ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the milestones in infant cognitive development with particular attention given to the developmental cognitive stages described by a Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget. Piaget's theory of cognitive development laid the groundwork for much of the understanding of infant cognition. Piaget formulated his theory of how intelligence is structured from childhood to adulthood through careful and extensive observations of his own children. The Piaget identified a progression of cognitive events during infancy that brought infants from reflexive beings at birth to active problem solvers by two years of age, a period of cognitive development that Piaget termed the sensorimotor stage. The stage contains six substages, each of which is characterized by the infant's passing certain major cognitive milestones such as active experimentation or use of symbolic play. Traditional infant tests measure infant cognitive development. These tests assess the overall developmental status of infants. Normed infant behavior scales were first used in the Gesell schedules.
