Taste

Babys taste preferences develop

prenatally. Because of the amniotic
fluid has different tastes, by getting
used to the tastes, baby develops a
preference to the tastes. In addition,
breast milk carries flavors, which also
influences babys taste preferences. A
study showed that in response to
sweet, sour, salty and bitter
substances, the facial expressions of
2-hour-old infants were similar to those
of adults (Rosenstein & Oster, 1988).
This indicates that some taste
preferences are innate because infants
had only been fed by milk or formula.
However, learning about taste also
occurs in early infancy. Researchers
found that baby would accept garlic
flavor milk if they were exposed to
garlic during breast-feeding (Mennella
& Beauchamp 1996).

Smell & Touch

Despite the common perception, babies
sense of touch and smell are welldeveloped from an early age. Newborns
can detect and distinguish a variety of
odors. From 4 days after birth, babies
show preference for the odor of milk to
other scents. From 1 week after birth,
newborns can amazingly learn to
recognize the scent of their mothers
breast pad and differentiate it from that
of another womans pad. Babies sense
of touch is similarly well-developed
before birth. Babies are sensitive to pain
and hot and cold temperatures or
dramatic changes in temperature.
Newborns are more sensitive to pain
than older infants. By the end of the first
year, babies learn to discriminate
between objects relying solely on their
sense of touch. Most importantly, their
sense of touch is a significant means for
babies to acquire information about their
environment, becoming crucial for their
early cognitive development.

Developmental Psychology
Liza Comart, Danwen (Della) Tang, Mika Kato, Miranda Camozzi

The Developing Baby

The stages of development
for your babys senses

Hearing
Hearing in babies is extremely well developed at birth because the auditory system is almost fully
developed in utero. A baby can even distinguish their mothers voice from others. At birth, a babys
hearing is not quite as acute as an adults; they have a higher loudness threshold and less sensitivity to
low-pitch sounds, which may be while adults raise their voice to such a high pitch when talking to an
infant. By 4 months, babies begin to localize sounds. By 6 months, babies may begin to imitate sounds.
By 8 months a baby begins to try language and babble. By the end of the first year a baby will only
respond to sounds of their own language, and by 2 years their auditory system is similar to an adults.

Vision
When your baby is born, her sense of sight is poorly developed. At first, everything your child sees will
be fairly blurry and limited to the immediate area (roughly a maximum distance of eight-inches), but by the end
of the first year of life her vision is almost fully developed. A newborn is able to make out general shapes and
light. Babies have a tendency direct their attention towards light sources. Within the first two months, your
baby will have learned to focus on individual objects and therefore follow moving objects. She will be able to
make out high contrast color differences in the first month, but will only be able to distinguish subtle tones by
the end of two months. Even at the end of two months, she will still prefer primary and bright colors.
Distinguishing subtle tones allows your baby to recognize more intricate patterns. By four months, she
develops depth perception, which accompanies and improves the ability to reach for objects. From five to
seven months, her capacity to distinguish details and recognize an entire object from a partial image will
develop. Distance vision is well developed by eight months, though not fully. From the ninth-twelfth month
your babys vision continues to sharpen, and by one year she will be able to recognize familiar people and
objects from across the room.