Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage is all about how babies learn through their senses and actions. From birth to age two, infants go from simple reflexes to more complex behaviors, developing crucial cognitive skills along the way.

This stage is divided into six substages, each with its own milestones. Babies progress from reflexes to intentional actions, eventually developing the ability to use symbols and solve problems mentally. It's a fascinating journey of cognitive growth!

Sensorimotor Stage Overview

Characteristics of the Sensorimotor Stage

• Sensorimotor stage spans from birth to approximately 2 years of age
• Infants learn about the world through their senses and motor actions
• Cognitive development is based on direct experiences and interactions with the environment
• Infants progress from simple reflexes to more complex, intentional behaviors
• Language development begins towards the end of this stage with the use of first words (mama, dada)

Substages of Sensorimotor Development

• Sensorimotor stage is divided into six substages, each characterized by distinct cognitive milestones
  • Reflexes (birth to 1 month): Innate reflexes dominate behavior (rooting, sucking)
  • Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): Infants repeat actions that bring pleasure (sucking thumb)
  • Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): Infants intentionally repeat actions to trigger responses in the environment (shaking a rattle)
  • Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months): Infants combine learned schemas to achieve goals (using a stick to retrieve a toy)
  • Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Infants actively experiment with new behaviors and observe results (dropping objects from different heights)
  • Mental Representation (18-24 months): Infants develop the ability to use symbols and solve problems through mental representation (pretend play, using words to represent objects)

Egocentrism in Infancy

• Egocentrism refers to the infant's inability to distinguish between self and the environment
• Infants believe that the world revolves around their own perceptions and experiences
• Egocentrism gradually declines as infants develop a sense of object permanence and begin to understand that objects exist independently of their own actions (realizing a hidden toy still exists)

Cognitive Processes

Schemes: Building Blocks of Cognitive Development

• Schemes are mental structures or patterns of thought that organize information
• Infants use schemes to understand and interact with the world around them
• Schemes can be simple (sucking reflex) or complex (using a spoon to eat)
• As infants gain new experiences, they develop and modify their schemes

Assimilation and Accommodation

• Assimilation occurs when infants incorporate new information into existing schemes
  • Example: An infant who knows how to grasp a rattle may attempt to grasp other objects using the same scheme
• Accommodation happens when infants modify existing schemes to fit new information or experiences
  • Example: An infant who tries to grasp a large ball may need to adjust their grasping scheme to accommodate the ball's size
• Assimilation and accommodation work together to facilitate cognitive growth and adaptation

Circular Reactions: Practicing and Perfecting Skills

• Circular reactions are repetitive behaviors that infants engage in to explore and master new skills
• Primary circular reactions involve the infant's own body (repeatedly bringing hand to mouth)
• Secondary circular reactions involve objects in the environment (repeatedly dropping a toy to watch it fall)
• Tertiary circular reactions involve intentional experimentation with objects and actions (trying different ways to stack blocks)
• Circular reactions help infants practice and perfect their cognitive and motor skills

Object Permanence

Development of Object Permanence

• Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight
• Infants gradually develop object permanence throughout the sensorimotor stage
  • At first, infants do not search for hidden objects (out of sight, out of mind)
  • Around 8 months, infants begin to search for partially hidden objects
  • By 12-18 months, infants can find completely hidden objects and understand that objects have an independent existence
• Piaget demonstrated object permanence through the A-not-B error
  • When an object is hidden in location A, the infant searches for it there
  • When the object is then hidden in location B, the infant persists in searching at location A, committing the A-not-B error
  • This error suggests that infants are still developing a complete understanding of object permanence

Importance of Object Permanence

• Object permanence is a critical cognitive milestone that lays the foundation for further cognitive development
• It enables infants to form mental representations of objects and engage in symbolic thought (using a word to represent an object)
• Object permanence is necessary for the development of attachment relationships, as infants learn that caregivers continue to exist even when they are not present (separation anxiety emerges around 8 months)
• Delays in the development of object permanence may be an early indicator of cognitive or developmental issues (autism spectrum disorder)