Newborn Sensory Abilities

1. Newborn Sensory Abilities

2. 1. Touch • Newborns thrive on being held and cuddled.

3. The area of the brain responsible for touch perceptions, the primary sensory cortex, can process sensations by the fourth month of prenatal development. Skin nerves appear in week 10.

4. Touch has an amazing power to communicate love.

5. Touch sooths and calms the newborn. • Babies who are stroked lovingly cry less often. • Babies in the United States cry more than babies in many other cultures. In other cultures baby is often swaddled and carried on mother’s back all day long. (constant touch)

6. Touch has been shown to boost the newborn’s immunity. • Babies who are stroked lovingly don’t get sick as much. • Preemies who are massaged grow and develop faster than those who are left untouched in a neonatal incubator.

7. Newborns prefer soft touches… • …like a gentle caress or the feel of soft cotton. • …and tend to react negatively to scratchy, coarse fabric.

8. 2. Taste • Baby’s sense of taste begins to develop in the womb. • The 10,000 or so taste buds on the tongue and soft palate begin to appear 7 weeks after conception.

9. Different flavors from Mom’s diet are transmitted to baby through the amniotic fluid and , after birth, through breast milk. • Flavors of foods baby has been exposed to during pregnancy (amniotic fluid) or nursing (breast milk) are the ones he/she will tend to like when solid foods are introduced.

10. Babies are born with preferences for sweets. • This explains the popularity of pureed banana and applesauce when solid foods are introduced.

11. Hearing • Hearing is well developed at birth. • By 28 weeks gestation, the brain’s auditory cortex, which receives input from nerve cells in the inner ear, can perceive loud noises.

12. Newborns show a preference for high-pitched voices, like Mom’s. • (Why do you think this is true?) • At birth, a newborn can usually distinguish his/her mother’s voice.

13. During the first year the child’s hearing will sharpen and he/she will learn to track (locate the origin of) sounds • For the first 3 months, the baby will only turn toward a sound that originates in front of him/her. • By 6 to 12 months, the child will look toward the origin of a noise that originates behind him/her and/or across the room.

14. Smell • Baby’s little nose is in full working order at birth.

15. At birth, a newborn knows his/her mother’s scent (smell) due to the time he/she spent in the womb.

16. Newborns prefer sweet smells like the fragrance of vanilla or lemon. • Newborns naturally dislike bad odors and, since taste and odor are linked, they tend to dislike bitter or sour tastes.

17. The sense of smell seems to be strongly linked to memories and emotions.

18. Sight • Vision is the slowest sense to develop. • At birth, an newborn’s vision is poorly developed.

19. At first, a newborn’s eyes don’t work together. • Studies suggest that newborns see two of everything.

20. Newborns are best able to focus on objects that are 8 to 12 inches in front of them. • Images closer or farther away are blurry. • This is about the distance between mother’s face • and baby’s face during • breast feeding.

21. Newborns prefer to look at the human face. • They are especially drawn to the outline of the face or the hairline, which is easy to see because of the color contrast.

22. Newborns can distinguish between light and darkness, but they cannot clearly see colors until about 4 months. • The encourage the development of eyesight, give newborns high-contrast patterns (like black and white checkerboards or stripes) to look at. • Toys for newborns should be black & white or boldly colored.

23. At 4 months, baby will begin to use his/her eyes to coordinate his/her hand movements (eye-hand coordination), making reaching and grabbing easier.

24. Sensory stimulation promotes brain development. • Baby should be exposed to a variety of things to see, hear, touch, and smell.