Cognitive Development of Key Academic Skills

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Although there are many different academic skills that children develop during school, in this chapter, we will focus on three foundational abilities: reading, writing, and math.

Reading

Reading is a critical academic skill that progresses from simple decoding to understanding complex texts. When children enter kindergarten, they can typically recite and write the alphabet (Puranik, Lonigan, & Kim, 2011). Teachers can build onto this base knowledge through phonics instruction, which helps children learn the sounds of letters and how to blend them into words.  This can then progress to decoding words, where children are able to use their understanding of phonemes to correctly pronounce and identify a written word, and eventually to reading independently (Ehri,1987).  Once a child can read independently, which often occurs during the second or third grade for most students, additional instruction and practice will help them improve their reading speed, accuracy, and expression. At that point, teachers can also use reading as a learning medium to help students develop their reading comprehension skills (Fiester, 2010). As children enter middle and high school, their reading skills should extend beyond fluency to include understanding complex texts, for example, interpreting metaphors, drawing inferences, and analyzing themes.

Writing

To write effectively, a child must master a variety of both cognitive and physical developmental skills. In the early elementary years, children develop fine motor skills for handwriting, which include learning how to correctly hold a pencil and how to accurately write letters. As children develop their understanding of phonemes for reading, they should also begin to combine sounds to create written words, and later, simple sentences. By the second or third grade, they should have a basic understanding of grammar and punctuation rules and can typically begin to write paragraphs or short essays focused on a specific theme or purpose. In middle and high school, writing involves planning, organizing ideas, creating compelling content, and revising for clarity and coherence (Paris, Ricardo, & Rymond, 2019).

Math

Mathematical thinking evolves from understanding concrete representations to abstract problem-solving.  Before children can learn math, they must first develop number sense, which includes learning to count, recognizing numbers, and understanding the concepts of more and less. Once they have mastered those concepts, they can begin performing basic operations such as addition and subtraction, and eventually progress to multiplication and division. By the time a student has reached middle school, they should be able to complete all basic mathematical operations independently and understand fractions and decimals. In high school, more abstract mathematical concepts can be introduced, including symbolic reasoning in algebra and spatial reasoning in geometry (Paris, Ricardo, & Rymond, 2019).