CONCEPTUAL THOUGHTS ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN – A REVIEW

Abstract

 All over the world, research has picked up on early childhood education, especially with respect to the techniques and strategies used in nurturing the development of children in various aspects like cognitive, emotional, social, linguistic and physical. Most of the developed countries are working towards fine tuning the curriculum for early childhood education in terms of making them emotionally balanced, socially adaptive and future-ready with life skills and 21^st century skills. Interestingly, it is the 21^st century skills viz., Communication, Collaboration, Creative thinking and Critical thinking which lays the foundation for children to develop emotional and social maturity. Also, research has spread the results of nurturing 21^st century skills in the early years as an effective strategy for preparing the young generation towards the unknown future. This paper presents a review on how the conceptual thoughts about cognitive development in young children have evolved.