Newborn Baby's Capacities

Newborn Baby's Capacities



Newborn Baby's Capacities

Introduction

From the moment of birth, human infants are born with a wide range of capacities that help to promote healthy development (Rathus, 1988). Their basic sensory capacities for seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting are already functioning at birth, and the competence with which most newborns use these capacities is dramatic. The following discussion describes some of these amazing capacities of the newborn and describes how the existing reflex and sensory capacities of the newborn are transformed into skilled voluntary actions during the first six months of life.

Reflexes

The newborn's reflexes enable him ...