Lesson 8- Factors Affecting Cognitive Development

Introduction
Our purpose for trying to understand the factors that affect cognitive development would be to
be able to understand ourselves, to understand the children we work with or the children in our
families, to be able to detect if anything the wrong or if a child is at risk for developmental delays, to be
able to minimize exposure to detrimental factors, and to provide environments, materials and
experiences that could promote cognitive development.

THINK
Cognitive development is said to encompass both mental and emotional growth There are
many factors that could affect the progress of cognitive development in children. Similar to what affects
the physical development of children, these factors can be biological and environmental.

4.1 Biological Factors

Biological factors that could affect cognitive development include the condition of our sense
organs, our intelligence, heredity, maturation, and presence of genetic health problems. Many times,
the biological factors are things we cannot control.

Sense organs. Our sense organs are the point of entry of information we receive from the
environment. They allow us to recognize and make sense of things and events easily. Children with
disabilities in sense organs can have slower cognitive development compared to children who have
normal sense organs. If there is anything wrong with our sense organs, this could affect the input of
information, and that affects our cognitive development. This is why children with hearing impairment
or visual impairment are given special devices or training, to be able to receive as much information
from the environment as possible.

Intelligence. In terms of intelligence, usually children born with higher intelligence learn things
faster. Higher IQ affects mental capacities, like understanding information given and problem-solving.
Children with lower intelligence quotient may not be able to absorb concepts or sufficient stimuli from
the environment even if there is nothing wrong with their senses.

Heredity. Genetics play an important role in Intelligence is inherited from the parents.

If and when a child inherits a hereditary disease from his/her parents, this may affect his/her
health, and thus, his/her opportunities for cognitive development might be affected, like if chronic
illnesses cause a child to be absent from school for so many days. Common examples of hereditary
diseases include cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and muscular dystrophy. Asthma can be genetic, but not all
cases of asthma are inherited. Just like type 1 diabetes, even type2 diabetes is inherited. This means that
the genes may be inherited, so that a person has the predisposition- to develop type 2 diabetes. Not
everyone who inherits the genes for type 2 diabetes will develop it, so if there is any history of this
disease in your family, one must be careful about his/her food intake, because this person has a 3. big
chance of developing the disease.

Maturation. As the child grows up, he/she matures cognitively. At the same time, as his/her
motor development also continues, his/her ability to interact earn from the environment also increases.

4.2 Environmental Factors

Environmental factors that could affect cognitive development include family, and society,
socioeconomic status, play, learning opportunities, and various stimuli. These factors may be
enumerated as individual factors, but in reality, these are interrelated to one another. At times, the
environmental factors that affect cognitive development can be controlled.

Family and society. A loving environment is very important for cognitive development.
Providing a child with both physical and verbal expressions of love boosts a child's self-confidence. This
allows him/her to focus on other aspects of development because he/she does not have to spend time
looking for love and approval. When a child is given hugs, kissed, and touched in general, he/she realizes
that expressions of affection and use of body language is a means of communication.

The child's family and society around him/her can create opportunities for cognitive
development of the child. His/her family and friends are also sources of learning through their
interactive communication, learning from each other, by providing scaffolding and encouragement as
needed, and by modeling behavior. If a family lives an active, healthy lifestyle, this could help not just
physical development, but cognitive development as well. If a family is surrounded by drug addiction
and alcohol, this affects both physical and cognitive development.

Naturally, the members of a family and society would like to contribute to the development of
the child in various ways. Some families may want to provide attachment security. good nutrition, good
playmates, plenty of stimulation, a spiritual pathway, or probably a trust fund so the child has resources
when he/she gets older. However, these things that the family would like to provide really depends on
location, or where the family lives or what part of the world this child is growing. These family and
society factors are much related to context, as well as poverty, nutrition, and so on.

In other words, what a family, neighborhood, society, or nation a child belongs to defines the
context. Usually, if a child lives in a Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic nation,
adults in the family or society think about the child as an individual and plan how to care for the
independent, individual child. In other countries, children are taught about the significance of social
responsibility and collaborative learning caring for members of the community.

In other countries, there is multiple caretaking of children. Children are raised by many different
people in the community so that care is distributed. Children are attached not just to one person, but to
a social setting where care is socially distributed. However, if those communities have a very harsh and
toxic environment with chaotic family situations, extreme poverty, oppression, inequality. and
uncertainty, these would affect cognitive development in a negative way.

