Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development According to Jean Piaget

Introduction

The emergence of the capacity for thinking and comprehending is referred to as cognitive development. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget studied how children’s minds developed during childhood. He is regarded as the father of cognitive development and investigated the intellectual growth of his three children. He declared,

“Cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience.”

The sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage, according to Piaget, are the four fundamental phases of cognitive development.

Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development According to Jean Piaget

  • Beginning from birth and lasting until two years old is the sensorimotor period.
  • The kid begins engaging with the surroundings at this stage and strives to comprehend it.
  • Motor senses including sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste begin to develop in the kid.
  • They begin to perceive the world using these senses.
  • They begin to distinguish between living things and inanimate items. Out of sight, out of memory applies to everything.
  • Children begin to think symbolically at the conclusion of this period. This indicates that young toddlers begin to mentally symbolise items.
  • Children also develop object permanence, which is the capacity to acknowledge the existence of a thing even when it is hidden or not perceptible.

Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development: Experiment

When youngsters are playing with a ball, they become drawn to it and will forget about it if it is out of their sight. This is an example of cognitive development during the sensorimotor stage. When a youngster achieves object permanence, they begin to acknowledge the object’s presence even when it is hidden from view.