Hábito sensório-motor: o preparo para a inteligência e suas implicações para a educação

The main Piagetian ideas on the sensory-motor period and its importance in the elaboration and adaptation of the function and preliminary structures for the development of intelligence and its implications for education are provided. Methodology is foregrounded on a bibliographical survey on the topics mentioned above and on the interpretation of Piaget´s works on knowledge construction during the sensory-motor period, ranging from the child´s birth up to 2 years. Habit becomes intelligence when it coordinates itself into strategies and aims. The indefinite repetition of a successful action is different from when one tries to grab an object in a new situation. Life is a builder of forms and the habit is one of them. The basic relationship that comprises development and learning is not one of association but of assimilation. Therefore, three aspects should be known by children´s educators, namely, the knowledge of the epistemological subject, the subject-matter that should be taught, and the interaction process between children and educators. Key words: sensory-motor habit, knowledge, education.