Little Lupita's First Two Years!

Little Lupita's First Two Years!

At only one day old, little Lupita is brought to her new home, and her mom, Lulu, gently welcomes her baby girl as she sees that she's using the palmar grasp reflex on her mother's thumb. This is only one of the few simple reflexes that a newborn can do at this stage of development.

Lupita is now 2 months old, and her mom, Lulu, has noticed that she repeatedly kicks during diaper changes. Lupita has discovered that she can perform repeated movements with her body, also known as primary circular reactions.

At 6 months old, Lupita starts to discover something remarkable... that she can make noise in her environment with objects that surround her, this is called secondary circular reactions. While watching Ms.Rachel on the TV, she is making loud "THUMP!" noises on the floor with a bucket.

At 8 months old, Lupita is set down to have belly time and becomes aware that she wants to be with her mother; therefore, she initiates crawling towards her mother. The coordination of secondary schemas is seen here, and her mother, Lulu, starts to give her words of encouragement so she can get closer.

At a year old, Lulu tries to see if Lupita can play with different toys on the floor. Lupita softly touches the ball and sees that it can roll. She then starts rolling the ball faster and faster as a result. This is called a tertiary circular reaction.

A year has passed, and during this time, Lulu has incorporated different songs to mean different routines throughout the day. On this day, while singing the clean-up song, Lupita starts to push the chairs into the table and listens very well. This is called invention of new means through mental combinations as a result of seeing repeated motions of her mother while singing this song.

Something that I learned about Piaget's six sensorimotor substages is that there are different characteristics that reveal what developmental stage a child is at that I never used to consider in the past. The substage that was the most interesting to me was the invention of new means through mental combinations because, at this stage, the child is making more autonomous choices and developing not just gross motor skills, but also starting to slowly learn fine motor skills.

Reflection continued... My storybook demonstrates infant cognitive development how it shows a visualization of what to possibly expect during each stage. It is important for parents and early childhood educators to understand how infants learn because we can incorporate different learning strategies to help them achieve certain milestones.