Why do babies do the same thing over and over again?
According to Piaget most of babies 'ideas' are inborn reflexes, such as sucking and grasping but these enable the baby to interact with the environment though touch and taste. He thought all children moved through stages that did not vary. Throughout the first sensorimotor stage, the baby learns to imitate, and towards the end of the stage, can imitate something he/she has seen or heard quite a while before (i.e. not immediately afterwards, like sticking a tongue out) This is called deferred imitation.
One of the key developments in cognition is that Object Permanence, or understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can't be seen. Object Permanence is the ability of a child to understand that objects exist even if they cannot directly be sensed. Until this is achieved - then for children 'out of sight is out of mind'. This develops at around eight - nine months - for instance - if you show them a small car and then hide it under your hands what will happen? Before eight months - they will act as if it no longer existed - even when they saw you hide it. By nine months they will lean forward to look intently at your hands, then your face and then your hands again. They may try to uncover your hands as they know the car is there.
Exposure to situations involving the need for object permanence such as 'peek-a-boo' or 'hide-and-seek' fosters development by encouraging the child to experience different events and then learning how to coordinate his or her physical activity in response.
Look at the table opposite to see the sub stages in this theory.
| Stage | Age | Desicription |
|---|---|---|
| SensoriMotor | Birth-2 | Physically explores environment; repeats movements to master them, this stimulates brain cell development |
| Preoperational | 2-7 | They represent the world with images and words which develop to include symbolic thinking |
| Concrete operational | 7-11 | The child can reason logically and classify objects |
| Formal operational | 11-15 | The teenager thinks in a more abstract and logical way |
Stage 1 (0-1month) - Modification of reflexes e.g. the baby could learn to modify its sucking in order to fit the contours of the nipple- this is an example of accommodation. At the same time, the baby can assimilate the sucking response to an increasing range of objects. Other examples are blinking in bright light or gripping a finger.
Stage 2 Primary Circular reactions (1-4 months) - Primary circular reactions. Repetitions of actions done for the purpose of recreating a sensory experience that feels nice e.g. thumb sucking
Stage 3 Secondary Circular reactions (4-8 months) Secondary circular reactions involve repeating action e.g. dropping a toy off the high chair again, and again or as long as someone will pick it up and give it back to him. The infant begins to discover that means (actions) can lead to ends (interesting events).
Stage 4 Coordination of circular reactions (8-12months) Sometime between 8-12 months the infant the baby will begin to act intentionally to get a reaction and to demonstrate that they understand the functions of objects. They will put together actions separately to obtain a new goal. Piaget argued that to do this the baby must have a goal in mind. Babies will act intentionally to get a reaction and show they understand the function of objects.
Stage 5 Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months) This is a time of trial and error exploration e.g. repeatedly dropping an object in different ways to see what will happen, trying different things to make a parent laugh.
Stage 6 Early representational thought (18-24 months). This stage seems to mark the beginning of mental processes that are independent of actions. The infant is thinking about the world internally not just externally and this marks the beginning of understanding that things can be represented as symbols. The picture of a dog is not the same as a real dog even if they are called the same name.