It was once believed that infants were born as blank slates and relied only on their senses to learn about the world. As we saw in the last chapter, newborns already have many capabilities and use both inherited information as well as environmental information to form thoughts, beliefs, and understanding. Every experience they encounter, such as cuddling with a caregiver, listening to conversations, or tasting new foods, provides an opportunity to learn. Due to this innate drive, children’s brains go through rapid changes during the first 3 years of life.

Cognitive development refers to the way children take in and process information, acquire knowledge and skills, and use information to problem solve. These processes and skills gradually become more complex as the child grows. As referenced in Chapter 1, children were once viewed as mini-adults and there was very little knowledge about the unique ways in which they learn. Researchers now understand that children do not process information like adults and they do not think in the same way that adults do. They also understand that young children’s cognitive development relies heavily on the interactions with their caregivers and the experiences they are exposed to in early life.

Infants and toddlers are constantly confronted with new stimuli. In order to make sense of their worlds, their brains are designed to organize this information in meaningful ways. Children use schemas or categories of knowledge, to make sense of this information and to process information efficiently. For example, a child may form a schema about what a dog is based on the dog they have at home. They believe that all dogs are brown and have tails. When they visit a family member they see a brown cat with a tail and call it a dog. Eventually the child will learn the differences between dogs and cats. They will alter their schema about dogs and form a new schema about cats.

Schemas are modified based on the type of information a child encounters. Assimilation occurs when a current schema is applied to understand something new. In the example above, this is when the child thinks that the cat is a dog. Accommodation occurs when an existing schema is updated or the child has to create a different schema because the new information does not fit into the current schema. This is when the child has to form a schema about what cats are. Schemas are fantastic tools for learning but they also help us with other cognitive functions such as attention and memory.

Let’s take a look at the foundational structure used for cognitive learning—the brain.