Sensorimotor development

Description

The intelligence of the young child is taken to be sensorimotor, when thought and action are virtually inseparable. Six stages of sensorimotor development may be distinguished.

1. The first stage (0-1 month) is characterized by stabilization of the reflexes. Performance is improved and a generalizing and differentiating tendency is evident.

2. The second stage (2-6 months) is characterized by the stabilization of acquired (as opposed to unborn) behaviour patterns, indicating the influence of ontogenetic experience. Reflexes are coordinated, resulting in new and more complex behaviour patterns.

3. The third stage (5-8 months) is characterized by acquisition of new patterns of action that are more than the extensions of the schemata of the previous stage. There is a shift in interest to the external effects of actions and a search for actions that have interesting external effects.

4. The fourth stage (8-12 months) is characterized by the intentional application in new situations of familiar action patterns as means toward the attainment of desired ends and goals.

5. The fifth stage (12-16 months) is characterized by the child's ability to invent new behavioural actions as a result of a trial-and-error, goal-directed search. He capitalizes on accidental discoveries and uses these as a means towards desired goals.

6. The sixth stage (16 months onwards) is characterized by the ability to form mental representations (namely the capacity to imagine the external world and its possible transformations in the absence of perceptual cues) and the ability to form mental inventions (namely the capacity to think out actions before executing them).