Gender also can be an issue in societies where girls' lives are likely to diverge from boys as they
both grow older. In some countries only boys were allowed to go to school. In others, women were not
allowed to work in establishments where there are men working. Here, institutions that children grow
into are different. Marriage can be group-arranged, and inheritance (or trust fund) can only be given to
boys, or only to the eldest child in the family.

Family structure affects cognitive development. When a child is born in an extended family or in
a single-parent household. child-adult interaction varies, being in contact with several people or being
isolated. Children who interact with different people usually are brighter and have better confidence,
compared to children who interact with less people, Interaction with other people helps build language,
reading and speaking skills, also thinking skills.

Therefore, it is important to consider where the child is living, because the family and society to
which a child belongs to would affect cognitive development.

Socioeconomic status. Usually, a child born to a family of middle to high socioeconomic status
(SES) is given. more access to opportunities to learn. Children in higher SES families may be exposed to
more training and hobbies that could affect cognitive development, like sports, dance, art, classical
music, and so on. It is also possible that their parents (or other adult) have more time to teach these
children and interact with them. This stimulates cognitive development as well. These children usually
have more nutritional meals compared to those in poor families.

Children born in poverty could have lower test and school outcome. They also experience
growth problems, like stunted growth, poor hygiene, intestinal disease, and depression among others.

Nutrition. Poverty, especially malnutrition, can be detrimental to cognitive development.

Although malnutrition can also be found in children in high SES families, as in the case of obesity.
Women who do not consume enough amounts of protein during their pregnancy could ruin chances for
normal cognitive development of their baby. This is because protein has an essential role in the
development of the brain. Consequently, if a mother consumes alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, this
would lead to detrimental effects on cognitive development. If a mother lacks iodine while pregnant,
this could lead to hypothyroidism in the mother and possibly congenital thyroid deficiency in the child.
This leads to cretinism, with associated physical deformities and intellectual disability. Consequently, if
the mothers healthy, researches show that babies who have been breastfed for the first six months of
their lives have better and faster cognitive development compared to those who were not.

Play. A child learns about the things around him/her through play. When given the opportunity
to play, children have more chances for cognitive development. Play is an opportunity to develop
thinking skills, like analysis and generalization through explorations, experimentations, and trial and
error. Exposure to educational toys helps develop abilities to recognize colors, letters, and numbers.
Playing with other children helps language development and social skills as well. This also could develop
language, concentration, creativity, logical thinking, and abstract thinking. Play also helps develop motor
skills like eye-hand coordination, motor functions, and special awareness. Memory games, and all sorts
of puzzles, help develop not just memory, but also visual, auditory, and kinesthetic ability, logical
thinking, and pattern recognition.

Aside from that, physical activity and sports are very important for cognitive development.
Physical exercise helps blood circulation, bringing well-oxygenated blood to the brain. Research shows
that physical exercise improves brain functions, like focus, attention, memory, and decision-making.

Also developed are motor skills, which are functions of the brain involving muscle movement
and coordination. This establishes better synaptic connections that help speed up muscle nerve
response. As a child matures, motor development relies on more efficient information processing skills,
like balance, flexibility, force, and agility; running, kicking, throwing, and quick decision-making skills, like
rapid changing directions while running, deciding where to throw the ball or who to pass it to, and so on.
Playing team sports also involves socioemotional skill. Socioemotional development will be
discussed in another module. Teamwork is crucial in team sports, accepting responsibilities,
sportsmanship, and leadership. hot. Sports also develop self-esteem, confidence, problem-soling skills,
decision- making skills, and learning some tactics and strategies for winning.

Child-friendly educational computer and or online math and word games can be a source of
learning, practice for memory retrieval, decision-making, and reaction speed.

Learning opportunities. If a child is given more opportunities to. learn, then he/she has more
chances of increasing his/her mental capacity. Getting a scholarship to learn in school or to get training
of some sort alleviates the negative affects of poverty on cognitive development.

Various stimuli. When a child is exposed to different languages, this helps them perceive
different symbols and concepts, Some say exposure to classical music, art, and playing musical
instruments can help in cognitive development. Listening to music can help relieve stress and create a
positive environment for cognitive development. Playing musical instruments, like drums, piano, violin,
and so on, have the same benefit plus development of motor skills, concentration, eye- hand
coordination, memory, imagination, and creativity.

