How Does Perceptual Skills Affect Children Become Part Of...

How do perceptual skills in the first few months of life help children become part of the social world? Discuss with reference to developmental theory and research. During the first 6 months of life, an infant develops many perceptual skills that help them to become part of the social world. Perceptual skills are rapidly learnt by the infant through human contact and tuning into the environment around them; infants use their senses to grasp a basic understanding of their surroundings. All infants are born with innate reflexes; that help them engage with and become part of the social world these include; sucking, grasping, and looking (Leman, Bremner, Parke Gauvain, 2012). Bowlby (1958, as cited in Meins, 2003) described how an†¦show more content†¦These help the infant to be active in their own development by organising their initial schemas (a unit of knowledge which are initially an infant’s innate reflexes) then adapting them to new found schemas (voluntarily using reflexes for satisfaction) thus constructing their own social world (Piaget, 1952, as cited in Leman et al., 2012). Piaget’s theory has been criticised for underestimating an infant’s abilities; especially the timings in which an infant is able to carry out a particular behaviour. So it’s difficult to pin-point an exact time frame of development. However, his theory is still heavily influential, maintains empirical validity and preserves heuristic values by stimulating many hypotheses today. Visual perception is the â€Å"process of organizing and interpreting visual sensory stimuli.† (Kavale, 1982). An infant’s vision is a perceptual skill that rapidly develops at 2 to 3 months of life (Courage Adams, 1996). The visual acuity of a newborn is initially very poor, but this improves rapidly during the first 6 months (Maurer Lewis, 2001). This is when the fovea is fully developed; making vision clear (R. Wilson, 1988). Clear vision enhances chances of survival from an evolutionary perspective; so the development of perceptual skills in an infant’s first few months of life is crucial for their survival and ultimately