Babies this age seem to respond best to a higher-pitched voice, which is why most people naturally raise the pitch of their voices and exaggerate their speech when talking to a baby. This is fine — studies have shown that "baby talk" doesn't delay speech development. In fact, responding to your baby encourages speech.
Feel free to mix in some regular adult words and tone with the baby talk. It may seem early, but you're setting the stage for your baby's first words. Besides voices, your baby will probably enjoy listening to music play a variety of styles and may be fascinated by the routine sounds of life as well. Keep your baby nearby as you rattle pans while making dinner, and let him or her sit in a baby seat within earshot of older siblings laughing and playing.
Baby rattles and musical mobiles and toys are other good ways to stimulate your baby's hearing. Your newborn probably had a hearing screening before being released from the hospital most states require this. If not, or if your baby was born at home or a birthing center, it's important to have a hearing screening as soon as possible.
Most children who are born with a hearing loss can be diagnosed through a hearing screening. Your baby can taste and smell and will favor sweet tastes over bitter ones. For example, a baby will choose to suck on a bottle of sweetened water, but will turn away or cry if given something bitter or sour to taste. Likewise, babies will turn toward smells they favor and turn away from bad odors.
Though sweetness is preferred, taste preferences will continue to develop during the first year. In fact, studies show that a mother's diet can affect the way her breast milk tastes. These first flavors can help shape flavor preferences later on. For example, a mother who ate spicy foods while nursing is likely to have a child who grows up to favor spicy foods. For now, breast milk or formula will fully satisfy your baby.
It won't be long before your baby will be reaching out and touching everything. Babies should begin to follow moving objects with their eyes and reach for things at around three months of age. Depth perception, which is the ability to judge if objects are nearer or farther away than other objects, is not present at birth.
It is not until around the fifth month that the eyes are capable of working together to form a three-dimensional view of the world and begin to see in-depth. Although an infant's color vision is not as sensitive as an adult's, it is generally believed that babies have good color vision by 5 months of age. Most babies start crawling at about 8 months old, which helps further develop eye-hand-foot-body coordination. Early walkers who did minimal crawling may not learn to use their eyes together as well as babies who crawl a lot.
By 10 months of age, a baby should be able to grasp objects with thumb and forefinger. By twelve months of age, most babies will be crawling and trying to walk. Parents should encourage crawling rather than early walking to help the child develop better eye-hand coordination. Children this age are highly interested in exploring their environment and in looking and listening.
They recognize familiar objects and pictures in books and can scribble with crayons or pencils. Signs of eye and vision problems The presence of eye and vision problems in infants is rare. Parents need to look for the following signs that may be indications of eye and vision problems: Excessive tearing may indicate blocked tear ducts.
Red or encrusted eyelids could be a sign of an eye infection. Constant eye turning may signal a problem with eye muscle control. Extreme sensitivity to light may indicate an elevated pressure in the eye.
The appearance of a white pupil may indicate the presence of eye cancer. What parents can do to help with visual development There are many things parents can do to help their baby's vision develop properly.
Birth to 4 months Use a nightlight or other dim lamp in the baby's room. Change the crib's position frequently and change the child's position in it. Keep reach-and-touch toys within the baby's focus, about eight to twelve inches. Talk to the baby while walking around the room. Alternate right and left sides with each feeding. Give the baby plenty of time to play and explore on the floor.
Provide plastic or wooden blocks that can be held in the hands. Play patty cake and other games, moving the baby's hands through the motions while saying the words aloud. Name objects when talking to encourage the baby's word association and vocabulary development skills. Encourage crawling and creeping.
Give the child building blocks and balls of all shapes and sizes to play with to boost fine motor skills and small muscle development. At this stage, infants are developing a better overall awareness of their body and learning how to coordinate their vision with their movements. Bumps, bruises, eye injuries and other serious accidents can occur as they start to physically explore their environment.
In particular, keep cabinets locked and put barriers in front of stairs. Strabismus is the term for a misalignment of the eyes. The average length of a normal pregnancy is approximately 40 weeks. Babies born before 37 weeks of gestation are considered premature, according to the World Health Organization. Premature babies are at greater risk of eye problems than full-term babies, and the odds increase the earlier the child is born. ROP is the abnormal replacement of normal tissue in the retina with fibrous tissue and blood vessels.
It can cause scarring of the retina, poor vision and retinal detachment. In severe cases, retinopathy of prematurity can lead to blindness. All premature babies are at risk of ROP. Very low birth weight is an additional risk factor, especially if it is necessary to place the infant in a high-oxygen environment immediately after birth. If your baby is born prematurely, ask your obstetrician to refer you to a pediatric ophthalmologist so they can perform an internal eye exam and rule out ROP.
The eye movements are usually horizontal, but they can be diagonal or rotational as well. Nystagmus can be present at birth, or it may develop weeks to months later. Risk factors include albinism , congenital cataracts and incomplete development of the optic nerve. If your baby shows signs of nystagmus, consult a pediatric ophthalmologist or other eye doctor as soon as possible.
Under this program, member optometrists offer a no-cost first eye assessment for infants within their first year of life.
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