week 3 post 1 and 2

 

After reading this chapter I now have a better understanding on cognitive development. Cognitive development has four distinct periods of cognitive development. The first period is known as the sensorimotor intelligence. Sensorimotor intelligence begins at birth and ends when a baby is 24 months of age. This intelligence is Piaget term for the way infants think. They use their senses and motor skills during the first period of cognitive development. This is a two year long period and is divided into six stages. Stages one and two are known as primary circular reactions which involves the infant’s own body. The infant senses motion, sucking, noise, and other stimuli, and tries to understand them. Stage one is called the stage of reflexes, it only last a month. It includes senses as well as motor reflexes, the foundations of infant thought. The second stage is first acquired adaptations which is the stage of first habits such as a baby sucking his or her hand. The stage that I found very interesting is the new means through active experimentation. In this stage toddlers are known as the little scientist because they are very curious and try experiment with things. I thought this was very interesting because I never knew exactly why infants liked to experiment it’s their way of learning new things.

Also, I learned that children learn how to talk from child-directed speech, which is another way to say baby talk. It fosters early language learning. Language learning may be the most impressive cognitive accomplishment of infants. Various theories explain how infants learn languages as quickly as they do. The three main theories emphasize different aspects if early language learning: that infants must be taught, that their social impulses foster language learning, and that their brains are genetically attuned to language. I found this chapter very interesting due to the fact that I love learning about how babies learn and the reasons why they do certain things.