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The transition from sensory-motor behaviour to symbolic activity

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Abstract

Pre-verbal, sensory-motor intelligence progresses to where the child needs some kind of representation for further cognitive progress and where his cognitive structures make such representation possible. Observational research shows that early symbolic behaviour occurs only after objects have been endowed with certain physical and conventional properties and after certain kinds of creative organizational behaviour have appeared. The beginnings of language can be studied as part of representational behaviour and may show such object-and subject-oriented duality in lexical and syntactic components.

Résumé

L'intelligence pré-verbale, sensori-motrice, progresse jusqu'au point où une représentation devient nécessaire pour que le développement cognitif puisse continuer, et où la structure cognitive rend possible l'avènement de la fonction symbolique. Des recherches montrent que des conduites symboliques s'installent après l'attribution aux objets de certaines propriétés physiques et conventionnelles et l'apparition d'activités organisatrices. Le langage se présente comme une des manifestations de la fonction symbolique et peut refléter une orientation bipolaire (vers les objets ou vers le sujet) dans ses composantes lexiques et syntaxiques.

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Sinclair, H. The transition from sensory-motor behaviour to symbolic activity. Interchange 1, 119–126 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02214682

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