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5 - Parents Matter: The Cornerstone for Children’s Cognitive and Language Development

from Part I - Foundations of Parenting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2022

By
Allyson Strmiska Masters ,
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek ,
Dani Levine  and
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
Edited by
Amanda Sheffield Morris  and
Julia Mendez Smith
Amanda Sheffield Morris
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
Julia Mendez Smith
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
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Summary

Parents support their children’s language and cognitive development through everyday, informal learning opportunities. We discuss how parents can capitalize on current research and theories of children’s development to cultivate the foundational skills needed to succeed in the twenty-first century. We first examine how children learn; specifically, how being active, engaged, meaningful, socially interactive, and joyful leads to optimal learning. We then discuss the 6 Cs (collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creativity, and confidence), or what children learn, and how parents can play a central role in supporting their children’ development of these skills.

Keywords

6 Cslanguagecognitionearly learning
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Parenting , pp. 95 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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