I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t see everything that happened during the couple of months before my daughter could roll over: also in science, the thought has been that only measurable things count. These were the so-called milestones in the sensorimotor development, like rolling over. Assumed was that sensorimotor skills would develop first, and then cognition. This was first reported by Jean Piaget.

Piaget did an experiment that showed that children under ten months will reach for a cup under which something had been hidden, even though they saw that de object was hidden in a different place under an identical cup. Piaget called this phenomenon ‘object permanence’: knowing that something is there, even when you don’t see it because it’s covered. He thought that the experiment proved that young children do not have object permanence yet, since they reach for the wrong cup. He considered the development of this object permanence as the start of cognition, and the ability to acquire knowledge and understanding.

Others, like Esther Thelen, later proved that Jean Piaget had not been right. Piaget made children reach for cup A for a couple of times before he hid the object under cup B. With a couple of variations in the experiment, Thelen showed that the reason that children reached for cup A was that the repetition in reaching for the cup had created an ingrained movement pattern. The hand automatically reached for cup A, but the eyes of the child showed that he knew that the object had been replaced to cup B. Esther Thelen proved that when you

• did not repeat the movement as many
• let the child change his position
• let him make another movement in between

the kid was able to reach for cup B.

In these experiments, also memory plays a role. The younger the child, the shorter the time he will remember something. Because of the time span of Piaget’s experiment, younger children were not as good as older children.

These experiments show that from a very young age, repeated movements will become automated movement patterns and create habits. They also prove that cognition and comprehension start earlier than was always thought. Thirdly, they show that you need to be careful with premature interpretations of research data.

Since Esther Thelen proved Piaget wrong, we see the development of a child as a dynamic system. Everything is developing at the same time, and this development is closely linked to the experiences a child has had. Meaningful actions, such as rolling over, can suddenly happen. For example rolling over requires the child to have:

• Curiosity
• Motivation
• Stimulation
• Disappearance of the reflex patterns, like grip reflex, so the child can aim and grab toys.
• Development of the eyes, so the child can look far enough to realize the space around him and reach for toys further away.
• Memory for the movements the child makes or things he experiences, like being rolled over through his side to his belly and back. When he is on his belly and reaches for a toy, at a sudden moment he will fall over by accident and roll to his back. When this happens a few times, the child can remember it and actively look for it.
• Sufficient development of the connection between the different muscle groups.
• Sufficient muscle power.
• Sufficient balance

From the first day on, these factors are being developed because of the movements the child makes from the so-called ‘variability generator’. Esther Thelen and her team of researchers observed babies for one hour per week during a long period. They looked at the video tapes in slow motion with detail, to see if there were any patterns. Esther discovered that babies who are still under influence of reflex patterns make constantly changing movements all the time. In time, they will be able to control the movements better and better. Esther Thelen called this system of baby movements the ‘Variability Generator’. These movements also help them develop a sense of balance, because they push against the floor at different places all the time. Chava Shelhav translated these movements in the Child’Space Method into her ‘Developmental Movement Explorations’.

Together with the development of movement, the child will develop an image of himself and the world around him. He will understand the world better and better, while he plays more and more with different objects and learns to manipulate them. Also he starts to use more the space around him. Rolling over is the first movement through space, and will start the spatial orientation. For instance, the child will learn to understand what is under and above.

During the first months, your child will need time to get to know himself and to make a sensorimotor image of himself. From day one, your child is working on this in a world that is, by mean of his eyes, a protecting small world, which does not go beyond his cradle or caretaker when he is close, like during feeding.

How can you help your baby to develop himself to its full potential these days? Please share below.