:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/525389107-56a7956b5f9b58b7d0ebea45.jpg)
Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by mental health professionals. Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more.
Cognitive milestones represent important steps forward in a child's development. Cognitive development refers to how children think, learn, explore, remember, and solve problems.
Historically, babies were often thought of as simple, passive beings. Prior to the 20th century, children were often seen simply as miniature versions of adults.
It wasn't until psychologists like Jean Piaget proposed that children think differently than adults that people began to view childhood and adolescence as unique periods of growth and development.
In the past, adults often dismissed the remarkable intellectual skills of infants and very young children, but modern thinkers and researchers have discovered that babies are, in fact, always learning, thinking, and exploring the world around them.
Even newborn infants are actively taking in information and learning new things. In addition to gathering new information about the people and the world around them, babies constantly discover new things about themselves.
This article discusses cognitive milestones that occur between the ages of birth and five years. It also explores what you can do to help encourage your child's cognitive development.
The first three months of a child's life are a time of wonder. Major developmental milestones at this age focus on exploring the basic senses and learning more about the body and the environment.
During this period, most infants begin to:
In early infancy, perceptual abilities are still developing. From the age of 3–6 months, infants begin to develop a stronger sense of perception. At this age, most babies begin to:
Looking inside the mind of an infant is no easy task. After all, researchers cannot just ask a baby what he or she is thinking at any given moment. To learn more about the mental processes of infants, researchers have come up with many creative tasks that reveal the inner workings of the baby's brain.
From the age of 6–9 months, researchers have found that most infants begin to:
As infants become more physically adept, they can explore the world around them in greater depth. Sitting up, crawling, and walking are just a few physical milestones that allow babies to gain a greater mental understanding of the world around them.
As they approach one year of age, most infants can:
After reaching a year of age, children's physical, social, and cognitive development seems to grow by leaps and bounds. Children at this age spend a tremendous amount of time observing the actions of adults, so it is important for parents and caregivers to set good examples of behavior.
Most one-year-olds begin to:
At two years of age, children are becoming increasingly independent. Since they are now able to explore the world more fully, a great deal of learning during this stage is the result of their own experiences.
Most two-year-olds are able to:
Children become increasingly capable of analyzing the world around them more complexly. As they observe their environment, they begin to sort and categorize objects and ideas into different categories, often referred to as schemas.
Since children are becoming much more active in the learning process, they also begin to pose questions about the world around them. "Why?" becomes a very common question around this age.
At the age of three, most kids are able to:
As they near school age, children become better at using words, imitating adult actions, counting, and other basic activities that are important for school preparedness.
Most four-year-olds are able to:
Finding ways to encourage children's intellectual development is on the minds of most parents. Fortunately, children are eager to learn right from the very beginning.
Developmental milestones provide guideposts so that children can better understand whether their child is developing similarly to other children their age. However, it is important for parents to remember that all kids develop at their own pace. Some cognitive milestones may emerge earlier and others later. Talk to your child's doctor if you are concerned about your child's development.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
By Kendra Cherry, MSEd
Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."
