Development is as change or growth that occurs in a child during the life span from birth to adolescence (Ruffin, 2009). In child development, there are two kinds of changes that occur; quantitative change and qualitative change. Quantitative change is a change in amount for example in height, weight and vocabulary size, whereas qualitative change involves changes in nature of intelligence for example in thinking and behaviour. The developmental changes in a child occur in an orderly sequence, which include the three main areas: cognitive development, social-emotional development and physical development.
A child’s cognitive development is the construction of his thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.