Psychology Cognitive Development in infancy

Substage 1 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

What I found most interesting about psychology is the cognitive development in infancy

Between 0-1 months of age, infants show their reflexes such as sucking or looking.

These reflexes disappear during the first year of life. Their primitive schemes begin to change through very small steps of

accommodation.

Substage 2 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage Between 1-4 months, infants begin to show coordination between looking

and listening Infants will respond to different sounds. The infant will also suck on

anything that he is given or can reach. Infants will practice their sucking, grasping, looking and listening schemes.

Substage 3 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage At 4-8 months, infants become much more aware of things that happen

outside of his body. He will repeat an action to trigger a reaction. When a baby coos at his

mom, and she smiles at him, the baby will coo again to get his mom to smile again.

Object permanence begins to show more in this stage. Infants will understand that if you cover a portion of a toy with a blanket,

the toy is still there. But if you were to cover the entire toy, then the baby will think that the toy has disappeared completely.

Substage 4 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage 8-12 months, infants begin to show understanding of casual connections. The baby will go after what she wants and will combine two schemes to do

so. Imitation of novel behaviour begins to occur. The transfer of information

from one sense to the other. Babies will begin to keep a goal in mind and plan to achieve it.

Substage 5 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage Between 12-18 months, infants explores their environments with more

focus. They become very active at this stage. They try new ways of playing with toys or manipulating objects. They will try out different sounds to trigger a reaction to get attention from

someone.

Substage 6 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

18-24 months, development of use of symbols to represent objects or events.

Understands that the symbol is separate from the object. Their means-end behaviour becomes more sophisticated in this stage. Infants can find ways to overcome obstacles to reach things that they

want.

Challenges to Piaget’s view Studies have shown that Piaget may have underestimated the cognitive

capacity in infants. By changing the methods used to measure object permanence,

researchers have found that younger infants than Piaget suggested can understand object movements. (Lifespan Development, p.132)

Imitations appears at younger ages in infants.

Object permanence in infants Post-Piaget studies show that babies at four months old begin to show

signs of object permanence. Piaget assumed that a baby came equipped with a repertoire of

sensorimotor schemes, but his most fundamental theoretical proposal was that the child constructed an understanding of the world, based on experience. (Lifespan development, p.133)

Babies will pay more attention to the relationships between events than what Piaget had predicted.

Imitation in infants

Imitation starts to improve at 1-2 months of age. Two-part action imitation begins around 15-18 months. Piaget suggested that infants can imitate some facial gestures in the first

weeks of life. Deferred imitation occurs earlier than what Piaget predicted.

Memory Development in Infants Newborns are able to remember auditory stimuli that they are exposed to

while sleeping Infants can form new associations between objects and with their

memories of objects at 6 months These findings demonstrates that infants are more cognitively

sophisticated than what Piaget had supposed.

Language Development in Infants Between birth and 1 month of age, crying is the most common sound an

infant makes. 1-2 months infants will start to laugh and make cooing sounds At 6-7 months infants make consonant sounds 6-12 months babbling will begin By 9-10 months infants will know the meanings of about 20-30 words.

First Words At 12 or13 months infants will understand and respond to meaningful

words Between 16-24 months, toddlers will begin to add new words rapidly. This

period is known as naming explosion At 16 months old the child will have a speaking vocabulary of about 50

words.

How this will be useful to my personal life I find that Piaget’s sensorimotor stages will be helpful to my personal life

because it will help me understand how children are developing and what stage they are at when they reach a certain age.

It will assist me in the process of observing my own children when I have them, and it will also help me in responding quickly to my children’s needs, because I will understand what level they are at.

How this is relevant to my professional life Once I become an Early Childhood Educator, Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

will help me understand the development of the infants that I will have to take care of in the child care program.

It will also help me understand what activities to plan for the children because I will know which stage they are at and which activity will benefit them most.

References https://

www.google.ca/search?q=infants+in+daycare&biw=1278&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMInM-N0L31yAIVVvBjCh3Kaguq#tbm=isch&q=ABCs

https://www.google.ca/search?q=infants+in+daycare&biw=1278&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMInM-N0L31yAIVVvBjCh3Kaguq#tbm=isch&q=infants+interacting

https://www.google.ca/search?q=infants+in+daycare&biw=1278&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMInM-N0L31yAIVVvBjCh3Kaguq#

https://www.google.ca/search?q=infants+in+daycare&biw=1278&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMInM-N0L31yAIVVvBjCh3Kaguq#

Denise Boyd, Paul Johnson, Helen Bee Lifespan Development (2009) Fifth ed.