Activities for 4 year olds that promote cognitive development
20 Preschool Cognitive Development Activities
It may seem strange, but video game music has been proven to support concentration and cognitive development. After all, the songs were developed for people to be able to solve tricky puzzles and figure out complex levels in video games. These are also great to play with in the background as children are doing other activities.
Learn more: The Protector
Video Games for Cognitive Development
6. Monster Mansion Match
Contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing as healthy screen time. It may seem like having preschoolers play video games is not an effective way to build cognitive development skills, but studies have shown that games like Monster Mansion Match actually help develop these critical skills! Play this matching game to develop their visual memory and pattern recognition skills!
Learn more: ABCYa
7.
This fun game has children explore the city and practice both logical thinking and critical thinking as they help different creatures that live in the city solve problems. These skills are especially important as they develop those complex thinking processes they will use as they grow older.
Learn more: Plum Landing
8. Finding Feelings
Another important aspect of cognitive development is emotional growth. During these foundational years, children learn to read and understand the emotions of others. Promote that with this fun, engaging game using some of their favorite characters!
Learn more: Nick Jr.
9. Make Your Own Pattern
If you want to play a memory game, look no further than this game that focuses on remembering patterns. Pattern-building games are great for cognitive development. This fun game will have children engaged as they create their own patterns using animals in train cars!
Learn more: Education
10.
Color by Letter Studies show that colors carry significance in children's cognitive development. Have them play this game to create beautiful, colorful pictures while learning their colors and their alphabet! This simple game is wonderful to add to any toolbox of cognitive development games.
Learn more: Turtle Diary
Cognitive Development Activities
11. Playing with Blocks
Playing with blocks has been proven to be beneficial to cognitive development for many reasons, including divergent thinking and logical reasoning. Kids will think they are just playing a game, but in reality, they will be cementing these critical skills.
Learn more: Gigi Bloks
12. I Spy
I Spy is a great game to play for the development of memory by searching for hidden items. Playing I Spy outside in the physical world also helps with spatial recognition and attention span! It is an easy game to incorporate into your everyday routine by having children look for everyday items around the classroom.
Learn more: Scholastic
13. Morning, Day, and Night
Another cognitive development skill that develops during these critical years is the concept of time. Use this activity that has children match different activities with the time of day in which they do routine activities such as brushing their teeth! Encourage proper development of this skill by regularly mentioning the time throughout the day.
Learn more: Proud to be Primary
14. Puzzles
Doing age-appropriate puzzles is a great way to promote cognitive growth! Puzzles teach children the valuable skills of choice and strategy as they use their brains to complete each. As children get better, move them onto more complex puzzles to even further work those brain muscles!
Learn more: Momtastic
15. Riddles and Jokes
Another simple activity to develop cognitive skills is telling riddles and jokes. In childhood development, around this age children are developing a sense of humor and will love when you tell them jokes.
Doing so encourages cognitive flexibility and executive function, and children won't even realize it, as they will be laughing and having fun!
Learn more: Ducksters
16. Jumping Rope
This simple physical activity is great for boosting memory and teaching awareness of surroundings. The above link provides a number of different physical games to play with jump ropes for both gross motor coordination and brain growth!
Learn more: Very Well Family
17. Card Games
Playing simple card games is beneficial to children for many reasons. Not only do they help with cognitive development, but they are also important for developing social skills as well. Play the games listed and as time goes on, teach them more complex games to even further their learning.
Learn more: Novita
18. Read
Children have lots of questions, and this is mostly because they have limited experience in the world.
Reading helps develop important skills by giving children background information about the world around them, allowing them to make sense of their worlds.
Learn more: All 4 Kids
19. Sand Play
Children learn a variety of skills through playing in the sand that we don't even realize they're learning! From hand-eye coordination to fine motor development, playing in the sand is a great way for children to learn as they play.
Learn more: Empowered Parents
20. Obstacle Courses
Using hula hoops, yardsticks, and anything else you have laying around, create obstacle courses for children to run through. These are great for gross motor development as well as getting out all the wiggles and giggles!
Learn more: Empowered Parents
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How programming in grades 1-4 contributes to the development of a child’s cognitive abilities — Pixel Programming School on vc.
ru We are ready to answer the main question: “Will children become recluses if they study coding?” We tell you what effect programming has on the development of a child.
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In today's world, programming has climbed to the top of professions. However, coding is not only a good direction for the future career of the guys, but also a great way to improve their various abilities. There are programming sections for children in Moscow, after attending which your kid will become a young developer, and will also do better in related classes, meet new friends and develop cognitive skills.
