An infants emotional, social and biological development is known as biosocial development. Biosocial development begins with rapid and widespread brain growth known as transient exuberance. Transient exuberance means the brain is growing exponentially and has the ability to retain learned information. Developmental stages of biosocial development include reflex, gross motor, fine motor and hearing.
The first stage of biosocial development is the ability of the infant to remember survival reflexes, according to former psychology professor Robert C. Gates in his book “The First Two Years — Biosocial Development.” Reflexes include how to breath, hiccup, sneeze, cry, suck and so on. Other physical development that occurs at this time include gross motor skills — standing, crawling and walking, fine motor skills — the ability to grasp and hearing.
According to Gates; book, neurons, dendrites and synapses communicate with one another to aid in biosocial development. People, sounds and sights are connected to the individual cells in the brain through visual and audio stimuli. One cell connects with up to 15,000 other cells to learn and remember phrases, voices, pictures, sounds, situations and objects.
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
“The First Two Years: Biosocial Development” explains Jean Piaget’s infant developmental theory. Jean Piaget, who lived from 1896 to 1980 was a famous Swiss developmental psychologist for infants and children. According to Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage, the first two years of an infant’s life are broken into five stages:
– The first stage encompasses the first month of life. This is when an infant simply reacts to the world using reflexes.
– Stage two, from one to four months, habits are formed using combined actions.
– Stage three, from four to eight months, the infant begins to interact with objects within reach. Repetition occurs.
– Stage four, from eight to 12 months, an infant becomes goal-directed and picks up cause and effect.
– Stage five, from 12 to 18 months, actions and behaviors can be controlled to achieve desired outcomes. Mini-experiments are conducted.
– Stage six, from 18 to 24 months, an infant attains the ability to think symbolically.
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Erikson (1904-1994) was a neo-Freudian who was born in Germany. He moved to the United States in 1933. It was after coming to the U.S. that Erikson theorized eight stages of human development. The first stage, from 0-18 months, corresponds with biosocial development. Trust or mistrust is learned by the infant through the actions of the caregiver. A reliable and affectionate caregiver will create trust and a sense of trust within an infant.