Summary

Cognition relates to conscious intellectual activity, such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering. Cognitive development happens throughout one's life. People continue to learn new skills, think, and create memories. Our mental talents and abilities start to develop when children grow and mature. Cognitive milestones are important forward-moving steps in a child's development.

Examples could be how children start to think, solve problems, remember, discover, learn, show curiosity, and even when a child can bring food to their mouth.

If you picture when a baby is first born, they cognitively don't do too much. They sleep, eat, cry, and poop. By 6 months, the baby can recognize voices, faces, touch, smell, taste, and even focus their vision on an object. They're more aware of their surroundings, look around with their eyes, and maybe even roll over from their stomach to their back. What happened to this newborn that couldn’t do much three months prior? The brain develops a lot faster in the earlier stages of one's life. There are several milestone marks during these phases

These milestones are places in cognitive development that help us understand where a child's brain is at while developing. everyone is different and develops at their own pace. sometimes some children's brains will reach milestones earlier or later than expected. if the parent starts to notice that their child isn’t meeting the milestones, it's important to reach out to your health provider for help and support. some warning signs are: losing skills they once had, not learning gestures, not pointing to show you things, not following simple directions, and not watching things as they move.

The table lays out some development milestones between ages 6 weeks and 5 years. 

5 Brain development stages

1. Gestation: The brain is beginning to form and develop. 

2. Childhood: Life experience is being gained where the brain creates new connections and strengthens existing ones. 

3. Adolescence: Pre-frontal cortex finishes developing. Adolescents gain skills like prioritizing, planning, and making good decisions due to this part of the brain developing. 

4. Adulthood: Intelligence generally peaks by this time. Certain parts of the brain begin to shrink and communication between neurons may not be as effective. 

5. Old age: Decrease in neurotransmitters and hormones, and may experience memory impairment. 

National Library of Medicine.