Classroom Strategies to Support Cognitive Development in Preschool

*Originally published November, 2021
*Updated January, 2025

The preschool years are a pivotal time in a child’s growth, laying the foundation for future learning and development. During this stage (roughly ages 2.5 to 4), young children experience significant cognitive development as they begin to acquire essential thinking skills through play and exploration. In this blog, we’ll explore key insights into supporting preschool cognitive development, focusing on the classroom strategies that early childhood educators can use to nurture children’s reasoning, problem-solving, and memory skills while creating an engaging and developmentally appropriate learning environment.

Cognitive Development in Preschool: A Fundamental Stage in Childhood Development

Cognitive development refers to a child’s ability to think, reason, and make sense of the world around them. During the preschool years, children begin to acquire foundational cognitive skills that support future learning and success. These abilities include critical thinking, problem-solving, memory, spatial awareness, and understanding abstract concepts such as numbers. In the preschool classroom, children engage in activities that help them ask questions, solve problems, improve memory, classify objects, and participate in symbolic play, all of which contribute to their cognitive growth and prepare them for more complex learning in the future.

Cognitive Development Milestones in Preschool

Before diving into classroom strategies, it is important to understand the cognitive milestones we are supporting young children in working towards and should be paying attention to. Below are some of the major cognitive development skills preschoolers typically develop:

1. Questioning: Questioning is a critical thinking skill that helps preschoolers make sense of their environment. Preschoolers often ask questions like “Why?” to understand cause and effect or to gain a better understanding of the world around them.
   
2. Spatial Relationships: Preschoolers often engage in play that helps them begin to explore and understand the physical world. They may engage in activities that involve the manipulation of objects, such as placing toys in and out of containers. These activities promote an understanding of concepts like volume, size, and distance.
   
3. Problem-Solving: During the preschool years, children rapidly build their problem solving skills as they experiment, investigate, and collaborate with peers to solve problems. Examples of this may include figuring out how to complete a puzzle or determining how to build a tower with blocks.
   
4. Imitation: Preschoolers often imitate behaviors and actions of adults, caregivers, and peers. This form of learning through imitation helps children understand social norms and daily routines.
   
5. Memory: Memory development is essential for preschoolers as they begin to improve their ability to recall and recognize information. Engaging in memory games and activities, such as matching games, or displaying visual representations of the daily classroom routine, can help preschoolers strengthen these skills and enhance their ability to remember and process new information.
   
6. Number Sense: Preschoolers start to develop a foundational understanding of numbers during these early years, including concepts such as more, less, and equal. Activities like singing counting songs, such as “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” and counting objects in their environment can help children grasp number relationships, recognize numerical order, and develop an understanding of quantity.
   
7. Symbolic Play: Symbolic play, also known as make-believe or pretend play, is a crucial aspect of preschool cognitive development. During this stage, children use objects to represent other things, such as pretending a block is a phone or a stuffed animal is a baby. This type of play promotes creativity, enhances problem-solving abilities, and supports language development as children create stories and engage in dialogue.

9 Simple Strategies to Support Preschool Cognitive Development

Supporting preschoolers’ cognitive development requires careful planning and the creation of an engaging learning environment that challenges young children’s thinking skills. Here are nine cognitive development activities that early childhood educators can implement in their classroom to promote cognitive growth:

1. Practice the Alphabet. Incorporate the alphabet into daily routines by singing the ABC song, reading alphabet books, and using letter word cards. Place alphabet posters around the classroom to help children associate letters with their environment. Engage children by asking them to identify letters in their names or other familiar words.
   • Developmental Impact: Exposure to the alphabet helps preschoolers develop foundational literacy and language skills. The repetition strengthens their understanding of letters and sounds, which is crucial for language development.
     
2. Practice Counting. Incorporate counting throughout the day in natural settings. For example, count the number of chairs in the circle, the number of blocks in a tower, or the number of snacks each child receives. Encourage children to count objects during activities such as sorting toys or stacking blocks.
   • Developmental Impact: Counting helps preschoolers develop number sense, which is the understanding of quantity, order, and relationships between numbers. These activities lay the groundwork for future math skills and support brain development.
     
