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Vision:

What does she see?

At birth visual acuity is very poor.
Images with high visual contrast
are therefore the most intriguing
to newborns. Infants are
additionally born with limited
color vision. Color vision,
however, develops very quickly,
matching that of an adult by 2-3
months. Though at birth they
have limited sight, infants have a
preference for images with more
elements in the upper half,
meaning that she loves to look at
you face! Initially, however, she
only focuses on the contrast of
your features, and not till later will
she focus on the features
themselves.

Audition:
Can he hear me?

Yes! Audition is the most

developed sense at birth, in
fact, he can even hear better
than you. Up till 10 mo. to
1 year infants can perceive
differences between
phonemes that their older
siblings and parents cannot.
Infants audition develops
by 7-8 months in utero,
although at this time and at
birth they are more tuned
to the rhythm of speech, as
of yet unable to actually
understand.

What to expect once

they've

arrived!

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Theyre not quite like youyet!

While infants have undergone incredible neuro- and synaptogenesis in utero, they do
not enter the world fully developed. Their vision, which is very poor when they are
born, will rapidly improve in the first few months, as will their understanding of the
sounds that they are highly perceptive to, even in utero, as audition is their most
highly developed sense at birth. Additionally, their motor and verbal skills will
develop bit by bit until, with the proper environmental input to stimulate their
biological impulse to develop, they will one day be just like you!

Smell and Taste

Both smell and taste develop very
early on, with newborns able to
differentiate between a variety of
tastes and odors. These senses are
believed to develop prenatally, and
research shows that infants have a
preference for familiarity, preferring
their mothers smell to that of other
mothers. This means that while he
initially can hardly see you, he can
recognize you by you smell!

Major Motor
Milestones
0 0.5 mo. Lifts head
2 4 mo. Uses arms for support
2 4.5 mo. Rolls over
4.7 7.5 mo. Sits without support
5 10 mo. Stands without support
6 9.5 mo. Pulls self to stand
7 12.5 mo. Walks with support
9.5 14 mo. Stands alone easily
11 14 mo. Walks alone easily

Language Development
While it will take many years for her
to speak and well as you, her
linguistic abilities will begin to
develop early on, beginning as cooing
at 1-2 mo. before developing into
babbling at around 4 mo. using
vowels and consonants with no
attached meaning. Between 12 and
18 months she will reach the One
Word stage, as she begins to attach
names to objects. By 18-24 months
this will develop into 2-word
telegraphic speech, as she begins to
try to form sentences just as you do.
The more she hears the more shell
learn, so talk to her, even if she wont
understand this will help develop her
vocabulary!