Role That Parents or Carers Play in Promoting Childrens Cognitive Development - Research Paper Example

PSYCHOLOGY Topic: Role Parents/Carers Play in Promoting Children’s Cognitive Development. The notion of parents andcarers influence with regards to cognitive development as well as school achievement has a great instinctive appeal and has also been made popular in educational practice. Majority of the educators have now acknowledged the importance of the role of parents and carers in the children’s cognitive development. Due to the importance that is attributed to the parents and carers, specific needs in which both the parents and carers may influence the children’s intellectual development must be delineated. Studies regarding the role of parents and carers have proven to be timely due to the fact that most families are undergoing some changes such as the increased participation of most mothers in the workforce as well as the increased participation of most fathers in child rearing. This report discusses the role of parents and carers in the children’s cognitive development with emphasis on the development of intelligence. The research studies that are reviewed simply illustrate some main conceptualizations of the parents and carers role on intellectual growth as well as achievement. The concept of social development is also intimately related to intellectual development as well as school achievements. There have been some introductions of a variety of parent programs which have been introduced in order to enhance the children’s cognitive development. These programs are noted as important applications towardsthe knowledge that is already in existence. Introduction Parents and carers are regarded to as the children’s first as well as best teachers. They often play a crucial role in the cognitive development of the children. They are required to support any form of learning in three very important ways. These are: a) by encouraging the importance of intellectual growth, b.)by offering assistance in classroom learning and finally c.) by engaging the children who are at home in various cognitive tasks.For the parents and carers of children that need special needs a significant approach that may aid in providing a supportive opportunity is through involving themselves in creating Individualized Education program or individualized family service plan (Meadows, 1996). This aim of this report is to focus on the development of intelligence in the children with regards to cognitive development aided by support from the parents and carers. Development of intelligence Intelligence is referred to as global construct that simply encompasses various and separate cognitive abilities. As most researches would state intelligence is basically the measurement of the cognitive abilities. According to a Psychological Association in America intelligence simply describes a children’s ability to be able to able to adapt to their environment, to engage in thinking as well as decision making and also to learn from experiences they encounter (Goswami, 2007). The have been a number of studies that have been done based on the history of testing intelligence and the IQ score. One way of being able to look at the complexity which is involved in defining intelligence is by looking at how tests measuring IQ have evolved over the years. Research reviews and analysis have been conducted on young infants in order to measure the ability they have in processing information as measured using selective attention towards novelty. Novelty in this context is simply a definition based on visual recognition memory. Based on the study a current estimate of the results of the IQ were obtained and also a measure of the academic achievement. The information ability of the children at 6-12 months were regarded as a predictive of an adult IQ as well as academic achievement having coefficients of about 0.34 and 0.32, and also the coefficients corrected for the unreliability of 0.59 and 0.53 (Fagan, Holland & Wheeler, 2007). The current results done with regards to this study supports and extend previous studies which indicate the continuity of the development of intelligence from the child’s infancy stage up to the adolescence stage. It also illustrates the validity based on earlier measures of the recognition based memory on the selective attention given to novelty in order to have a long term prediction based on achievement. As a result of this research review it is clearly noted that the children’s intelligence growth can be analysed based from the infancy period till adolescence. Therefore, it is very important for parents and carers to instil the best learning concepts for the children right from infancy(Fagan, Holland & Wheeler, 2007). Children tend to develop cognitively with a remarkable speed based on the support that they receive from the parents, carers and also teachers. It is well noted that any effort that is made in order to spur up a child’s cognitive thinking is geared towards cognitive development. During the early years of life the children are under the care of either the parents or the carers. It is through this period that the intelligence capability of a child should be built using different approaches. From actively trying to push the children towards engaging in behaviours that are cognitive to just the simple act of playing with them, parents and carers tend to boost the process of cognitive development in their children (Longstreth, 1981). Based on a collaborative study that was conducted in six sites that comprised of three ethnic groups, the results indicated that it is through the first three years of a child that determines whether or not he or she will become successful in life. The most important stages of brain development mainly occur between birth and age three. Young children tend to experience the world as a form of an environment that consists of relationships and it is these relationships that mainly affect all the virtual aspects of their development. Through these experiences a child is able to grow intellectually, socially, emotionally, physically, morally and also behaviourally. With regards to the study, it is clear that relationships that the children engage in with the human community that is around them helps them to grow intellectually thus enabling them to define who they are, how they are important to other people and what they can become (Bradley, Caldwell, Gray & Rock, 1989). Children that tend to experience institutional deprivation usually encounter challenges based on pervasive impairment. Development of intelligence in children occurs during the first years of a child and hence any form of institution that can aid in the child’s cognitive development needs to be taken into account. A research review was conducted in UK in order to get a longitudinal analysis on the normal and impaired functioning on a group of children. Based on the study the pattern of impairment/normality was mainly established around the ages of six years with a continuity based on an individual level of around 6 to 11 years of age. These findings prove that parents and carers should ensure