**15.4 Cognitive development**

An individual's cognitive development is the development of his or her ability to reason and think. Cognitive information development includes four stages: reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. Through cognitive development, children learn to think critically about the world around them. The cognitive development of a child is influenced by everyday experiences.

### **15.5 Cognitive skills**

Cognitive skills are brain-based skills necessary for acquiring knowledge, manipulating information, and reasoning. Cognitive skills refer to cognitive capacities. These skills include thinking, reading, learning, remembering, reasoning, and paying attention. Learners organize newly acquired information into the repository of knowledge they use every day in class, at work, and in their personal lives.
