Cognitive Development in Infants

When a baby is born, can they reason or think like adults? Can they remember anything?

• Who were Piaget and Vygotsky?
• What are the key characteristics of the cognitive development of babies?
• What are examples of the cognitive development of babies?
• Does breastfeeding help cognitive development?

Cognitive Development in Infants Definition

If you've ever interacted with a baby, you can tell that they have some milestones to pass before they can think and logic like an adult (or even a child). Every newborn develops differently, and some reach certain milestones before others. But overall, there is a particular path that each newborn follows in their cognitive development.

Two psychologists were instrumental in theorizing about the cognitive development in newborns and children.

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a psychologist that studied cognitive development in children. He explained the growth of a child in a set of stages. The first stage is called the sensorimotor stage. This stage occurs between birth and two years of age and is characterized by newborns interacting with the world around them and developing thought. Since this first stage takes place during infancy, let's take a closer look at the substages of the sensorimotor stage.

This table shows the names of each stage, the age at which the newborn is in the stage, and the main developments in each stage. Newborns start by simply responding to touch. They're not fully controlling their movements, with reflexes being most of their actions. Then, the newborns develop to make more intentional movements by repeating an action. For example, a baby might first raise their arm accidentally but will then keep repeating it until it becomes intentional. In the third substage of Piaget's theory, the baby begins to see events in their environment and tries to repeat them.

The latter three stages don't apply to newborns, so they won't be described here.

Lev Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky was the other prominent psychologist known for his sociocultural theory about cognitive development. Piaget focused his research on the child's interactions with the world around them, while Vygotsky focused on interactions with the people around them. Vygotsky also noted that a person's culture would impact their cognitive development, something Piaget did not acknowledge (hence Vygotsky's sociocultural development).

Vygotsky theorized that there is a zone of proximal development (ZPD) where newborns and children learn. The ZPD exists between what a child knows how to do and what they can learn with help. Vygotsky claimed that there are things that a child can learn with the help of an adult that they would not be able to learn on their own. Those would fall into the ZPD. However, if something is too difficult for a child to learn, it would be outside of the ZPD, for even aid from an adult would not help them learn.

This even applies to newborns. There are some things that newborns can learn with help, whether it be through watching or help from an adult. By repeatedly watching a parent open and close their hand and accidentally doing it once, a newborn will be able to develop the ability to open and close their own hands.

Characteristics of Cognitive Development in Infants

Through looking at both of these psychologists' work, we can understand what specific characteristics are present in the cognitive development of newborns.

Thinking

As shown in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, the progression of thinking is a key characteristic of the cognitive development in newborns. Babies observe their environment and begin to realize that they are able to conduct actions that have results. They will then be able to link these thoughts and actions together to form different movements.

Newborns also begin to link events in their surroundings together. They can understand that when their mom gets the bottle out of the cabinet, they will be fed. Eventually, this thinking will lead to logic.

Fig. 1 Babies will learn that the bottle means they are getting fed. pixabay.com.

Memory

So if a baby can think, can they remember? Studies show that some memories can be formed around two years old, but most occur around the seven-year-old mark. Babies can create what are called implicit memories.

Implicit memory for you is writing with a pencil. You don't recall every memory of when you were learning how to write, but you know how to write when you need to.

While babies cannot form explicit memories (when they actively and consciously recall an event from their memory), they are making implicit memories all the time. Studies also show that babies are able to remember events ranging from a couple of days to a couple of weeks at a time.

Language Development

Examples of Cognitive Development in Infants

There is a wide variety of examples that show cognitive development in infants.

An example of cognitive development would be a baby sucking their fist (or thumb). Initially, this baby would have accidentally put their fist or thumb into their mouth. However, after accidentally doing that, the baby realizes that it was actually a calming action for them and does it again. The baby was able to cognitively piece together the behavior of the accidental movement with the emotional result. Through piecing this together, the baby also discovers a way to self-soothe.

The development of thinking in babies is linking actions together. The baby will learn that when they are put in their high chair, they will be fed. When they were first put in their high chair, they did not know what would happen and could not link together the high chair and the incoming food. But thanks to cognitive development, the babies can understand that getting put in the high chair means that they will be fed.

A baby begins to make sounds shows cognitive development. Although a baby might not have spoken for months, they are still listening to all the sounds they are exposed to. An incredible amount of language development happens in a baby's first two years, and a baby starting to try to communicate through sounds is a big first step.

Fig. 2 Babies try to communicate, just like the rest of us! pixabay.com.

Activities to Promote Cognitive Development in Infants

There are a variety of activities that people can use to promote and encourage cognitive development in newborns and infants. Most of the activities promote the environmental and/or mental stimulation of the baby. Through continual interactions with other people and their environment, babies continue to develop cognitively.

Some activities to encourage cognitive development in infants are:

• Playing with the baby
• Arts and crafts
• Talking with the baby so they can learn the phonemes of the language (and if you are multilingual, talk with the baby in all the languages you know, so they retain the ability to differentiate between varying sounds)
• Expose the baby to different environments to explore
• Have a mobile hung above the crib to stimulate cognitive development

Breastfeeding and Cognitive Development in Infants

Can breastfeeding a baby help with their cognitive development?

According to multiple studies, yes! Research shows that breastfed babies reported higher levels of cognitive development when compared to babies fed with formula. Other studies report that breastfed babies have higher IQs than their peers. There are many studies to support the relationship between breastfeeding and cognitive development.

There is still some pushback from other researchers about this claim, stating that other environmental factors tend to be associated with breastfeeding could lead to cognitive advantage.