The Motor Stage is a time of discovery about the self.

• The names of the stages sound a little like gobbledeegook, but they make a lot of sense when examined closely. The seven stages are:

  • MOTOR
  • THE MOTOR-PERCEPTUAL
  • PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR
  • PERCEPTUAL
  • PERCEPTUAL-CONCEPTUAL
  • CONCEPTUAL
  • CONCEPTUAL-PERCEPTUAL

• Let’s look at each one individually.

• 1. Motor: In the Motor Stage, the level of neural development, at least for the baby, is a system of basic reflexes.

• The child’s center of attention (using the term loosely) is inward bound. Piaget refers to this as a time of “autistic thought.”

• Indeed, the child is responding to internal feelings mostly, of hunger, discomfort, a need to be touched, and a little later, boredom.

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