Cognitive development is described as the way in which children process thoughts, maintain attention, remember, understand, and plan, predict, regulate, and evaluate tasks and situations.

• A. Describes how children understand and produce language.
• B. Describes the five senses and gross motor skills.
• C. Describes the way children process thoughts, maintain attention, remember, understand, and plan, predict, regulate, and evaluate tasks and situations.
• D. Describes how children form moral judgments.

Answer: (C)

Cognitive development focuses on how a child’s mind processes information, including thinking, attention, memory, understanding, planning, predicting, regulating, and evaluating tasks and situations. This is visible when a child figures out a solution to a problem, stays focused on a task, remembers steps, anticipates what might happen next, adjusts actions if plans fail, and judges whether the outcome makes sense. That internal processing distinguishes it from language development (understanding and using language), sensory and motor development (the five senses and physical skills), and moral development (forming judgments about right and wrong). The description that emphasizes processing thoughts and managing tasks best matches what cognitive development is about.