High-quality training and pumping of various skills can be obtained at the Pixel programming school for children. In the courses, children from the age of 6 get acquainted with robotics, children's (block) and adult (in some language) types of coding and develop their other abilities. If you are still thinking about whether to send your child to an IT circle and want to know how such education will affect his cognitive functions, read our article.
How does programming affect a child's development in different areas?
With the classical approach to education, children are taught programming more often closer to the upper grades. Usually these are computer science lessons, where already quite adult children master coding languages, programs and get acquainted with the history of IT technologies. However, ideally, such subjects should be included in the curriculum already in the lower grades, and here's why.
There is already a certain base of scientific research in this respect. So, for example, in the work of authors from Greece, it was proved that programming in elementary school has positive factors influencing the child. The positive effect is manifested not only on teaching technical subjects, but also on progress in more humanitarian areas (social science, foreign languages). The mechanism is this: thanks to coding, children develop analytical thinking, and this type of thinking, in turn, pumps skills in other areas.
In other words, the guys attend a programming club for children in Moscow - they remember historical dates well and understand the syntax in English better.
Features of the influence of programming on the child and his cognitive development?
Parents often do not prioritize the development of their children's analytical/math skills. They pay attention only to sports, music, drawing from an early age, and leave the technical areas for later. And in the worst case scenario, adults even evaluate IT as something harmful: after all, children will constantly sit, this will affect the correct posture and worsen vision. Such anxieties are understandable, but with a balance of physical activity and mental activity, negative consequences can be avoided. Another good help is a comfortable chair and a table with a verified height for the height of the baby.
Another paper traces the connection between programming and the development of the child's brain. In 2019, scientists from Italy observed elementary school students who mastered coding.
They noticed that it became much easier for these guys to solve computational problems. In addition, scientists noticed a cognitive effect: the children improved such executive functions as planning and inhibition. Thanks to such an influence of coding on the psyche, children with ADHD will increase concentration and perseverance in solving various problems.
In addition, programming courses for children from an early age, already from the age of 6, contribute to the development of two more abilities:
- Finding solutions to different types of problems. Programming is a kind of challenge. And even young coders will understand this literally from the first lessons. After all, they will have to look for ways out for IT situations, think comprehensively and use several cognitive zones at once. Therefore, children who attend a programming circle for children from an early age learn more easily in other subjects, as they have a developed skill in finding solutions.
It is enough for them to simply transfer this skill from digital lessons to other classes or to ordinary life. This is also taught in specialized schools. - Creative thinking. Despite the fact that in programming classes children do not write music or draw canvases, but in the digital world they are also addicted to the process, fantasize and come up with unusual concepts. The IT universe has a big plus for innovation: creativity there is limited only by the imagination of the kid. He will have more space in the process of creation. By inventing a game, 3D animation or chatbot, children will involuntarily improve their creative thinking and quick wits.
Stress and teaching children to code
According to American scientists, younger students studying coding better choose the right coping strategy (coping with a difficult condition) and therefore cope with stress faster. This study highlights the reasons for this effect.
Learning to code increases motivation to work, develops perseverance and teaches you not to give up. These skills later on help children solve problems instead of avoiding them and procrastinating. This approach to life reduces the amount of problems in a given period of time and, unlike peers, helps to better cope with stressful situations. Strategic thinking and adaptive skills developed since childhood will help an adult to avoid unnecessary anxiety, burnout, panic attacks and external negative influence of the environment on the psyche in the future.
Practical approach to programming courses for children
Coding has another important advantage for children - it is convenient to learn it in practice. And this approach will be even more productive, because it involves the active immersion of the children immediately into the program or work environment. In programming schools for children, through actions, through intense activity, kids learn to interact with coding languages, block designers, parts, robots, etc.
Such a practical approach allows children to get acquainted with the IT sphere, sometimes even without a teacher, parent or mentor. It is enough to start clicking on all the buttons in the program yourself and see what happens. This not only increases independence, but also eliminates the fear that you will be reprimanded. I clicked in the wrong place - it's okay, you just learn from mistakes. With such training, the teacher can only occasionally guide the child or engage with him for a more in-depth understanding of already familiar material.
Summing up, we note that coding itself is an excellent tool for the development of the child's brain. Your baby will not become more closed and less socialized. But rather, on the contrary, he will find like-minded people, create his own project and present it to the audience, learn coping strategies, have fun and have a good time. You can put aside unnecessary fears and safely send children to IT courses even from the age of 6, for example, to the Pixel programming school for children.
