Piaget and sensorimotor development

 Introduction

            Sensorimotor development is a milestone that is characterized by intellectual growth, change in behaviors, symbolic abilities, and mental representation. The stage of sensorimotor development was developed in 1936 by Jean Piaget. During this period, psychologists focused on the theory of behaviorism to understand the connection between behaviors and the environment. However, there was an intellectual movement that influenced the psychologists in studying cognitive psychology or the mental processes from childhood to adolescence. When Piaget was fifteen years, he was struggling with an identity crisis and during this period, he had a vision of becoming a biologist and he started to study epistemology and to write a philosophical novel.  During his studies, he developed an interest in the nature of thought, psychological experiments, philosophical thinking and psychology of intelligent. In studying intellectual development and intelligence in children, he wrote two books one of them being on the sensory development.  He confirmed that in the first two years of child's development, children encounter six sequential stages and these stages help them use inborn skills and abilities to understand the world around them.

 

 In the first 2 years of child development, children experience a rapid cognitive development that is characterized by a change in behavioral patterns, use of symbols and mental representations. The sensorimotor development stage is significant as it empowers further cognitive development or in other words, children develop cognitive skills which help in future cognitive growth (Haaften, Korthals & Wren, 1997). In studying cognitive development, Piaget was interested in understanding the cognitive skills in children and how they develop memory and thinking. Psychologists who were involved in the cognitive domain had a common perspective that the cognitive domain is characterized by beliefs and truth values unlike in other domains such as moral domain where things are judged as good or bad. Piaget claim was that cognitive development is the foundation of the information processing which enables one to solve problems. Thus, he focused on cognitive development on the working memory, speed and quality processing, perceptual abilities, and neurological constraints. Piaget used a unique approach in interpreting the cognitive development since he believed that cognitive development starts during the first two years or in other words, this is the period in which children begin to understand the concepts such as the object, time, number and more (Haaften, Korthals & Wren, 1997). Piaget also believed that to understand early cognitive development, one should observe the interaction between the subjects with objects and observe the subject's activity.  He argued that these sources of knowledge provide both empirical and logical knowledge and both are important in understanding cognitive development.

 

 In the cognitive domain, Piaget developed broad stage sequences with specific age estimates. He proposed four stages in which children move through. They include the sensorimotor stage- the first two years when children understand the world around them, interact with the environment, and make discoveries through sensory experience (Haaften, Korthals & Wren, 1997).  The second stage is the pre-operational stage when children aged 2 to 7 think concretely and symbolically, they improve in language and thinking and they interpret things with respect to other's perspective.  The third state is the concrete-operational stage and at this stage children aged 7 to 11 years think logically, and they use inductive reasoning.  The last stage that Piaget developed in the cognitive domain is the stage of formal operations which states that at the age of 12, children are able to think abstractly about ethical issues, moral and philosophical issues (Haaften, Korthals & Wren, 1997). They are able to use deductive reasoning, solve problems using multiple solutions and create systematic plans. The purpose of describing these stages is to show that Piaget established several dimensions that characterize normal development. These stages have sub-stages and the paper will look on the sensorimotor stage and its sub-stages. 

 

 The sensorimotor stages (first 2 years)

 Simple reflexes

 Simple reflexes stage occur during the first month. During this period, children are involved in various activities such as sucking fingers, bodily movement and crying, among others (Chapman, 1988). From the reading, Lucienne and Laurent started sucking their fingers immediately after birth and they continued with this activity until the end of the first month.  On day two, the children were able to develop sucking movements such as moving their heads to search for the breast and by day 3, they were able to suck the nipple. However, the sucking of fingers, the bodily movement and the ability to suck the nipple were not directed to any goal or in other words there was no true intention in these activities.

 

Primary Circular reactions

 In this stage, children aged 1 to 4 months develop sensory coordination or in other words, they are able to focus on own body when doing the activities. For example, Lucienne and Laurent were able to notice the effects of their actions through forward-looking. They were able to hear, see, listen, and to grasp during the second month. Generally, in the primary circular reaction, children create coordination in the motor scheme and the sensory scheme (Chapman, 1988). For example, by the third month, children are able to coordinates vision with bodily movement, and to grasps visible objects. 

 

Secondary Circular Reactions

  In this stage, children aged 4 to 8 months repeat activities such as pulling strings, shaking an object and other activities that are goal-directed (Rathus, 2018).  The activities are characterized by intelligence and the desire for recreation.  Children are not able to achieve the true intentionality but there are only interested in repeating the action. For example, Lucienne and Laurent enjoyed kicking the cloth dolls and they repeated the activity so that the doll can keep on swinging back and forth.

 

Coordination of Secondary Schemes

 In this stage, children aged 8 to 12 months do not focus on interesting occurrences but they develop goal-directed behaviors. They differentiate the mean an end or in other words, they develop reciprocal assimilation and they are able to function in an analogous manner. Even though they are unable to make a sensorimotor judgment, they carry out concrete actions and they also form value and ideality (Chapman, 1988).  The reciprocal assimilation helps them build mutual accommodation which maintains the relationship experienced and helps in the construction of virtual relations.  For example,

 

Tertiary Circular Reactions

 In the fifth stage, children aged 12 to 18 months are able to engage in active experimentation. They discover that their actions have effects and they repeat the actions to see the effects.  Unlike in the previous stages where children focus on repeating the actions to enjoy the results, in this state they focus on achieving a certain objective (Rathus, 2018). If the child finds a stumbling block to the attainment of the results, he may engage in mental trial-and-error until the desired result is achieved.

 

 Invention of New Means

 The last stage occurs when a child is aged 18 to month 24 months and during this period, the child is able to develop symbolic through mental exploration (Rathus, 2018).  They discover new ways of doing things through mental combinations. Through successive approximation and series of trials, the child identifies the solution to a problem and them executes the correct action.

 

Conclusion

  In general, the research paper has shown that developmental psychology is a domain that put interest in understanding human cognitive, emotional and physical development. The domain also put interest in understanding the factors that influence these developments.  Piaget, one of the psychologist showed interest in child development especially in the area of cognitive development. Through extensive research, Piaget found that children go through various cognitive changes from childhood till adolescence. Piaget found that in cognitive development, children engage in various pattern of actions and go through different stages. The knowledge of cognitive development is significant especially in the education institution since teachers can focus on the child's development level in helping them solve problems. Teachers and parents can also apply Piaget views to understand information processing and help children solve problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 References

 

Haaften, W., Korthals, M., & Wren, T. (1997). Philosophy of Development: Reconstructing the

Foundations of Human Development and Education. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

 

Chapman, M. (1988). Constructive evolution: origins and development of Piaget's thought.

Cambridge [etc.: Cambridge University Press.

 

Rathus Spencer. (2018). HDEV 2: PSY 232 Developmental Psychology Series. Cengage

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