Object Permanence Essay

514 Words3 Pages
September 16,2013 Object Permanence Object Permanence is where a person understands that just because an object cannot be observed using one of your six senses such as: sight, hearing, touching or smelling, the object continues to exist. The theory of object permanence was created by a Swiss Psychologist name Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget first studied his theory of Object Permanence with infants from when they were just born to two years of age. He claims that, infants develop the understanding of object permanence by the end of their “Sensorimotor stage” which lasts from birth to two years of age. (Santrock, 1991) Adella (who is a twelve month old baby) and I were both sitting on the carpet with nothing in sight but her pretend telephone in front of her. I held the telephone in my hand pressing one of the buttons, making sure her attention was on the phone. I laid the phone down on the carpet as her eyes followed. I then grabbed a washcloth and covered the phone. I asked her where the phone was and she got excited and lifted up the towel and revealed the toy. I applauded her after she lifted the towel from on top of the phone. I then reached back and grabbed my other towel. I caught Adella’s attention again, and she watched as I put the phone under the first towel then slid it under the second. I then asked her again where the phone was and she rapidly lifted the the first towel up. She got excited again until she realized that the phone was no longer under the first towel. She then looked over at the second towel and lifted it finding the phone. According to Piaget a girl at Adella’s age which is, twelve months would fit into the “Sensorimotor Stage”. The Sensorimotor Stage is which contains Object Permanence. (Santrock, 1991) Adella did apply to the Sensorimotor stage by the way she, lifted the towel knowing that the object was there even if she was not able to
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