Last Updated6 June 2023

Understanding Children covers some of the more specialised areas of understanding children. Delve into the CAP Model, and how and why different age groups learn and behave. Dive deep into what motivates children and how to deal with behaviours, creating experiences that will develop a lifelong passion for the mountain environment.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development focuses on how children receive and process information and how this changes over time. It includes the development of language, mental imagery, thought processes, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and memory development. To communicate information in a way that will allow children at varying ages to learn, instructors need to know how cognitive processes develop over time. The intellectual ability of a child is determined by a combination of heredity and environment. Meaning that even though genetic inheritance is unchangeable, a child’s intellectual development can be enhanced through environmental factors. A supportive environment in early childhood makes a huge difference, but it’s still possible to make up for early losses in cognitive development if a supportive environment is provided at a later stage.

A significant theory on cognitive development was put forward by eminent Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) and although many of his theories have since been challenged, his description of the general tendencies of cognitive development are generally accepted today. It is understood that everyone will progress through the stages at different rates, but the consensus is that we all progress through them in this order.

From his studies, Piaget concluded that children pass through four main stages of cognitive development:

Sensory-motor stage (birth–two years) - when children begin to learn and operate in the world through their senses

During infancy, children use smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing to learn about the world around them. When a child is lying down in the snow and/or eating the snow, it is likely that the child is educating himself about his environment. This may be mistaken for a lapse in attention when it is quite normal behaviour for this stage of cognitive development. This method of learning about the world continues until about two-years-old, although aspects of it may last for a few more years. For those instructors who work with very young children this stage is important to understand. No matter what the instructor tries to teach, children will only take in as much information as their senses allow. Children in this stage of development may cry easily. For example, stopping for lunch if they are not hungry and enjoying being outside – it does not matter to them that other children are hungry. Only in later stages of development do children begin to think of themselves as part of a group and to understand they cannot always have things their own way.

Pre-operational stage (two–seven years) - beginning to verbally, mentally and physically interact with the world around them

As children move into this stage the world around them is growing. They are starting to interact by using language and they are moving around their environment taking in information. There are still some behaviours which are obvious at this stage and are a direct result of cognitive development. Understanding spatial awareness correlates with visual and auditory development (physical development). Children at this stage tend to have no awareness of personal space and will often stand or ski close together, which means they often collide! Teaching children the concept of space is a very valid and necessary part of teaching this age group and may require a lot of patience.

Children at this stage have a very active imagination. One way to tap into this is to think about the content of books they are reading, what they are watching on TV or what computer games they are playing. Making use of familiar images is more suitable than an in-depth technical discussion when teaching children on snow. The key to this is to keep it relevant for the age group, e.g. “tall as a house and small as a mouse” may work well with kids up to five years of age but for older children a better example may be “stand tall so your helmet touches the sky and crouch low till your chin touches your knees.”

During later stages of development, the concept of “cause and effect” is important for explaining that a specific body movement will have a specific effect on the way the skis move across the snow. For children younger than seven-years-old the focus should be on how it looks and feels to ski or ride correctly, rather than on how to “do” it correctly.

Concrete operational stage (seven–eleven years) - more sophisticated mental processes develops

As children reach this stage they are able to see the world from more than one perspective. They shift from using their imagination to using visualisation. In most instances, this is the age where they no longer believe in imaginary characters such as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. They know the difference between reality and make-believe and the use of fantasy is no longer appropriate.

At this stage children also become capable of hypothetical thinking which can be an effective teaching tool. An example of this would be to ask the skiers what it would be like if there were no rules of the road and anyone could drive at whatever speed or direction they wanted to. Then ask them what would happen if they were allowed to ski this way. Although older children may not be interested in imagining themselves being transformed into something else, they are able to picture themselves skiing. This use of mental imagery, called visualisation, can be a powerful way to reinforce a child’s performance. Visualisation is less effective for young children because their mental images are more like still photos than movies.

Formal operational stage (eleven years and older) - marking the beginning of adult thinking

This stage is characterised by the ability to think abstractly, reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available as well as apply all these processes to hypothetical situations. It is thought that up to two-thirds of people do not develop this form of reasoning fully enough for it to be their normal level of cognition. They remain, even as adults, concrete operational thinkers.

Progression through these stages of development can be seen in a child’s ability to follow directions – over time children move from being able to follow only one instruction at a time to being able to comprehend sequences of three or more instructions. This is a function of their stage of cognitive development not just a matter of limited understanding of vocabulary. Asking young skiers to wait by the green sign will be more effective than a series of instructions on how to get there. It is easy to overwhelm the children with too much information so remember “one thing at a time.” Children entering the concrete operational stage will be able to sequence more information together but if it is too much for them they will tend to focus on the last thing they were told, or the last thing they heard. The key here is to check for understanding and be prepared to make instructions simpler. Timing is important. When the skiers are moving there is too much going on in their brain to comprehend what you are saying to them. Giving them information before they start sliding or giving them feedback as soon as they have completed a task will be much more successful.