During which stage does infant become more and more actively engaged in the outside world?

Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage Theory Definition

Sensorimotor stage the first and foremost stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. He mentioned this period as a time of enormous cognitive growth and change. The sensorimotor stage starts from birth to the approximate age of two years.

Overview of Piaget'S Sensorimotor Stage Theory

During this initial stage of development, children use skills they were born with (such as grasping, sucking, and listening) and they experience the environment and gain knowledge through their senses and motor movements. They mainly learn through trial-and-error methods. Piaget called this stage the 'sensorimotor' stage because they profit a basic understanding of the world through the senses and motor abilities(in-built).

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What you'll learn:

• Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage Theory Definition
• Overview of Piaget'S Sensorimotor Stage Theory
• Infant undergo the Six Sub stages of the Sensorimotor Period:
• Piaget

Infant undergo the Six Sub stages of the Sensorimotor Period:

Sub stage 1-Reflexes(0-1 month):

Newborns learn their world/ environment through their inborn reflexes, such as sucking and grasping. Uses of these reflexes become more intentional and purposeful. Substage 2-Primary Circular Reactions(1-4months):

During the next 3 months, they actively involve their self in a few forms of repeated activity and forming new schemas. The infants find a behaviour interesting and engage in the repetition of the same behaviour by coordinating their own senses for (example: making a vocalization). This interest helps them to learn new behaviour by motivation. The behaviour is recognized as a primary and circular as it focuses only on the infant’s own body.

Substage 3- Secondary Circular Reactions(4-8 months):

At this substage, the infants start to interact with objects found in the environment and become more focused on the outside world. They intentionally repeat the same action to trigger a response. They become actively engaged in the outside world and become enlighted in being able to make things happening. They find joy and pleasure by repeated motions (example: banging two boxes together and hear the noise they produced on their own).

Substage 4-Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions(8-12 months):

During this stage, the infant combines their basic bodily reflexes, uses planning and coordination to achieve a targeted goal. The infant engages in others behaviour and evaluates upcoming events. During this stage, they tend to understand the objects and their qualities placed before them. Example, a child would understand that shaking of a rattle would make noise. They tend to be capable of having a thought and perform a planned, targeted activity by compounding schemas to achieve the desired effect. This could be due to the development of the prefrontal cortex of the Brain. For example, if an infant is seeing a toy under a table and he crawls and reaches to grab that toy. The infant aligns both internal and external skills to achieve a targeted goal.

Substage 5- Tertiary Circular Reactions(12-18 months):

The toddler starts to explore the world in a trial-and-error method, using sensory and motor skills during this sub-stage. They enthusiastically engage in experimenting in order to learn new things. For example, the child would roll a ball down the floor to see what would happen.

Substage 6: Representational Thought(18-24 months):

It is the ending of the sensorimotor stage and the toddler sees and perceives objects in the form of symbolic representations. They move from performing the only action to mental operations. They develop a basic understanding of how objects work and can be used. They tend to remember things that were heard recently and tend to think logically with immature understanding. They engage in pretend play. This period is considered as the transition phase between the sensorimotor stage and the pre-operational stage of the Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory.

Piaget

Piaget considered the developing object permanence is one of the most vital attainment during the sensorimotor stage of development.

It is the ability of the child to understand that the objects exists even when they are not seen or heard. During this stage, an infant knowledge about the world is limited to their sensory perceptions and motor activities and behaviors are restricted to primary motor responses caused by simple sensory stimuli.

For example: Children believe that the person exist when playing hide-and-seek or pee-ka-boo. They believe in the existence of that person in spite of their absence in front of them.