If Only Babies Could Talk! Discover What Your Baby is Trying to Say to You By: Gareth A Williams
If babies could talk, what would they say? Although we have movies like "Look Who's Talking" that can give us a clue to such questions, we are still curious. What would babies even have to talk about? What goes through a new born babies mind? Through various studies available, we know that, really, not much goes through a babies mind at all. Their minds have not yet developed to where they even can thoroughly think. We have what is called the "Theory of Cognitive Development" that has developed theories of the development of the mind of a person from birth to adulthood. This group of theories was first developed by the Swiss philosopher, Jean Piaget, and follows as such:
From birth to around one month of age, it is believed that this is the stage of simple reflexes and the learning of one's reflexive behaviour. From one to four months of age, babies go through their first habits and primary circular reaction phase. Here, the focus is still on the baby's body and not its mind yet. From four to eight weeks, the child goes through his or her second part of the phase of habits and primary circular reaction phase. In this phase, the infant becomes more object oriented, and beginning to move beyond self preoccupation.
The coordination of secondary circular reaction phase is from eight months of age to the child's first year of age. In this phase, babies begin to develop hand-eye coordination and coordination of vision and touch. From a year to eighteen months the child then goes through what is called the Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity phase. Here, they begin to experiment with the objects and see what they can make happen with them. In the final phase of what is called the sensorimotor period (birth to two years of age), there is what is called the internalized schemes phase, which lasts from eighteen months to two years. Here the child learns to form mental representations from primitive symbols, kind of like putting a name with a person.
So you see, the child doesn't even use its mind for thinking of any kind until with is called the preoperational period, which lasts from two years of age to four years of age. From then on the human brain continues to develop. It is said that the frontal lobe of the brain, which is used for judgement, isn't fully developed until the early to min twenties. So you see, when contemplating what your baby is thinking, the answer is actually nothing.
From birth to around one month of age, it is believed that this is the stage of simple reflexes and the learning of one's reflexive behaviour. From one to four months of age, babies go through their first habits and primary circular reaction phase. Here, the focus is still on the baby's body and not its mind yet. From four to eight weeks, the child goes through his or her second part of the phase of habits and primary circular reaction phase. In this phase, the infant becomes more object oriented, and beginning to move beyond self preoccupation.
The coordination of secondary circular reaction phase is from eight months of age to the child's first year of age. In this phase, babies begin to develop hand-eye coordination and coordination of vision and touch. From a year to eighteen months the child then goes through what is called the Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity phase. Here, they begin to experiment with the objects and see what they can make happen with them. In the final phase of what is called the sensorimotor period (birth to two years of age), there is what is called the internalized schemes phase, which lasts from eighteen months to two years. Here the child learns to form mental representations from primitive symbols, kind of like putting a name with a person.
So you see, the child doesn't even use its mind for thinking of any kind until with is called the preoperational period, which lasts from two years of age to four years of age. From then on the human brain continues to develop. It is said that the frontal lobe of the brain, which is used for judgement, isn't fully developed until the early to min twenties. So you see, when contemplating what your baby is thinking, the answer is actually nothing.
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