1. Cognitive Development:
- Concrete Operational Thought (7-11 years): Children start using logic to understand concrete events, but they still struggle with abstract concepts.
- Conservation: They understand that qualities like mass, volume, and number stay the same even if their appearance changes.
- Classification: They can arrange objects into logical groups based on characteristics.
2. Language Development:
- Vocabulary Expansion: Children's vocabulary grows exponentially, and they start understanding complex sentence structures.
- Conversational Skills: They engage in more sophisticated conversations, ask and answer questions, and express their ideas clearly.
3. Memory Development:
- Short-Term Memory: Children's short-term memory improves, allowing them to hold more information temporarily.
- Long-Term Memory: They develop better strategies for organizing and retrieving information from long-term memory.
4. Problem-Solving Skills:
- Children become more systematic and logical in solving problems. They can devise strategies and anticipate consequences before acting.
5. Creativity and Imagination:
- Children continue to exhibit vivid imaginations, but their creativity becomes more focused and structured as they engage in activities like drawing, writing, and building.
6. Social Cognition:
- They develop a better understanding of social norms, rules, and expectations, leading to increased social competence and empathy.
7. Metacognition:
- Children start reflecting on their own thoughts and learning, becoming aware of their strengths and areas for improvement.
8. Numeracy Skills:
- Children learn to count, perform basic math operations, and solve simple word problems.
Overall, intellectual development during childhood involves increasing cognitive capacities, language proficiency, memory skills, problem-solving abilities, and social cognition. These changes lay the foundation for further intellectual growth and contribute to a child's overall learning and adaptation to their environment.