In this post you will learn and understand the first stage of how your child develops their brains and personality, and if you can get a another perspective of what is happening in your child’s head you will be in a position to help them grow more quickly.
The sensorimotor stage- it’s a big word and might not mean much to, so I will try to break it up so it can mean something to you in order for you to use it.
We have 5 senses, sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, we also have nerves throughout our bodies including the brain called neurones. The job of the senses is to detect and sense the environment you are in. The job of the neurones is to transfer the impulses to be processed so the brain can develop. Some neurones by pass the brain and are called reflex actions, like moving your hand away when you touch something sharp or hot.
Connecting the senses with the neurones can be understood as sensorimotor.
The sensorimotor stage starts from birth and last around up to the age of 2 depending what is taught to them. Your baby will learn about the world by their physical senses and physical actions. They see, hear, touch, taste and smell their environment and they learn how to move their bodies and manipulate objects.
Ever wondered why babies that are born deaf find it hard to speak, it’s not that they can’t speak or that anything is wrong with their vocal cords or anything like that, its just that they haven’t heard the sounds to the letters so fund it hard to repeat them.
One important point as a parent you need to understand at this stage is the concept of permanence. This is the understanding that something continues to exist even when you move it away from your sight.
Now it might sound silly to us, however a child develops permanence at around 8 months of age, and it shows that they are ready for the next stage of development. The experiment that the psychologist did to test permanence was to Show a toy and then hide toy under a blanket and to see if the child begins to search for it. If they started to search for the toy it meant they can form the image in the mind and know where to look for it. Another important point in the sensorimotor stage is the symbolic thought, in other words pointing and using gestures or symbols to show what they child is thinking and feeling, this is the first step your child will take to communicate with you and others.
Babies also learn about the physical properties of objects, such as size, shape, and texture, and how to manipulate them. They may learn how to stack blocks or fit shapes into a puzzle.
All of these skills are the foundation for more complex thinking and problem-solving that will be developed in later stages of development. So it’s important to nurture and support a baby’s sensorimotor development to help them reach their full potential.
As parents it’s our job to create a rich and stimulating environment for babies during this crucial stage of development. By providing them with opportunities to explore and learn through their senses and physical actions, we can help them build the foundation for a lifetime of learning and growth.
so it is very important that you as parent know what your child is feeling and thinking and once you know, you can then give them the toys, words and actions to accelerate their development, which would make you feel good too when you see them getting the advantage.
Please get in touch if you want to know of some of the techniques and toys i have used with my own children.
help@safcoach.com