Understanding Your Child’s Cognitive & Learning Skills

What do we mean by cognitive skills?

Cognitive skills are the mental abilities children use to understand, learn, remember, solve problems, and handle everyday tasks.

Children vary in the ways they think and learn.

A child may understand something immediately when they see it, but struggle when it is explained verbally. They may be excellent at numbers and patterns but find reading or writing difficult. They may know an answer but need considerably longer to retrieve and explain it. They may understand each individual step of an activity but struggle to organise the steps themselves.

Consider the child’s developmental level rather than simply their chronological age.

Cognitive differences can also be real strengths

Your child may:

• know lots about particular things;
• focus on something specific for a long time;
• remember and notice lots of details;
• have brilliant imaginations;
• develop highly practised skills;
• be great with numbers and patterns;
• be creative and enjoy making things.

These traits are important. They help guide you in choosing which teaching strategies will work best for your child.

A child who loves dinosaurs, football, Minecraft or space may engage much more successfully when those interests are incorporated into learning.

Using your child’s interests to engage and motivate them is called strength-based learning.

1. Start by understanding HOW your child learns

Rather than beginning with “What can’t they do?”, start with:

Perhaps your child learns particularly well when:

• somebody shows them;
• they can see a picture;
• they physically do something;
• information is broken into steps;
• the subject interests them;
• they have plenty of time;
• they work one-to-one;
• technology supports them.

Then ask:

Perhaps when:

• instructions are long;
• information is only verbal;
• there are several steps;
• they have to remember information while doing something else;
• they are rushed;
• they have to organise themselves;
• there is lots of reading or writing.

The goal is to understand your child’s learning profile, not just list their challenges.

2. Give your child thinking time

This is the first practical recommendation:

Even though this advice seems simple, it can make a big difference in how a child responds.

Imagine asking:

Your child doesn’t answer immediately. An adult may then say:

Now the child is processing four questions instead of one.

Instead:

Silence doesn’t necessarily mean “I don’t know.” It may mean:

3. Show as well as tell

It is recommended to use real items and visuals to support understanding of concepts.

Some concepts become much easier when children can see or manipulate them. For example:

The principle is:

4. Use your child’s interests

This is another important recommendation.

Suppose your child loves football.

• Counting can involve goals, scores, players and league tables.
• Reading might involve football stories or player information.
• Writing might involve creating their own match report.

This doesn’t mean every lesson needs to be about your child’s favourite topic. It means your child’s interests can help get them engaged in learning, especially when it’s hard to keep their attention.

5. Find the right level of challenge

Consider the child’s developmental level rather than chronological age.

This doesn’t mean you should expect less from your child. It means meeting them at their current level.

We want:

Then gradually reduce the help.

6. Break complicated activities down

Consider: “Get ready for school.”

That apparently simple instruction actually means:

If the entire sequence is difficult, support each step individually. For example:

This approach is especially helpful if your child has trouble with organisation or executive functioning.

7. Don’t confuse “can’t remember” with “wasn’t listening”

A child can understand an instruction and still struggle to hold onto the information long enough to use it. For example:

The child goes upstairs… and forgets why.

This doesn’t always mean your child wasn’t paying attention.

Try one or two steps at a time, or provide the information visually.

This also shows why the Strengths and Needs domains need to be interpreted together: an apparent attention problem can sometimes involve memory, language or processing demands.

8. Use technology to remove unnecessary barriers

We recommend offering technology to support the child, such as read-aloud technology and talking tins.

Use technology with a clear purpose in mind.

For example, if a child understands a story but struggles to access the written text, appropriate read-aloud support may allow them to engage with the content.

The question becomes:

If we’re assessing understanding, an unrelated difficulty shouldn’t always prevent the child from demonstrating that understanding.

9. Separate learning from performance

This difference can be very helpful for parents to understand. A child might know something but have difficulty showing it because of:

• language;
• handwriting;
• attention;
• memory;
• processing time;
• organisation.

For example: a child may explain an excellent answer verbally but produce only two sentences on paper.

That doesn’t necessarily mean “They don’t understand the subject.” The challenge might be in a different area.

Ask:

10. Help rather than immediately doing it for them

When something is difficult, adults naturally want to help. But there is a difference between supporting and taking over.

Try to give only as much help as your child really needs. For example:

Then allow the child to continue.

As time goes on, slowly give less help. The overarching objective is helping your child become more independent.

11. Cognitive skills at school

Effective classroom support

• Give processing time: ask the question and allow time for the child to formulate an answer.
• Use visuals and real examples: don’t rely entirely on spoken explanations.
• Use strengths and interests: where appropriate, connect learning with areas that motivate the child.
• Match the level appropriately: consider developmental level and existing understanding.
• Use supportive technology: where appropriate, use tools that help the child access or demonstrate learning.
• Consider executive functioning: if the child understands the academic work but struggles to start, organise, remember or complete it, the support may need to target executive functioning rather than repeatedly reteaching the academic concept.

12. Look for uneven abilities

A child might be:

• excellent with numbers but struggle with reading;
• very knowledgeable verbally but struggle with writing;
• highly imaginative but find sequencing tasks difficult;
• excellent at remembering detailed facts about an interest but frequently forget everyday instructions.

Noticing these patterns really matters. You should note your child’s strengths just as clearly as their challenges.

13. Cognitive difficulties can overlap with other domains

Suppose a child struggles to follow classroom instructions. Why?

• Speech & Language: they didn’t fully understand the instruction.
• Attention: their attention moved away before the instruction finished.
• Cognitive/Learning: they understood it but couldn’t hold all the steps in mind.

Suppose written work is poor. Why?

• Motor Skills: handwriting is difficult.
• Attention: sustaining the task is difficult.
• Cognitive/Learning: planning, sequencing or learning itself is difficult.
• Speech & Language: formulating the answer into language is difficult.

The same problem you see can have different reasons behind it. That’s why it’s important for the nine domains to work together, not as separate checklists.

What about dyslexia and other learning difficulties?

The Cognitive Ability domain may help identify a child’s learning needs, but it is not intended as a diagnostic test for dyslexia, dyscalculia, intellectual disability, or any other specific learning disorder. Its focus is support: thinking time, visual/real-world support, strength-based engagement, technology, developmental level and executive-function strategies.

So the finding should not become:

It can become:

This difference really matters.

Your first three actions

Remember, don’t try to improve cognition in general. That goal is too broad to be helpful. Choose one functional difficulty.

Action 1: Identify ONE learning situation

For example:

• remembering what to do in the morning;
• understanding maths homework;
• getting ideas onto paper.

Action 2: Change ONE thing

For example:

• Morning routine → introduce a visual checklist.
• Maths concept → demonstrate using real objects.
• Answering questions → give additional processing time before prompting.

Use the strategy consistently.

Action 3: Review

After one to two weeks:

• Did my child need less help?
• Did they understand more easily?
• Did frustration reduce?
• Could they show more of what they knew?
• Did independence improve?

Rate: Better / No change / Worse. Stick with what helps your child.

Remember

Your child’s cognitive profile isn’t just about how “clever” they are. A child might struggle in one area but have amazing strengths in another.

So start with:

Give your child time, make learning clear, use their strengths and interests, offer the right support, and check what really helps.