Dear Parents, Let us just look back and think if our parents made the right decisions for us! I think some would jump and say, "Parents did the right thing" or "I wish parents had listened to my inner voice". If you were to go back to your time and ask yourself, Do children reason(think) differently from adults? I recall the kind of push my Dad's colleagues gave me to pursue medicine was a tremendously disturbing moment. I did actively build the knowledge of the ecosystem with openness to listen but wasn't prepared for someone to fill my head with their reasoning. Because cognitive development is beyond a belief system or rudimentary methods of choosing education & career.

Rather than generalizing that everyone could count, spell or be good at solving problems but I think these are doable. I think Cognitive development must help to address the four fundamental needs:

  1. A sense of Worth - otherwise it would lead to inferior
  2. A sense of Belonging - otherwise it would lead to insecure
  3. A sense of Purpose - otherwise it would lead to illegitimate
  4. A sense of Competence - otherwise it would lead to inadequate.

However, the first three can be built with education, societal activities & the fourth one can be built with skill development through experiential learning.

The fundamental needs begin from the age zero onwards. According to Piaget Theory, age 2 to 7 forms the foundations of language development. The development comes through plays like pretend play that often lack logic. For ages 7 to 11 years forms the stage of logically thinking. And for Age 12 & up forms the stage of thinking abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems. During this stage children think more scientifically. The theory makes a prime point about children's reception to cognitive development is 'Children are not merely passive recipients of knowledge. Children constantly like investigating, & experimenting as they build their view of how the world works.'

If this is true then why to wait for professional courses to get skills development? Otherwise children might find it difficult to pursue education either because it lacks experiential learning or it demands a lot of experiential learning. In both scenarios it would be difficult for children. A balanced view of building knowledge and hands-on learning must happen from early childhood. Don't limit the cognitive ability of a child based on your cognitive ability, if you do so, you are repeating just that your parent did it to you.