Growing up in a village where people do farming, fishing. carpentry, or whatever industry

surrounds the child. affects cognitive development as well.

Reading age-appropriate reading materials, through stories and learning facts, improves
visualization skills and imagination, helps in language development, and enhances verbal skills. Print
material for younger children usually have large images, covering almost the whole page, with plenty of
color and little text. Print material for older children have a smaller proportion of image to text, and
some pages have no pictures at all. Videos and films may be a little more passive and may require less
mental activity compared to reading.

Exposure to books, educational materials, and toys, especially starting at an early age, can
significantly affect cognitive development.
 Too much exposure to television, passively just watching, tends to reduce the opportunities for
cognitive development.

Sleep. It is best to have a good night's sleep. This is good not just for the body and the brain, it is
also good for cognitive development since this allows time for processing of information acquired during
the day. Bedtime, just before going to sleep, is also a good opportunity for parents to show affection and
do some communication with their children. Bedtime stories could possibly establish closer bonds and
stir creativity and imagination among the children.

Stress. Although sources of stress may be classified in the previous category of various stimuli,
let us recall what we discussed about stress in the development of the brain, emphasize that it also
affects cognitive development. A healthy relationship between the caregiver and the child builds a
healthy foundation for future development. This is not necessarily associated with socioeconomic
status. As long as there are caring adults around a child, no matter what socioeconomic status, language
and cognitive development are affected positively.

Recall also that there are good kinds of stress and bad kinds of stress. An example of good stress
is meeting new people or preparing to take a test. These are healthy for cognitive development because
these prepare children to cope for future challenges. However, bad stress or "toxic stress" has a
negative effect on -brain development, like chronic exposure to hardships, parental drug addiction,
physical, mental, and emotional abuse or domestic violence, famine, and neglect,

Other sources of toxic stress could be divorce, war, natural disasters, a fast. paced changing
world, teenage pregnancy, eating disorders, AIDS, suicide, and so on. It is recommended that when
teachers suspect cases of child abuse they should help students cope or refer them to guidance
counselors and other authorities who can help.

Context. Although some hobbies and sports help improve focus and help cognitive development
in general, some people might think playing computer games and certain executive function apps
specifically designed to improve cognition would actually improve cognition. Others might think playing
games like chess, practicing a certain way, or doing problem-solving games could significantly promote
cognitive development, But this way of exercising the brain is a very narrow way. This is because these
games and exercises are outside the real-world context in which executive function or mental capacities
are actually used.

We can train a child to do sorting or classifying games until he/she improves in this skill. But for
significant cognitive development, the child will have to decide more than just classifying things
according to shape, and then shifting to classifying by color, then shifting to classifying by size. He/she
will need to be able to decide switching from adding to multiplying, or deciding from continuously
playing and switching to packing away his/her toys; whether to play first or finish his/her homework
first, whether to eat a sweet donut or to eat fruits and vegetables instead. He/she may have to decide
whether to continue whatever it is he/she is doing or go to sleep already at a particular time of the
night. He/she may have to decide to switch from thinking about his/her personal feelings, to thinking
about the point of view of his/her friends.

Success in the real-world context, depends on how motivated you are, and what your peers are
doing. It also depends on strategies that you adapt when using your mental capacities or your executive
function. Like if you want to learn a particular language, it would help if you surround yourself with
people who also want to learn that language. You can learn from each other and motivate each other. If
you belong to a group that has patience for delayed gratification, or perseverance and motivation to
learn, then most likely, you would exhibit the same traits and nave the opportunity to learn better.

Or, fr you want to help a child to do better doing his/her math homework, you can teach the
child strategies to help him/her concentrate, like learning to keep his/her cellphone or his/her toys out
of arms reach until he/she finishes his/ her homework, or after one hour of study. You might think there
is an injection of behaviorism here, although it may be true to some degree, the actual aim here is to
learn how to remove distractions, so the opportunity for cognitive development is facilitated.

It does not mean though that context if everything. Cognition and executive function are
complex. Modifying a child's environment can help in cognitive development. Learning some strategies
to help himself/herself in a particular situation or in a particular context also helps. As a teacher,
understanding this helps you in making decisions on class placement, seating arrangements,
instructional strategies, and materials to be used, accommodations for students with special needs, and
curriculum planning and implementation.