Coordination of secondary circular reactions is to tertiary circular reactions as

• Infants have simple motor habits that are centered around their own body.

• Imitation of familiar behaviors begins and actions become aimed at repeating those with interesting results.

• Behavior becomes intentional and new ability to find a hidden object in the first location it was hidden(object permanence).

• Begin acting on objects in order to explore them, imitation of novel behaviors and ability to search in several locations for a hidden object(accurate A-B search).

• Ability to internally depict objects and events, deferred imitation, make-believe play and ability to find an object that has been moved while out of sight(invisible displacement).

        According to Piaget, newborns cannot purposefully explore the world, but instead they have circular reaction, which allows their body movements to prompt new experiences. When a child repeats an actions over and over again, they learn and create new schemes, which are organized ways of making sense of experiences. 

        As a child's brain develops, so does their ability to process information and pay attention. By the time an infant is 2-3 months they can explore objects and patterns, and by 4-5 months they can differentiate between two objects. Interesting stimuli can keep a baby engaged for quite some time. By the first year, infants pay attention to novel events and by 2, they are capable of intentional behavior. Toddlers become able to focus on simple, goal-oriented tasks, such as stacking blocks, as their attention span increases. 

        Rapid cognitive development in babies also comes with increased memory capability. Operant conditioning research shows that infants' memories increase drastically during infancy and toddlerhood, moving from context-dependent to context-free. Habituation/recovery research confirms that infants learn and retain information by simply watching objects, people, and events. By the end of the first year, infants are able to recall, meaning they can remember something that is not present.

        Operant conditioning research also studied infants and categorization. It was found that in the first few months, babies categorize stimuli based on color, size, and shape. By the time they are 6-12 months, they can categorize food items, plants, animals, furniture and vehicles. Infants at this age can also sort people by their voices, gender, age, emotional expressions and movements. 

        Vygotsky studied the social context of early cognitive development and theorized that children master activities by engaging in joint activities with their parents, family, and members of society. The zone of proximal development encases tasks that a child cannot do alone, but can learn to do with help. 

        All of this development of the brain and gains in perception help set the foundation for language. By 6 months, an infant can distinguish their own language and break up speech into words and phrases. They start to comprehend words and around 12 months they say their first word. By 2 years old they combine words and by age 6, they have a large vocabulary and speak in detailed sentences. There are 3 theories on how language develops:

1. Behaviorist Perspective(B.F. Skinner)

• Language learned through operant conditioning's reinforcement and imitation.

   2.  Nativist Perspective (Noam Chomsky)

• All children are born with a language acquisition device that biologically primes them to learn language.

   3.  Interactionist Perspective

• Language is developed using our inner capacities and environmental influences.

        By 2 months, babies begin to babble and make cooing sounds. At 6 months they begin to understand word meanings and their babble begins to contain more sounds, and by 10 months they may reflect sounds they hear. Babies initiate conversation by engaging in behaviors with you and eye contact. By 10-11 month, they notice that another person's focus can help provide information about an object. When a parent gives joint attention, their child will comprehend more language, produce meaningful gestures, and show fast vocabulary building. Around 12 months they may speak their first word, which usually refer to important people, animals, objects that move, food, or familiar actions. They may underextend by applying words too narrowly or overextend by applying them to widely. Toddlers begin to add words to their vocabulary at a rate of 1 to 3 words per week and by 24 months they can gain 1 or 2 words per day. Once they build a decent vocabulary, they begin combining two words together. 

    On average, children say their first words around 1  year old, but the range is from 8-18 months. Many factors contribute to this, such as genetics, environment, temperament and how often they are spoken to. Some children pick up a referential language style, meaning they vocabulary consists mostly of words that refer to objects. Their is also expressive style, which uses social formulas and pronouns such as "thank you" and "done". 

        In order to promote early language development, adults should speak to young children in child-directed speech(CDS). This is a form of communication that is broken up into short sentences with exaggerated expressions, clear pronunciation, distinct pauses between speech segments, and repetition of new words. Infants prefer CDS and by 5 months, they are more emotionally responsive to it than adult talk. Reading to, talking to, and playing with your children greatly enhances and increases their learning of language.