what marks the beginning of representational thought? when children begin to ____.

Schema, Assimilation and Accommodation: Piaget believed that we are continuously trying to maintain cognitive equilibrium, or a rest, in what we see and what we know (Piaget, 1954).

Children have much more of a challenge in maintaining this balance because they are constantly being confronted with new situations, new words, new objects, etc. All this new information needs to be organized, and a framework for organizing data is referred to equally a Schema. Children develop schemata through the processes of absorption and adaptation.

When faced with something new, a child may demonstrate Absorption , which is fitting the new information into an existing schema, such as calling all animals with four legs "doggies" considering he or she knows the word doggie. Instead of assimilating the information, the child may demonstrate.

Accommodation, which is expanding the framework of knowledge to accommodate the new situation and thus learning a new give-and-take to more accurately proper name the fauna. For example, recognizing that a horse is unlike than a zebra ways the child has accommodated, and now the child has both a zebra schema and a equus caballus schema. Even as adults we continue to effort and "make sense" of new situations past determining whether they fit into our old way of thinking (assimilation) or whether we need to modify our thoughts (accommodation).

Co-ordinate to the Piagetian perspective, infants learn almost the world primarily through their senses and motor abilities (Harris, 2005). These bones motor and sensory abilities provide the foundation for the cognitive skills that will emerge during the subsequent stages of cognitive development. The first stage of cognitive development is referred to as the Sensorimotor Period and it occurs through six substages. Table 3.two identifies the ages typically associated with each substage.

Table 3.two Infant Ages for the Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Period:

Substage i	Reflexes (0–1 calendar month)
Substage 2	Main Circular Reactions (1–4 months)
Substage three	Secondary Circular Reactions (4–8 months)
Substage 4	Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8–12 months)
Substage five	Tertiary Circular Reactions (12–18 months)
Substage half dozen	Commencement of Representational Thought (18–24 months)

Substage 1: Reflexes. Newborns learn most their globe through the use of their reflexes, such equally when sucking, reaching, and grasping. Eventually the use of these reflexes becomes more than deliberate and purposeful.

Substage two: Principal Circular Reactions. During these side by side iii months, the infant begins to actively involve his or her ain body in some form of repeated activity. An baby may accidentally engage in a beliefs and find it interesting such equally making a vocalism. This interest motivates trying to do it again and helps the infant learn a new behavior that originally occurred past take a chance. The behavior is identified every bit circular and chief because it centers on the babe's own body.

Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions. The infant begins to collaborate with objects in the environs. At outset the babe interacts with objects (e.g., a crib mobile) accidentally, only then these contacts with the objects are deliberate and become a repeated activity. The baby becomes more than and more actively engaged in the outside world and takes delight in being able to make things happen. Repeated movement brings particular interest as, for instance, the infant is able to bang two lids together from the cupboard when seated on the kitchen flooring.

Substage iv: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions. The infant combines these basic reflexes and uses planning and coordination to achieve a specific goal. At present the infant tin engage in behaviors that others perform and anticipate upcoming events. Perhaps considering of continued maturation of the prefrontal cortex, the infant become capable of having a thought and carrying out a planned, goal-directed action. For example, an infant sees a toy car nether the kitchen tabular array and then crawls, reaches, and grabs the toy. The babe is coordinating both internal and external activities to achieve a planned goal.

Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions. The toddler is considered a "piddling scientist" and begins exploring the globe in a trial-and-fault mode, using both motor skills and planning abilities. For example, the child might throw her ball downwardly the stairs to see what happens. The toddler's active engagement in experimentation helps them learn almost their world.

Substage 6: Starting time of Representational Thought. The sensorimotor period ends with the appearance of symbolic or representational idea. The toddler now has a basic understanding that objects can be used as symbols. Additionally, the child is able to solve issues using mental strategies, to remember something heard days earlier and repeat information technology, and to engage in pretend play. This initial movement from a "hands-on" approach to knowing about the world to the more mental world of substage six marks the transition to preoperational idea.

Evolution of Object Permanence: A critical milestone during the sensorimotor menstruation is the development of object permanence. Object permanence is the understanding that even if something is out of sight, information technology still exists (Bogartz, Shinskey, & Schilling, 2000). Accordingto Piaget, younginfants practise not rememberanobjectafter it has beenremovedfromsight. Piaget studied infants' reactions when a toy was offset shown to an infant and so hidden under a coating. Infants who had already developed object permanence would reach for the hidden toy, indicating that they knew it even so existed, whereasinfantswhohad not developedobject permanencewouldappearconfused. Piaget emphasizes this construct because it was an objective way for children to demonstrate that they can mentally correspond their globe. Children have typically acquired this milestone by eight months. In one case toddlers have mastered object permanence, they enjoy games like hide and seek, and they realize that when someone leaves the room they volition come back. Toddlers too betoken to pictures in books and look in appropriate places when you ask them to discover objects.

In Piaget'due south view, around the same time children develop object permanence, they also begin to exhibit Stranger Anxiety, which is a fright of unfamiliar people (Crain, 2005). Babies may demonstrate this by crying and turning away from a stranger, past clinging to a caregiver, or past attempting to reach their artillery toward familiar faces such as parents. Stranger anxiety results when a child is unable to assimilate the stranger into an existing schema; therefore, she can't predict what her experience with that stranger will be like, which results in a fear response.

Critique of Piaget: Piaget thought that children'southward power to understand objects, such equally learning that a rattle makes a noise when shaken, was a cognitive skill that develops slowly as a child matures and interacts with the surroundings. Today, developmental psychologists think Piaget was incorrect. Researchers have establish that even very young children sympathise objects and how they work long before they have experience with those objects (Baillargeon, 1987; Baillargeon, Li, Gertner, & Wu, 2011). For example, Piaget believed that infants did not fully principal object permanence until substage 5 of the sensorimotor period (Thomas, 1979).

Even so, infants seem to be able to recognize that objects have permanence at much younger ages. Diamond (1985) establish that infants show earlier knowledge if the waiting period is shorter. At age half dozen months, they retrieved the hidden object if their wait for retrieving the object is no longer than 2 seconds, and at 7 months if the wait is no longer than 4 seconds. Even earlier, children equally immature equally 3 months old demonstrated cognition of the properties of objects that they had merely viewed and did not have prior experience with them. In one study, 3-calendar month-old infants were shown a truck rolling down a track and behind a screen. The box, which appeared solid but was actually hollow, was placed next to the track. The truck rolled past the box as would be expected. And so the box was placed on the rails to cake the path of the truck. When the truck was rolled down the track this time, information technology continued unimpeded. The infants spent significantly more fourth dimension looking at this impossible event (Figure 3.16).

Figure 3.16

Baillargeon (1987) concluded that they knew solid objects cannot laissez passer through each other. Baillargeon'due south findings suggest that very young children have an agreement of objects and how they work, which Piaget (1954) would have said is beyond their cognitive abilities due to their limited experiences in the world.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-lifespandevelopment/chapter/piaget-and-the-sensorimotor-stage/

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