Saturday (2/10) the Center for Life-Span Development (CLSD) held a webinar with the theme “The Importance of Accompanying Children’s Thinking Development in the Golden Age”. The first CLSD event in October 2021 is a psychoeducational activity as part of a series of Research on Memory Development and Executive Skills in Babies 12-24 Months: A Screening Method by Mothers.
The event took place from 10.00 WIB to 11.30 WIB and was attended by 120 participants who were attended by mothers with toddlers, PAUD educators, TPA caregivers, and observers of child development.
The speakers in this event were Elga Andriana, S.Psi., M.Ed, Ph.D., Ammik Kisriyani, S.Psi., M.A., and Hanifah Nurul Fatimah, S.Psi., M.Sc. All three are lecturers of the Faculty of Psychology UGM who are experts in the field of child development. All three are now also active in a research team on the development of memory and executive skills in infants.
Elga as the lead researcher and head of CLSD opened this event as well as gave a speech and thanked the webinar participants who attended this event.
“So this morning is a part where we want to invite fathers and mothers and caregivers as well as PAUD educators to learn together about the importance of developing memory and executive skills in babies. And later we will discuss and ask questions so that we can enrich each other even more,” explained Elga.
The second speaker, Hanifah, in this event discussed more deeply about one aspect of the development of children’s thinking skills at the golden age stage, namely the executive function. He also explained the focuses that parents must pay attention to to support optimal child development.
In her presentation, Hanifah explained that babies already have the power to think even though they are still in a simple stage. He explained that babies already have a foundation for thinking to recognize information and stimuli around them.
“Even though the baby can’t express verbally, communicate verbally, yes, what he thinks, what he feels, but he can receive any information that is captured by his five senses,” explained Hanifah while emphasizing that the ability to recognize language is already possessed. babies even before birth and develop very rapidly in the first year of infancy.
Hanifah also explained about executive function, which is a cognitive skill that facilitates high-level cognitive abilities in planning, prioritizing, making decisions, or controlling oneself. The executive function of the brain has three aspects, namely flexibility of thinking, self-control, and working memory.
Furthermore, in the second session Ammik explained one aspect that is also important from cognitive development after the golden age, namely the ability to remember in children. The ability to remember in early childhood has complex dynamics and is very important for the cognitive development process at the next stage of age.
During the golden age, children can remember what they have experienced and seen in the past. Ammik describes a deferred imitation ability to explain the phenomenon. Although he cannot explain what he remembers in words, it can be known in the form of behavior.
“The ability to remember is very important in the aspect of the development of thinking power in children. Why? Because without this ability to remember which is stored and then recalled over time, we will not be able to learn many things early in life, “explained Ammik.
Ammik added that all memories in children’s early years will remain stored and become an important foundation for learning at the next stage. Children can learn to use an object around them through their memories when they see adults using the object in the past.