Jean Piaget: The sensorimotor stage and motor development (Part 1)

The interaction between motor and cognitive development is a lifelong process particularly evident during the first 2 years. This is acknowledged in Piaget’s theory and his decision to call the first stage of cognitive development sensorimotor. In the sensorimotor stage, intelligence develops as a result of movement actions and their consequences. According to Piaget, movement is critical to the thought process. The sensorimotor stage, which normally lasts throughout the first 24 months of age, is a time of creating a foundation for all subsequent understanding that hinges on a child’s ability to perform bodily movement. An infant’s experience of being able to grasp and hold with certainty simultaneously influences the development of cognition. In the sensorimotor stage, knowing and thinking emerge as a result of action that occurs via bodily movement. Of particular importance in this stage are the environment and motor development. The sensorimotor stage is subdivided into six substages making this stage the most detailed of Piaget’s four major stages. The first substage is called exercise of reflexes and lasts from birth through the first month of age. This substage is characterized by the earliest form of movement behavior, the infant reflexes, and their repetition. According to Piaget, the repetition of the reflexes helps the child explore the world through movement and forms the foundation for cognitive understanding. This earliest form of movement behavior facilitates the development of intellectual behavior and may be the impetus for all future intellectual development. The infant reflexes are apparently innate forms of movement behavior that occur without stimulation from the higher centers of the brain. Reflexes help us adapt and modify our behaviors by experience. Gradually, reflexes are modified to produce a completely new behavior. For example, the nipple of the mother’s breast stimulates the sucking reflex in the infant. As another example, by accident, or by repetition of other reflexive movements, the child’s hand may come into contact with the mouth. By trial and error and as a result of modifying existing reflexive behavior, infants may learn to find the mouth with the hand, thus becoming capable of the gratifying act of sucking the thumb: They learn a new behavior. The second sensorimotor substage is known as primary circular reactions. Lasting from the end of the first month until approximately 4 months, this substage is characterized by the onset of increased voluntary movement. Infants now can consciously and capably create certain movement behaviors. Whereas in the first substage repetition occurred solely by accident, now the infant makes conscious efforts to repeat desired acts. By repeating actions, infants come to realize that certain stimuli allow them to repeat an activity voluntarily when the same stimulus is presented in the future. These repeated actions are known as circular reactions and are considered primary because they always occur in close proximity to the infant. Movement, therefore, plays an integral role in the development of thought processes. However, the relationship is reciprocal because the increasing cognitive abilities facilitate such movement concerns as eye-hand coordination and early reaching and grasping. Secondary circular reactions is the third substage of the sensorimotor stage of development Generally, this substage, which lasts from about 4 to 8 months, is a continuation of primary circular reactions but incorporates more enduring behaviors: Movement behavior is intended to make an event lasting. The infant repeats the primary circular reactions. Examples of behaviors common in this substage are persistent shaking of a rattle and banging a toy to make noise. Such behavior familiarizes the infant with the environment and its forces. During this substage, the infant’s interaction with the environment gradually expands. In fact, two or more movement forms may be incorporated to enable more thorough interaction with and manipulation of the environment. For example, infants may make visual contact with a rattle, which stimulates them to obtain and shake the rattle. Such action is further evidence that the infant learns the stimuli and actions necessary to initiate certain behaviors through interaction with the environment via bodily movement. Furthermore, once the child can integrate vision, hearing, grasping, and certain movement behaviors, imitation, a major characteristic of secondary circular reactions, is possible. However, like most events or objects in the life of an infant of this age, there is no sense of permanence. Objects last only as long as they are viewed. Once a rattle is removed from the view of infants in this substage, they cease to seek it because they assume it no longer exists. Imitation can be performed only as long as the source of imitation is immediately present. Source: «Human Motor Development”-A Lifespan approach (Greg Payne, Larry Isaacs) Recent Articles