Human Growth and Development
10-11-12

The First Two Years

The first two years after birth, through the developing person has to do with three domains biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial. There are many different theories regarding the first two years. The three most influential works on growth and development was done by Piaget, Freud and Erikson. Piaget’s theory was called cognitive development or the sensorimotor stage. This is when the child interacts with his surroundings through physical action such as pushing, sucking, grabbing, etc. Freud’s theory of development is psychosexual. He proposed three stages in psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic. Erikson’s theory is psychosocial. From birth until about one and a …show more content…
During this stage infants realize that objects still exist when out of sight. Piaget described four distinct periods of cognitive development. The first begins at birth and ends at about 24 months. Piaget called it sensorimotor intelligence because infants learn through their senses and motor skills (Berger, pg.153). The first two stages Primary circular reactions involve the child’s own body. This stage involves his reflexes such as grasping, sucking, staring, and listening. This stage usually lasts a month. Stage two is when the baby deciphers what kind of sucking to do differently. For example, the child may evidently suck a pacifier differently than sucking a bottle. Stages three and four are called the secondary circular reactions. This is where the baby interacts with something else. Stage three is from four to eight months. They discover “exciting things” which is new to them and they tend to make things last. When they see mommy coming in the room smiling with a bottle the child will make some kind of reaction because they know that its feeding time. Stage four is from eight months to a year. The child is becoming more deliberate and purposeful in responding to people and objects. (Berger pg.154) Stages five and six are called tertiary circular reactions. Stage five the child is more experimentive. They will flush things down the toilet, take apart things, and putting things in places where they