Memory, Cognition, and Psychomotor Development in Early Childhood

The Role of Memory in Intellectual Development

Memory is an important factor in intellectual development, influencing thought processes and information processing. Vygotsky considered the relationship between thought and memory, stating that for a young child, "to think means to remember." Current studies focus on the theoretical and evolutionary aspects of storage, coding, and retrieval. These are important from an educational point of view as they allow us to understand different memory strategies in children's short-term memory.

Short-term memory allows us to retain data briefly. For example, a child may remember the mobile toy immediately after seeing it. However, if strategies are not used to retain the information, it will be forgotten. Long-term memory allows us to record experiences that occur over a lifetime. In the case of children, their experience is shorter, so this type of memory consists of remembering experiences from previous years.

Cognitive Development Stages: 0 to 2 Years

During this period, children primarily learn through sensory experiences and movement, which Piaget termed the sensorimotor intelligence period.

Piaget divides the time from birth to 2 years into 6 stages, during which children gradually acquire an understanding of the world. The first and second stages involve learning about the body, using contact with people and objects to acquire new knowledge. Piaget termed these the primary circular reactions. The third and fourth stages involve engaging with objects and people, known as secondary circular reactions. In the fifth and sixth stages, children begin experimenting through their own actions before transitioning to thought. These are the tertiary circular reactions.

Psychomotor Development

Psychomotor development is a technique that favors body movement and the relationship and communication a child develops with the world.

Instrumental Psychomotor Skills

Advocated by Henry Vayer, this model focuses on basic motor drives like balance and coordination, as well as neuromotor behaviors like laterality and perceptual-motor behaviors such as spatial organization, spatial-temporal awareness, temporal structuring, and rhythm.

Relational Psychomotor Skills

Advocated by Andre Lapierre, this approach is based on free play and spontaneous activity with objects. The main objective is to facilitate expressive psychomotor skills, understood as the child's way of being in the world.

Psychomotor Skills in Education

In 1970s Spain, influenced by France, García Núñez advocated for language and bodily activity as the two basic tools to develop psychomotor skills, proposing motor activities appropriate for different educational levels.