Senorimotor Skills and Cognitive development

Essay by dirtydog64College, Undergraduate June 2008

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There are many changes that take place as an infant embarks on life. The infant starts to grow and put on weight at a remarkable pace. Integrated in this developmental stage, from birth to age 2, includes the sensorimotor skills and intelligence. Throughout this stage the infant will use senses and motor skills to begin understanding the new world around it. The newborn will be bombarded with new and constantly changing images and sounds. "Newborns strive to organize perceptions and to put them all together: sensations, sequences, objects, people, events, permanent and transient features, causes and effects."(Berger, 2005).

Stage 1 begins from birth and continues to one month old. This is when it demonstrates its reflexes, such as sucking, grasping, staring, and listening. The sucking reflex can be demonstrated by outside stimulus coming into contact with the baby's lips and then observing the sucking motion. This reflex is used to latch onto the mother's breast for feeding or a baby bottle for feeding.

The baby is also experiencing looking and listening at diverse objects in its surroundings.

Stage 2 continues from one month to four months of the infant's existence. At this phase the baby begins to merge acquired adaptations from previous experiences. "This change from reflexes to deliberate action occurs because repeated use of reflexive responses provides information about what the body does and how that action feels."(Berger, 2005). For example, a baby will begin to suck on distinct things in different ways. It will not suck on a pacifier the same way it does a bottle, because it can differentiate between the two at this stage in its advancement.

Stage 3 starts at four months and carries on till eight months of life. Throughout this phase the baby will become attentive of certain items in the vicinity of...