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This article throws light upon the top three characteristics of an infant during period I. The characteristics are: 1. Senses Working in Co-Ordination 2. Acquisition of the Knowledge that There Permanent Space Surrounding the Infant 3. Goal-Oriented Behaviour.
Period I: Characteristic # 1.
Senses Working in Co-Ordination:
The eye, the ear, the touch (skin) are the senses which work in co-ordination in reference to a single object. Looking at his hand, held still, is a motor action of the child. Both, the eye and the hand are, involved therein.
When the motor schema of holding the hand still, has been developed, the child can now hold an object in his hand. Thus, the development of the schema of prehension is the result of the co-ordinated action involving eyes and hand (Fig. 19.1).
The process of the development of the schema of prehension, may involve the function of both the hands working co-operatively. The object happens to be the same which makes the various sense-organs work in an integrated way.
Sometimes, the infant looks at an object being diverted to it because of hearing a certain sound being the prehension schema produced by the same object. And, if the child has acquired the schema walking by that time, it would walk to it also.
Period I: Characteristic # 2.
Acquisition of the Knowledge that There Permanent Space Surrounding the Infant:
Initially, when an object disappears, the child has no idea that the object removed from his sight, still exists. But before this period of sensorimotor ends, the child would have acquired the idea that the object that has been removed from his sight still exists in the space.
The child would search for the same, walking through the space and towards the direction it was carried to. He even can take a different route to reach to that object. The idea of a surrounding space is a very significant acquisition of this period.
Period I: Characteristic # 3.
Goal-Oriented Behaviour:
The third significant acquisition of infancy is that the child develops or constructs schemas which are activated, involving more than one actions all directed towards the same goal. Such an integrated activity of the child is intentionally motivated. The child is motivated to reach to the end point of the sequence.
The child, who could so far prehend a doll, can now pick up a ball as well as a thin long cylindrical object also; and even a very thin fibre too—as a result of continuous attempts or trials at objects one after the other using the schemas already acquired, and thereby developing new schemas as per demands of the situations.
The child achieves its objectives varying its actions spontaneously and deliberately. But still, the child lacks conceptual schemas which develop very late. His behaviour is very concrete. Because of this limitation, the child, still, cannot plan his action ahead; that is, he cannot visualize through the sequence of future actions. This, of course, limits the child’s capability to adapt.
Piaget has divided the period of infancy into six stages to describe in greater details how the child, through his attempts (initially non-voluntary), adapts to the surrounding situations, thereby continually developing sensorimotor schemas.
Three of Piaget’s books are related to the developments occurring during these stages. The books are: The Origin of Intelligence in Children, 1952; The Construction of Reality in the Child, 1954; Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood, 1954.
The first book describes how the development of intelligence is rooted in the development of the sensorimotor schemas of the childhood, that is, of the first two years of infancy. It is during these twenty-four months that a good many adaptive behaviours develop. The second book analyses a child’s assumptions about different objects, space, time and causality.
The book gives an idea as to how long the child takes before he is able to perceive the reality of things.
The third book also contains examples of his observations to illustrate how the child grows from the stage of purely reflex action to the stage when he can behave in a voluntary manner, in many cases, accidental behaviour leads to the voluntary trials to achieve some goal.
But still, the child is guided by his fancy rather than by logical rules. In the beginning, the child imitates its model only when it is present before it; deferred imitation develops later on.
Piaget has described the period of infancy, dividing it into six stages. The characteristics of each are given here in a tabular form (see Table 19.1).