3. Practice Colors and Shapes. Point out colors and shapes in the classroom and around the environment throughout the day. Use toys, classroom materials, or outdoor surroundings as teaching tools. Engage children in games where they sort objects by color or shape, or play shape identification games using real-life objects (e.g., “Can you find a square shape in the room?”)
   • Developmental Impact: Recognizing colors and shapes is a key cognitive skill that helps children organize and categorize their surroundings. This activity enhances their ability to differentiate and classify objects, which is foundational for problem-solving and logical thinking.
     
4. Memory Games. Introduce simple memory games such as matching cards or games where children have to recall the order of objects. You can also make a memory game with items from the classroom, such as a series of classroom objects placed in a line under a cloth, and ask children to remember what was in the line.
   • Developmental Impact: Memory games improve working memory by challenging children to retain and retrieve information. These activities also promote concentration, attention to detail, and cognitive recall.
     
5. Pretend Play and Role-Playing. Create an environment rich with pretend play and dress-up opportunities by setting up themed areas, such as a kitchen, doctor’s office, or grocery store, and providing costumes and props. This setup invites children to explore different roles and engage in imaginative scenarios, encouraging social interaction, storytelling, and creativity as they take on roles like “chef,” “doctor,” or “teacher.”
   • Developmental Impact: Pretend play fosters creativity, problem-solving, and social-emotional development. It also supports language development as children engage in dialogue, practice vocabulary, and work together to negotiate roles and actions.
     
6. Building and Construction Activities. Set up an area with a variety of building materials, such as blocks or large LEGO sets and leave them accessible for children to explore. The environment will naturally inspire children to collaborate and problem-solve as they experiment with building structures, like towers or bridges, while engaging in open-ended play that sparks creativity and teamwork.
   • Developmental Impact: Building activities strengthen spatial reasoning skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills. They also promote problem-solving as children experiment with balance, structure, and design.
     
7. Art and Craft Activities. Set up a space where children can engage in drawing, painting, and crafting materials such as markers, paper, glue, and child-safe scissors. This allows children to engage in child-led creative expression during free play.
   • Developmental Impact: Art activities promote cognitive development by enhancing creativity, fine motor skills, and visual-spatial processing. They also offer opportunities for developing children to express emotions and ideas through nonverbal communication.
     
8. Sorting and Classifying. Set up sorting activities where children group objects by categories such as color, size, shape, or type. Use age appropriate everyday materials like magnetic tiles, wooden blocks, different colored and sized pieces of construction paper, or even natural objects the children collect outside (e.g., leaves, acorns) and ask children to sort them into designated containers or trays.
   • Developmental Impact: Sorting and classifying activities can help children develop new skills and enhance logical thinking, organization, and categorization abilities. By learning to group objects based on attributes, children strengthen their ability to recognize patterns and relationships, which supports mathematical thinking and cognitive processing.
     
9. Puzzle Solving. Provide age-appropriate puzzles that range from simple interlocking puzzles to more complex ones involving matching shapes or following patterns. Start with large, simple puzzles for younger children, and gradually increase the difficulty as they develop their problem-solving and fine-motor skills.
   • Developmental Impact: Puzzle-solving activities challenge children to think critically and logically, enhancing their problem-solving abilities and working memory. These activities also support cognitive development by promoting perseverance, spatial reasoning, and the ability to manipulate and fit objects together.

Conclusion

The preschool years are a critical time for children to develop foundational cognitive skills that will support their learning throughout their lives. By focusing on activities that promote problem-solving, memory, language, and critical thinking, educators can help children build the cognitive abilities they need to thrive in school and beyond.

If you’re looking to enhance your preschool curriculum with effective cognitive development teaching strategies, Lillio Learning, powered by FunShine Express, offers a range of curriculum resources built with high-quality teaching in mind. Designed to support educators and align with each child’s developmental level, our physical and digital materials for children ages 0-5 provide the tools you need to foster skill development and create meaningful learning experiences.