nursing chapter 6

sensorimotor intelligence

piaget’s term for the way infants think — by using their senses and motor skills — during the first period of cognitive development

primary circular reactions

the first of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involving the infant’s own body

secondary circular reactions

the second of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, involving the infant and an object or another person, as with shaking a rattle or playing peek-a-boo

object permanence

the realization that objects (including people) still exist when they can no longer be seen, touched, or heard

tertiary circular reactions

piaget’s description of the cognitive processes of the 1-year-old, who gathers information from experiences with the wider world and then acts on it

“little scientist”

piaget’s term for toddlers’ insatiable curiosity and active experimentation as they engage in various actions to understand their world

babbling

an infant’s repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins when babies are between 6 and 9 months old

holophrase

a single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought

naming explosion

a sudden increase in an infant’s vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age

grammar

all of the methods — word order, verb forms, and so on — that languages use to communicate meaning, apart from the words themselves

mean length of utterance (MLU)

used to measure a child’s language progress

language acquisition device (LAD)

chomsky’s term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation