In which stage do children primarily engage through sensory impressions and motor activities?

The sensory-motor stage, as identified by Jean Piaget, is characterized by children engaging primarily through their senses and motor activities. During this stage, which typically spans from birth to about 2 years of age, children learn about the world around them through direct sensory experiences—what they can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell—as well as through their physical interactions with their environment.

In this stage, infants and toddlers explore their surroundings, perform actions such as grasping and reaching, and develop a basic understanding of object permanence—the idea that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen. This foundation lays the groundwork for later cognitive development, as they start to understand cause-and-effect relationships through their own actions.

While the other stages, such as the preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage, build upon this early sensory-motor exploration, they focus on more complex cognitive processes like symbolic thinking, logical reasoning, and abstract thought. Therefore, the sensory-motor stage uniquely emphasizes the role of sensory input and physical activity as the primary means of interaction and learning during early childhood.