The Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development

From the moment a child is born, important developmental processes begin to take place. Many of the early reflexes a child displays, like rooting to find food or startling in response to sound, serve as ways to learn more about the world around them. According to the theorist Jean Piaget, the earliest period of a child’s life helps set the stage for future development by helping children learn more about themselves, others, and the world around them.

Piaget’s theory suggests that children progress through a series of four different stages of cognitive development. These stages encompass numerous aspects of mental development including that reasoning, language, morals, and memory. Piaget believed that kids take an active role in this cognitive development, building knowledge as they interact with the world.

Keep reading to learn more about how sensorimotor development works, the six sub-stages that occur during this phase of development, and the important developments that occur.

An Overview of the Sensorimotor Stage

The sensorimotor stage is the period of development from birth through age two. During this initial phase of development, children utilize skills and abilities they were born with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to learn more about the environment.

Babies are born with a limited range of abilities, but they use those skills to learn more about the world around them. While it might seem like an infant mostly eats and sleeps, their interactions with caregivers and their environment provide a wealth of information that supports their cognitive growth.

In other words, infants and young children experience the world and gain knowledge through their senses and motor movements. Through trial and error, children discover more about the world around them.

The abilities that an infant is born with—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—combined with physical capabilities that continue to develop—including touching, grasping, and tasting—allow infants to interact and build awareness of themselves and what is around them. 

As children interact with their environments, they go through an astonishing amount of cognitive growth in a relatively short period of time—the sensorimotor stage lasts from birth to approximately age 2.

Stages of the Sensorimotor Stage

As any parent or caregiver can attest, a great deal of learning and development happens during the first two years of a child’s life. All of the changes that infants and toddlers go through during those first two years of life represent different aspects of this stage of development.

The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are characterized by the development of a new skill:

Reflexes (0-1 month)

During this substage, the child understands the environment purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)

This substage involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. For example, a child may suck their thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)

During this substage, the child becomes more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action to trigger a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy and put it in their mouth.

Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months)

During this substage, the child starts to show clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve the desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the observed behavior of others.

The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)

Children begin a period of trial-and-error experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.

Early Representational Thought (18-24 months)

Children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. During this time, children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations rather than purely through actions.

Object Permanence in the Sensorimotor Stage

According to Piaget, developing object permanence is one of the most important accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of development.

Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example. A very young infant will believe that the other person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or startled when the object reappears. Older infants who understand object permanence will realize that the person or object continues to exist even when unseen.

This is a classic example of how, during this stage, an infant’s knowledge of the world is limited to their sensory perceptions and motor activities and how behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.

Supporting Healthy Sensorimotor Development

So, what can parents and caregivers do to help foster healthy cognitive development during the sensorimotor stage? 

Providing responsive care is essential. During this period of development, children learn many things, including whether they can trust those around them. This helps set the stage not only for further cognitive growth but also for other important developmental skills, including trust and secure attachment.

Other ways to support health sensorimotor development include:

• Playing with your child
• Talking to your child
• Giving your child opportunities to explore 
• Letting your child engage in self-led play
• Using sensory experiences to help your child learn about the world
• Looking at and reading books with textures a child can touch and feel