitation, and narration of thinking.

Designing sensory-rich environments that support schema exploration such as transporting, connecting, or rotating.

Offering open-ended materials that encourage investigation, classification, and problem-solving.

Engaging in sustained shared thinking by asking open questions, extending ideas, and co-constructing knowledge with children.

Authentic Curriculum Provision

Language and literacy: reading interactive books, naming actions, prompting prediction.

STEM: water play, ramps, nesting cups, puzzles, and simple experiments that promote cause-and-effect learning.

Arts: sensory painting, sound-making, pretend play supporting symbolic representation.

Wellbeing: consistent routines that build memory, sequencing, and understanding of time.

Original Learning Opportunities

0–12 months – Sensory Treasure Basket:

Natural objects like pinecones, wooden spoons, and smooth stones offer varied textures and sounds, helping infants develop their senses, form schemas, and understand basic object properties.

12–24 months – Water Exploration Station:

Using containers, scoops, and funnels, toddlers pour and transfer water, observing splashes and changing levels. This supports cause-and-effect reasoning, attention, and persistence through repeated actions.

2–3 years – Loose Parts Construction Challenge:

With tubes, boxes, and lids, children build freely, developing planning, symbolic thinking, early engineering skills, and creativity as they design and problem-solve through open-ended construction