To help stimulate a cognitively delayed child's attention skills, concentration and memory, use a combination of puzzles and matching games. Select different kinds of puzzles, such as ones that sort shapes, tray puzzles and large-sized puzzles with three to 12 pieces. Break the puzzles apart and use the picture of the completed puzzle to help guide your child. Ask her to put the puzzle pieces together using the picture. Help her when she gets stuck, but let her physically place the puzzles into place. Puzzles are an excellent way for your child to learn how to sort and match and logically reason how to put the right pieces together.
Matching games are a fun activity that can help a cognitively delayed child improve his recall and attention span, and helps him learn how to sort and match. Purchase cards with animals, letters, numbers of simple shapes. Shuffle the cards and place them face down. Ask your child to turn over a card, and then to find the exact match of that card. If he turns over an elephant card, tell him to find another elephant. If the next card is not an elephant, tell him to turn both cards face down and start again.
Music activities can help refine hand-eye coordination, increase attention span and the ability to follow directions, and stimulate creative and vocal expression. Let your child play small instruments such as toy pianos, xylophones and guitars to create different musical sounds. Buy toy drums with batons and teach your child how to bang the drum in rhythm, which stimulates hand-eye coordination. Use music to teach your child how to dance, which helps to develop motor skills through body movement.
Role-playing activities are designed to engage a child's logic, decision-making and imagination. For cognitively delayed children, role-play gives them the chance to imagine themselves as another person, stimulates abstract thinking and helps develop confidence in their world view.
For a younger child, keep role-play games simple, such as asking her to imagine that she's a princess and asking her to describe what kind of castle she lives in and the clothes she wears. With an older child, you can use more real-life role-play situations, such as asking her to imagine she's a doctor or a teacher who is trying to help someone who is in trouble.