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Birth to Age Two: A Critical Period for Brain Development
by Dr. Benjamin Spock
reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Sensory-motor refers to the way infants and toddlers learn: by exercising their senses and their motor (muscle) abilities.
Their thinking is based on their physical experience. They are only beginning to use symbols (words) to refer to objects and people. They cannot yet use words as tools to think with.
By the end of the second year, however, the infant has a pretty good sense of how physical objects in the world behave. At this time, for example, she knows that objects continue to exist whether or not she can actually see or touch them (object permanence). She understands cause and effect, even if the link between cause and effect is not obvious. For example, she can figure out how to wind up a toy, even if no one shows her.
She has also developed theories about other people. She knows, for example, that certain behaviors are likely to make her mother angry, while the same behaviors make father laugh. If she has an older brother, she knows a lot about how to get along, or how (if she is in the mood) to tease or anger him.
Implications for children with disabilities
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget's understanding of sensorimotor intelligence has implications for children with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy.
A child who is less able to hold, turn, bang, stack, chew, and toss blocks will have a harder time learning about blocks, and also about object permanence and cause and effect.
With this in mind, a major goal of early intervention for children with physical disabilities is to arrange their environments so that they can explore with their senses to the fullest extent possible.
For example, by supporting the child's hands together in the midline, the therapist helps the child to experiment with passing blocks and other objects from hand to hand. This activity is critical for the child's thinking, even more than for his control of hand muscles.
Yes, all those repetitive games are helping
Another key implication is that repetitive play is a sign that the child is learning. You might still decide that it's time to end the meal when your child has tossed his spoon off the highchair for the fifth time. But perhaps you will help him figure out another, more appropriate, tossing game.
Also, you do not have to go out of your way to stimulate your child. Simply being exposed to everyday life is stimulating enough. He merely needs a safe place and permission to explore.
TV and computers aren't the same
Finally, Piagetian theory has implications for raising children in our electronic era. Because young children learn best by using all of their senses, the role of television and computers as teachers is quite limited.
Many infants and toddlers will stare for long periods at the colors on the TV screen, but they don't learn much. A game of patty cake, with its rhyme, rhythm, words, movement, surprise, holding, and cuddling is a much more effective teaching situation.
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Adapted from Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care
Reviewed August 15, 2004
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