The sensori-motor stage lasts from infancy until a child is approximately two years old. During this period, the infant is enabling its sensori-motor system. Indeed, the iconic image of the normal birth of a child is that of the physician or midwife swatting the baby’s buttocks as a means to help clear the airways of fluid and to induce the baby to inhale and thereby fill its lungs with air. From a computer perspective, we cannot help but only slightly facetiously relate this to a reset operation on a computer system. The biophysical structure is largely in place at birth, although certainly neurological and anatomical developments do occur after birth; in fact, it takes several years before an infant becomes a fully functional adult human. That distinction aside, however, the infant does have the necessary muscles, structural support, nerves and brain in place to make effective use of its sensori-motor system. However, it requires experiential development before that effective use can actually occur. So, in the first stage of human development the infant must learn about its connection to the world around it.

As we observed in Chapter 4, one aspect of this stage is the calibration of the emotional response system. While certain very basic emotional levels seem pre-disposed from genetic development, the nuanced features of emotions seem to require a learning process. It is during this stage that the infant comes to realize that it is distinct from the world around it, and that the foundations of metaphorical understanding are laid. This entails acquiring the understanding of permanence of external things and events, the understanding that things can still exist even through they are outside the direct purview of the infant’s sensori-motor system.

The learning process on the part of the infant is heavily dependent on the sensori-motor system at this level. The feedback mechanisms utilized proceed through the senses in order to effect the elemental emotional states that are being learned, not through the higher cognitive functions of the mind. Lessons learned through direct experience are recorded in an episodic manner. The real pain of touching a hot iron or the perceived pain derived from a warning sound or gesture from its mother are the effective mechanisms for teaching the infant about safely interacting with the surrounding environment. This is definitely not the time to give an infant lessons in the safe use of household implements. It is just not going to be effective to do so. Rather, we tend toward the ubiquitous admonition; “Don’t touch that!” During this stage of development, generalizations are not particularly effective; the rules of engagement must be learned essentially one experience at a time.

The learning process begins with the use of non-language mechanisms; facial expressions, hand and body gestures, tactile sensation and rudimentary sounds suffice in place of natural language. Nevertheless, it is during this stage that the basic groundwork is laid for the subsequent mastery of language, as illustrated by Michael Tomasello in two complementary books, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition and Constructing a Language. Probably nothing is more amazing to the parent than seeing the transition of a burbling, randomly gesturing infant into the defiant two-plus who is certainly capable of saying “No!” and then backing it up with moderately complete sentences.

In concert with a child mastering the underpinnings of language, a transition occurs into a new developmental stage; the symbolic stage (also called semiotic by Piaget and Inhelder). This lasts from about the age of two until about the age of seven years. During this stage, the child establishes in particular some facility for the manipulation of objects; fine motor skills from a physical perspective and basic arithmetic operations from a cognitive perspective. Indeed, it is during this stage that a child is introduced to the concept of counting. While it is jumping the gun just a bit, we will note that in the next chapter we will suggest a correlation between the concept of counting and the concept of identity and identification. This will be instrumental in addressing

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