Abstract
<p>Developmental learning proceeds through exploration, yet its sensory consequences are not initially organised as usable evidence. The challenge is to explain how learners acquire the architecture that makes sensory change interpretable and organises experience into structured states over which predictions can be composed. We propose that development progressively constructs predictive and compositional forward models, through which prediction structures experience and the resulting structure expands predictive scope. We identify four stages and, for each, specify the limitation it addresses and the resulting gain in exploratory efficiency: progressive construction of recurring sensory and sensorimotor structure from approximately 7.5 to 24 weeks’ gestational age (GA); emergence of proto-somatic forward models around 24 weeks GA; emergence of proto-environmental forwards model around 34 weeks GA; and compositional chaining of predictions around eight months postnatally. By reorganising the learner’s effective data, each stage makes the next capacity learnable, casting development as a self-scaffolding process.</p>