The newborn infant, or neonate, has a collection of reflexes. They respond involuntarily to external stimuli. These reflexes that help them to survive during their infancy will disappear later. Though the newborn babies have only limited vision in the first week of life, it will expand in the subsequent weeks enabling them to differentiate between different patterns, colours and shapes. The patterns of light and darkness which are sharply contrasting can be perceived by them. They can also track slowly moving objects. They use the same brain parts as the adults to process and orient towards faces. They can recognise people and are sensitive to gazes. The optimal level of arousal maintained by the neonates, keep them in a comfortable range.
Newborn babies also can identify their mother’s smell, and prefer the smell of their own mother’s breast milk. They identify the nipple as the source of their food and swallow the contents as soon as they get the nipples in their mouth. They can sense comfortable as well as itchy or painful clothing, accessories or surfaces.
The newborns attend carefully to the noises and can distinguish a variety of different sounds including people’s voices. They pay attention to rhythm and intonation of sounds. The babies can look toward the voice source and have a good coordination of hearing and seeing. They can detect the different expressions. A newborn baby will prefer its mother’s voice to other strange voices.
References
Rennie, Kate Dent, and Sue Wright. "The Amazing Social Capabilities of Babies." Brainwave Trust Newsletter 19 (2013): 1-2. Retrieved from: http://www.brainwave.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Social-Capabilities_web-1.pdf 30 Nov 2014.
