Grace Selzing-Musa & Onuigbo Kingsley Obinna
Abstract
Cognitive development is the process of acquiring, understanding, organizing, and learning to utilize information from birth through eight years. It involves the way young children explore and interact with and better understand the world around them. Although teachers can deliberately enhance cognitive skills in leaners by incorporating materials in daily learning activities, children are engaged in this all important learning task with little or no instructional materials. Materials for cognitive developmental activities should be developmentally appropriate; that is, they should be carefully selected to suit each child’s age, interest, and cultural background. This paper focuses on describing some developmentally appropriate materials that teachers can utilize for counting, singing, sound discrimination, letter identification, colour learning, literacy activities, and pretend play activities in order to effectively develop cognitive skills in young children.