SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
-Emphasizes role of infant reflexes
-Intelligence develops as a result of movement actions and their consequences
-Movement is important to thought processes
-There are 6 substages
1. Reflexes (Birth through 1 month)
-Repetition of reflexes helps child to form the foundation for cognitive understanding
-Reflexive movements do not need higher brain centers to be initiated
- Reflexive movements lead to new behaviors
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 Months)
- Onset of increased voluntary movement
- Consciously create movement
- Called circular and primary because movements always occur in close proximity to the infant
- Reciprocal relationship between movement and thought processes = hand-eye coordination and early reaching and grasping
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 Months)
- Continuation of primary circular reactions
- The infant’s interaction with the environment expands
- Child begins to integrate vision, hearing, grasping and movement behaviors
- Examples: Banging a toy to make noise, or persistent shaking of a rattle
- Can imitate behaviors
- No object permanence – objects last only as long as they are viewed to the infant
4. Secondary Schemata (8 Months to 1 Year)
- Movement is crucial in development
- New behaviors emerge that are facilitated by increasing movement capabilities such as crawling and creeping which allow exploration of the environment
- Repetition of experimentation and trial-and-error exploration continue
- Child can predict some actions and situations
- Example: Roll ball to child, they crudely roll it back and they anticipate you rolling the ball to them again
- The ability to predict is the onset of intellectual reasoning
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (1 to 1.5 Years)
- Use of active experimentation to learn
- Child realizes that discovery of an object and use of the object are separate entities
- First level of visualizing an object beyond its immediate use
- Child sees the ball and knows they can have fun, but also realizes they do not have to play with it right now – it will be there later
- Can distinguish self from others
- Seeks immediate family members for help – social and emotional development – human factors such as emotion, competition and rivalry
- Cognitive and motor development affect development in the affective domain
6. Mental Combinations (1.5-2 Years)
- Child recognizes objects and others as independent from herself
- Child is beginning to understand properties of objects such as size, shape, color, texture, weight, use, etc.
- “Yellow” ball not “big ball” when it is actually both
- Invention of new means through mental combinations
- Semimental functioning: “thinking with the body” is replaced with “thinking with the mind"
- Child reflects/recalls an event without physically reenacting it
Summary
-Increasing awareness of the difference between oneself and others
-Recognition that objects continue to exist even though they are no longer in view
-Production of the mental images that allow the contemplation of the past, present, and future.
-Intelligence develops as a result of movement actions and their consequences
-Movement is important to thought processes
-There are 6 substages
1. Reflexes (Birth through 1 month)
-Repetition of reflexes helps child to form the foundation for cognitive understanding
-Reflexive movements do not need higher brain centers to be initiated
- Reflexive movements lead to new behaviors
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 Months)
- Onset of increased voluntary movement
- Consciously create movement
- Called circular and primary because movements always occur in close proximity to the infant
- Reciprocal relationship between movement and thought processes = hand-eye coordination and early reaching and grasping
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 Months)
- Continuation of primary circular reactions
- The infant’s interaction with the environment expands
- Child begins to integrate vision, hearing, grasping and movement behaviors
- Examples: Banging a toy to make noise, or persistent shaking of a rattle
- Can imitate behaviors
- No object permanence – objects last only as long as they are viewed to the infant
4. Secondary Schemata (8 Months to 1 Year)
- Movement is crucial in development
- New behaviors emerge that are facilitated by increasing movement capabilities such as crawling and creeping which allow exploration of the environment
- Repetition of experimentation and trial-and-error exploration continue
- Child can predict some actions and situations
- Example: Roll ball to child, they crudely roll it back and they anticipate you rolling the ball to them again
- The ability to predict is the onset of intellectual reasoning
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (1 to 1.5 Years)
- Use of active experimentation to learn
- Child realizes that discovery of an object and use of the object are separate entities
- First level of visualizing an object beyond its immediate use
- Child sees the ball and knows they can have fun, but also realizes they do not have to play with it right now – it will be there later
- Can distinguish self from others
- Seeks immediate family members for help – social and emotional development – human factors such as emotion, competition and rivalry
- Cognitive and motor development affect development in the affective domain
6. Mental Combinations (1.5-2 Years)
- Child recognizes objects and others as independent from herself
- Child is beginning to understand properties of objects such as size, shape, color, texture, weight, use, etc.
- “Yellow” ball not “big ball” when it is actually both
- Invention of new means through mental combinations
- Semimental functioning: “thinking with the body” is replaced with “thinking with the mind"
- Child reflects/recalls an event without physically reenacting it
Summary
-Increasing awareness of the difference between oneself and others
-Recognition that objects continue to exist even though they are no longer in view
-Production of the mental images that allow the contemplation of the past, present, and future.
Additional Information/Links:
http://www.scilearn.com/blog/early-fine-motor-skills-cognitive-skills
http://www.scilearn.com/blog/early-fine-motor-skills-cognitive-skills