The Sensorimotor Stages: When Parents Are Sensitive To Their Infants

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Secure attachment develops when parents are consistently warm, responsive, and sensitive to their infant’s needs. Insecure attachment forms when an infant’s parents are neglectful, inconsistent, or insensitive to the child’s mood or behaviors. The Strange Situation is when an infant and mother are brought into an unfamiliar room and the child plays with toys. A stranger enters the room and the mother leaves shortly after leaving the infant alone with the stranger. The mother returns, leaves again, and then returns again. The securely attached infant will use the mother as a “secure base” always returning to her side. The infant is uneasy when the mother leaves the room. On the other hand, the insecurely attached infant is less likely to explore, …show more content…

Infants gain knowledge through direct experience and manipulation. They discover sensory knowledge such as, how objects look, taste, fell, smell, and sound. They learn how to reach, grasp, push, pull, and pour. Infants in this stage have the “out of sight out of mind” thought process. Towards the end of the sensorimotor stage, children obtain object permanence, the object still exists when not in sight. The preoperational stage continues on until age 7. This stage is crucial to the child’s ability to use words, images, and symbols to represent the world. Children in this stage exhibit egocentrism, not understanding events from other’s perspectives. The child experiences irreversibility, the inability to reverse sequences, and centration, the tendency to focus on only one aspect. A child cannot understand that two equal quantities are the same even if one changes appearance. During the concrete operational stage, children are less egocentric and are capable of logical thought. They understand the principle of conservation, but cannot think beyond tangible objects. The formal operational stage starts at the beginning of adolescence and allows children to be more systematic and logical. It reflects the ability to think logically when dealing with abstracts and hypothetical …show more content…

Parental over control hinders spontaneity and sense of purpose, while promoting guilt and fear of punishment. Middle and late childhood (6 to 12 years) children develop pride and competence in schoolwork and social activities. Negative experiences promote pervasive feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. Adolescence is when kids experiment and develop self-definition and forms commitments to future adult roles. Those that feel pressured in this stage may experience confusion of his or her identity in society. During young adulthood, children develop lasting and meaningful relationships, therefore establishing a sense of connection and intimacy with others. However, fear of rejection causes the inability to form these relationships and become psychologically isolated. When one experiences middle adulthood, unselfish concern for the welfare of the next generation develops through care for other, productive work, and community involvement. Self-indulgence and self-absorption leads to boredom and lack of meaningful

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