Sensorimotor organization and cognition in infancy : some francophone contributions

After it has been widely admitted by developmental psychologists, the contribution of motricity to the early cognitive processes is nowadays strongly disputed by some of them within the frame of perceptual theories of cognitive development. Focussed on the francophone contributions, the present paper advocates the opposite position by reminding the role of motricity and action in the sensorimotor and cognitive development. This role is then discussed, for the neonatal period, within the frames of the psychological and neurobiological approaches. It appears from this discussion that neither the possibilities of modulating reflex activities nor taking into account the covariations generated by the spontaneous neonatal motricity, are compatible with exclusively perceptual theories of early cognitive development.