reading tutorBoost Cognitive Brain Development of Your Child With the Help of A Reading Tutor
Storytelling has been a way in which human beings compartmentalise and organise their experiences. It’s not just that individuals are the narrators of things happening around them but they are also the narrators of their lives. Many individuals have argued that using a narrative is the best way to express and learn about ourselves and our relationships. And, all of this starts at birth. Research confirms that reading and understanding stories play a crucial part in cognitive development.
But in a generation where it is much more convenient to get a child hooked to a phone or a tablet, parents tend to neglect the fruitful reading sessions they could give their kids. This is where reading tutors can be of immense help. In this article, we discuss how reading tutors can help boost the cognitive development of your child but first let us understand the stages of cognitive development.
Stages of Cognitive Development
- Sensorimotor Stage — This is the earliest stage of cognitive development where babies learn about objects through their senses, i.e. by touching, smelling, tasting, and looking at them. They also begin to use simple gestures and words and are interested in picture books. Typically, this stage lasts from birth to 2 years of age.
- Preoperational Stage — This is the second stage of cognitive development and lasts from 2 to 7 years of age. During this stage, children learn to use symbols and words. For example, ‘a for apple.’ Children also start enjoying listening to rhymes and reciting poems. They develop reading readiness skills.
- Concrete Operational Stage — This is the third stage of cognitive development and lasts from the age of 7 to 11 years. During this time, children develop deep logical thinking skills and understand concepts such as time and space. They also start solving problems using reason and logic. Further, the child can do a lot of reading, can pick out keywords, and give the main idea of a topic.
- Formal Operational Stage — This is the final stage of cognitive development and lasts from 12 years of age to adulthood. During this stage, adolescents become independent thinkers and can cope with a higher level of critical reading skills, drawing conclusions, making judgments, and so on.
Cognitive Skills and Reading
Reading is a complex task that requires individuals to process multiple aspects of print concurrently (such as orthographic, phonological, and semantic information). In this section, we understand how cognitive skills relate to reading.
How Can Online Reading Tutors Help Boost the Cognitive Development of A Child?
For some children, reading doesn’t come easy. But no matter where a child may be in terms of fluency in reading, hiring a reading tutor is a great choice (especially for working parents). Moreover, a professional reading tutor not only helps kids learn to read but also works closely with them to determine their unique needs.
- When a reading tutor regularly reads with a child, it helps build strong pathways in the brain. This in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that can have life-long health benefits.
- Reading will also essentially improve the background knowledge of a child’s young world. This in turn will help the kid to make sense of what they hear, see and read.
Further, a study on toddlers’ cognitive development states, “When a toddler is being read to by a reading tutor, in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in their young brains start to respond. Some brain cells are triggered and turned on by a particular experience. At the same time, new brain cells are formed, while many existing connections among the brain cells are strengthened, adding a bit more definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry that will largely remain in place for the rest of their lives.”
Therefore, the more reading tutors will read to children, the larger their vocabulary will grow, and the more they will know and understand the world and their place in it. This will assist the cognitive development and perception of the children.