Before enrolling your child, you can check out our free YouTube video tutorials. Thanks to them, the kid will decide which direction suits him best and understand which specialization in IT to choose.
Child's Cognitive Development Through Play
Reading and writing are important milestones in a child's development, the effectiveness of which depends on the child's ability to learn. There are cases when reading difficulties are due to the fact that the child quickly forgets the meaning of what he read, cannot combine letters into syllables or syllables into words. The general cognitive development of a preschool child is an effective prevention of developmental problems and the key to successful learning, including learning to read.
Let's explore some games and exercises for memory, thinking and attention development in preschool children.
The best way to stimulate a child's cognitive development is through games, homework, and special activities in kindergarten.
Faced with the need to remember something, the child begins to look for ways to remember it.
Images usually make it easier for children to memorize material because their visual memory dominates other types of memory. Given this, it is important not to overload the baby with a large amount of verbal information. Learn short nursery rhymes by heart, reading and retelling stories and stories is enough.
Songs and poems for children in German
Game “What is missing?”.
Requires 3 to 7 small items to play (depending on the age of the children), such as animal figurines. It is better to play alone or in a group of no more than three children. Put the figures in a row, name them and discuss with the child. Then, ask the baby to close his eyes, and remove one figure yourself. This game is suitable for children from 3 years old.
Exercise "Remember and name".
To do this exercise, find a picture, for example, of children playing. Show it to the child and name the objects shown in the picture describing them.
After that, hide the picture and ask the child: “Remember what you saw in the picture?”. If difficulties arise, you can help your child by asking guiding questions. For children from 4 years old.
Game "What's in the bag?"
Requires a small bag and 3 to 8 small items, eg balloon, bell, pencil, walnut. Looking at objects, the child builds associations, for example, a ball looks like the sun, a pencil looks like a stick. After that, all the objects are collected back into the bag and the child is asked to name the objects according to their associations: the sun - a ball, a stick - a pencil, and so on. For children from 4 years old.
Development of logical thinking
The ability to build logical connections between objects and notice cause-and-effect relationships is an important condition for a child's intellectual development. Daily communication with the child and his involvement in various activities is necessary for the cognitive development of the child.
Additional games and exercises will facilitate the assimilation of new learning materials in the future.
The game "4th extra".
Find the misplaced image in the line.
Game "Find a couple".
Find a pair of an object or a relationship between several objects (by purpose or value).
Association game.
Children are invited to continue the semantic series, try to say the last word.
Wolf - rabbit, cat - ...
Fast - faster, slower - ...
Fox - small fox, wolf - ...
Squirrel - nuts, bear - ...
Forest - trees, field - ...
Coat - winter, shorts -…
Sea - water, land - ...
Water - faucet, light - ...
Teacher - school, tutor - ...
Game "Continue drawing".
The child is given a card with a certain sequence of geometric shapes and is asked to identify the pattern and continue it independently. For example, circle - square - circle - square: what's next? Gradually, the patterns become more complex in terms of color, size, number of shapes in the pattern, etc.
Game "Fable".
Look at the pictures and discuss with your child what actually exists in real life and what doesn't. Variant for the game: who can find more ridiculous things.
Game "Fable"
Solving puzzles and riddles are also useful for the development of children's thinking processes.
Computer games can also help develop thinking. For example, Minecraft is a truly educational game: it develops spatial thinking, mathematical and logical abilities, and includes solving various problems by building algorithms.
How to develop attention.
The following games are recommended for children over 5 years of age.
Find and cross out game.
There are special tables for this game, but if they are not there, it doesn't matter! Old magazines or newspapers are also fine. You will need a marker. Within 5 minutes, children cross out letters, for example, "A" or geometric shapes from the text.
Don't say yes and no.
The child is asked to answer several questions, but each time in a different way, without using forbidden words (eg "Yes", "No", "Black" and "White", etc.). The adult asks questions that involve the use of a forbidden word, such as "What color is the doctor's coat?". The child must answer following the rules and not naming "stop words". When someone makes a mistake, the roles are reversed. The game starts with one "stop word", gradually introducing others.
Find the difference game.
To play the game, prepare a pair of pictures containing 5 to 15 different elements. The child must look at the pictures to find all the differences.
Cognitive development of the child
There is an unlimited number of games. Each parent and teacher can come up with their own games for the further cognitive development of the child. The main task of adults is to support and stimulate the curiosity and cognitive activity of children, stimulate their interest in various areas of life, and satisfy the need for knowledge.
