How language and cognitive abilities develop
The mind and body develop rapidly when we’re children. Within just a few years we move from absolute dependence on our parents to being able to walk, talk (in multiple languages), and form social bonds. We learn to express ourselves in different ways, and also learn how to select certain language in order to influence situations in our favor.
While it’s true that everybody learns in different ways and at different paces, there are general paths of development that can be observed. Understanding these can help us to adjust our teaching styles and deliver more effective lessons.
Stages of Development
Here’s a rough breakdown of how children tend to develop mentally and socially from ages 1-12.
| Age: | Tendencies: |
|---|---|
| Infants (1-2) | Heavily dependent on adults/guardians. Concerned largely with solitary play.
Learn through direct concrete experiences such as with tasting and touching, then with seeing and hearing to a lesser extent. Infants will often handle frustrations and discomfort by crying as a primal instinct. |
| 2-3 years of age | Children in this age range will often continue being concerned with solitary play, and may perhaps grow more possessive.
The words “mine” and “no” are likely to be used quite often as they seek to influence their immediate surroundings. They have a limited understanding of the world around them, and a short-term memory. |
| 4-5-year-olds | At around 4 years of age, children will often start to understand how to play in a cooperative way with others. They’ll look to engage with other children and towards 5 years of age may engage with adults more openly.
They’ll often have creative imaginations and might blur the lines between truth and reality. |
| 6-8-year-olds | Children around these ages will often start to form deeper interests in hobbies.
They’ll be more capable of working with partners, and should have developed an understanding of the teacher/student dynamic more clearly. Crying will be less common around this age, but shyness might still be an issue. |
| 8-10-year-olds | Around 8-10 years of age we see students starting to mature a little more. Friendship groups may have formed, and they’ll be much more independent.
While they might previously have looked towards their parents for support, they’ll now possibly shoulder some pressures themselves. At this age, it’s also common to see students start to reject their previous childhood toys as they feel more mature. Games will still be important, but students will have a longer attention span, and activities should be slightly more mature. |
| 10-12-year-olds | Such students may mentally align themselves closer to teenagers. Depending on their school system, they may see themselves as the oldest in their schools, or ready to move on to their next stage in schooling.
At this age, students are much more capable and can work in a range of settings – independently, with pairs, and in groups. Their attention spans will also be long enough to set short projects that might span over 2-3 lessons. |
While this is a rough overview and will not apply to all students, it gives an overall understanding of the progression that you will commonly see. Knowing how students progress in this way can help you to plan appropriate activities for their language classes.
In the next few lessons, we’ll look at different theories that help to understand how young learners develop mentally, and how we can use this knowledge to accelerate their progression.