Summarize the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years) definition below
During the sensorimotor stage, infants gain knowledge about their
environment through an increasing ability to coordinate sensory input
with their motor activity. Before about six weeks of age, infants merely
exercise reflex schemas. From six weeks to four months of age, infants
become increasingly aware of their actions and realise that their actions
produce interesting changes in the environment. They also begin to
repeat actions they find pleasurable. Towards the end of the first year, the
infant produces goal-directed behaviour. From the age of about one year,
infants deliberately vary their actions through trial-and-error
experimentation to see what the consequences of their actions will be.
At around one year, children begin to develop language. This involves
the ability to mentally represent or think about objects that are not in
their immediate environment. This ability is called symbolic
representation. Infants can now plan actions on the basis of imagined
realities. For example, they can go and find a hidden toy. During this
time, speech sounds and gestures are used to represent symbolically
something that is not present.
One of the most important achievements during the sensorimotor
stage is the development of object permanence. Infants are considered
to have attained an understanding of permanence when they realise that
objects and people continue to exist even when they are no longer visible.
The development of this ability is gradual; it appears between 4 and 8
months and is completely achieved between 18 to 24 months.