[Im]measurable Role of Parents in Stimulating the Cognitive Activity of Children

Abstract

In recent years, under the influence of cultural and social transformations, the quality and form of parental involvement in stimulating the cognitive activity of children has been changing. In meeting social and cultural demands, parents often engage in searching for innovative forms of education. They are increasingly often guided by trends and popularity, abandoning traditional methods of supporting children in their cognitive development. Therefore, parents often choose modern proposals, diversified in terms of quantity and quality, advertised in the mass media and promoted by teachers, psychologists and sometimes also by their acquaintances. Parents’ involvement in stimulating the cognitive activity of their child is a complex process, which encounters various limitations and impediments in everyday life. They result, among others, from diminishing the role of play in the family, of free time spent together, from reducing the number of children in the family to only one, from a high speed of life, the domination of new information and communication technologies, a lack of time, following the trends, excessive, parental ambitions inadequate to the child’s capabilities, their requirements towards the child and realization of their own dreams. Under such conditions, stimulating the cognitive activity of a child does not always bring expected results that are directly proportional to time and money invested. On the contrary, it is often difficult for parents to see clear, measurable effects. This is particularly true in situations when parents resign from simple, traditional, proved methods of supporting their child in cognitive  development  and  follow  fashion,  striving  for  satisfaction  of  their own, excessive ambitions. The choice of specific forms of stimulating cognitive activity of a child and parents’ approach determine, to a high extent, not only the quality of their role in this process, but also the efficiency of undertaken activities.