What Can Babies Do?

Babies spend a lot of time growing and developing for the first few years of life, more than they do at any other period in their life. They have many skills and abilities for being so young. Some of them they are born with, others they "grow into." But do you know the difference between the two? Here is a little quiz about what babies can do. For each item, decide when you think each ability first appears: (a) at birth, (b) one month, (c) six months, (d) 24 months, or (e) after 24 months.

1. The child can grasp the fingers of an adult so firmly that she/he may be pulled into an upright position.
2. The child can distinguish between human voices and other non-human sounds.
3. The child prefers light-colored and bright objects and prefers looking at these.
4. The child can communicate that she/he is hungry or in pain.
5. The child can effectively capture the gaze of parents and, thus, can produce strong feelings of affection in these adults.
6. The child can visually distinguish between different kinds of patterns and prefers looking at some patterns more than others.
7. The child can teach parents to meet his/her needs immediately.
8. The child can receive food by sucking and can adjust sucking behavior to different sizes of nipples.
9. The child holds her/his breath underwater and is capable of simple swimming behavior.
10. The child begins to process language. She/he can distinguish between different speech sounds and attends to human speech more intensely than other noises.
11. The child can look at an object using both eyes.
12. The child can see clearly objects that are 7 or 8 inches away.
13. The child can distinguish between high-pitched and low-pitched sounds and between loud and soft ones.
14. The child can taste foods and prefers sweet to non-sweet ones.
15. The child can distinguish between different odors and can determine the direction they come from.
16. The child has depth perception.

Answer Key:
The answer to all of them is... A! That's right! Your amazing, wonderful, intelligent little newborn is capable of all of these things from the moment he or she is born. Babies are born with this wonderful array of reflexes and inherent abilities, and they will continue developing and becoming even smarter as they grow.

Image taken from: http://shannyjeanmaney.com/2011/07/if-jane-sent-you-here/

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