that their children’s need of getting institutional training is much more important in the development of their intelligence. For children with special needs such form of training is very important for both the parent and child as it is through this that the child is able to have a successful brain development process (Kreppner & Rutter, 2007). Development of intelligence in a child is aided by application of educational programs. Young children are able to learn how to do or say things based on the learning programs that they are put in during the early years of life. Parents and carers can establish their children successful cognitive development by engaging them in various cognitive learning activities as well as home activities. Children tend to learn more based on the activities that they are engaged in by their parents and carers. There are a lot of benefits that are about by early childhood education once the children grow into adults. A research review on the Abecedarian project among a group of adults indicated that prove that there are some substantial benefits that are brought about by educational benefits such as better income once the child is an adult and gets a good job opportunity (Campbell&Ramey, 2002). Defining and understanding cognitive development Cognitive development is regarded to as the process of growth and also change in the intellectual abilities such as reasoning, thinking and understanding. It simply involves the acquisition as well as the consolidation of knowledge. Children mainly draw from language, social-emotional, perceptual abilities and motor for their cognitive development. All these attributes are acquired by the children based on the support given by their parents and carers towards their intellectual development (Meadow, 1996). Importance of cognitive Development Parents, carers and teachers mostly agree that it is quite important to learn mathematics, social studies concept and science as well as readily concede with the values geared toward cognitive development. Gaining achievement in these specific areas is the main factor that is needed for having success both at work and life. However, the processes as well as content that are brought by this learning are usually less agreed upon. The difference in opinions often comes from parents and carers own school experiences when they were children (Goswami, 2007). The role that parents and carers play during their children earliest years is the one that produces the biggest influence in their development. Home learning that is of good quality contributes tremendously to a child’s intellectual as well as social development rather than parental education, occupation and income. A parent and carer attitudes, behaviours and aspirations are very important due to the fact that they aid in their ability to be able to: Understand their children’s daily progress Undertake family learning with them Talk on a regular basis with their children regarding their learning. It is well noted that approaches that have focussed mainly on rote learning have been unsuccessful in promoting development for most children. It is as a result of this that some researchers came up with the constructivist approach which is regarded as a more positive and aggressive technique for promoting cognitive development. Due to the fact that it is a new approach parents and carers need to spend some time helping the children to understand this approach. As most of the parents and carers see the constructivist learning in progress, discuss it with others, gain some knowledge on its benefits as well as observe results received from their efforts, they may end up becoming strong advocates of the alternative to rote learning and memorization (Goswami, 2007). Factors that influence Intelligence There are a lot of arguments that have been brought up by psychologists focussing on the basic nature of intelligence. A great amount of energy and time have been put in understanding the factors that are able to promote the acquisition of intelligence among children. The question of nurture as well as nature brings a lot of on the influence that is required in promoting intelligence. Intelligence is influenced mainly by two major factors: genetics and environment. With regards to the environment it has been proven that school attendance has a major impact on the children IQ scores (Ceci, 2001). Therefore, it is important for parents and carers to ensure that the children are able to access learning institutions once they acquire the required age for schooling. In the case of not being able to enrol a child to a school parents and carers can device home learning techniques that will be similar to the curriculum taken up in the school. The children that are being breastfeed between the first three up to five months of their lives usually have a higher IQ test scores at around the age of six rather than children of the same age who are not breastfed (Reinberg, 2008). Another environmental influence is that the identical twins that are reared separately from each other have IQ scores that are less similar to the identical twins that are reared together in the same environment. Based on the factor of genetic influence, this is based solely on the parents’ genes and actions. Research studies done on this have indicated that siblings who are reared in the same home together generally have IQ scores that are quite similar to those of the children that are reared together in the same environment. Another genetic influence is that based on a twin study it was indicated that the IQ scores of identical twins is much more similar compared to that of fraternal twins. The importance of development of intelligence in the society Intelligence is known to play an important role in various facets of the society. Overall knowledge as well as intelligence is very important in shaping a child’s future with regards to the benefits that are brought up by education. Parents and carers should be aware that it is the effort that they put in nurturing the children that helps them to be intelligent and inventive once they are adult. Intelligence is very important in the society due to the fact that it gives one the power to be able to gain status and powers in the society (Meadow, 1996). Therefore, from a tender age parents should take the challenge by administering their children cognitive development. Conclusion Based on the studies that have been done focussing on the children cognitive development, more emphasis should be put in ensuring that children are able to get the needed support they require in order to improve their intelligence capacity. Future studies should also focus on advising the parents and carers on what measures to take up in further developing their children’s cognitive skills. Parents and carers play an important role in promoting their children’s cognitive development. Therefore, it is important for parents and carers to be aware that it is their nurturing skills that determine their children success in life based on how they administered and helped in their cognitive development. 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