What Occurs in Perceptual Development?
Perception affects how we see the world and ourselves. Our perception comes to us through our senses, which begin functioning before birth. The child generally completes perceptual development by toddlerhood. The unborn child reacts to sensory stimulation as early as 19 weeks after conception. However, the real job of sensory development begins after birth. Starting in infancy, the baby learns to discriminate different stimuli. Then, the baby learns to organize and store the input to relate to her word.
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Sight
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The human eye lacks full development at birth. The lens is almost spherical, rather than the saucer-shaped lens of an older child or adult. This fact makes newborn babies farsighted, preferring to look at items placed 8 to 10 inches from their face. The muscles that control the eyes don't have a chance to practice tracking in the dark world of the womb. Newborns often have a cross-eyed appearance at birth. As the baby develops, so do his eyes. The muscles that control eye movement strengthen, and the baby learns to track a finger or moving toy. As the cortex of the brain develops, the baby learns to distinguish visual stimuli and associate different images with ideas and concepts. By the age of two, the child's optic nerve is complete; from that point on, the brain takes over learning to sort and use visual stimuli.
Hearing
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A child's sense of hearing develops long before birth. According to the national Institute of Health, a study done in Belfast, Ireland, in 1994 discovered the fetus responded to sound as early as 19 weeks after conception. At birth, the newborn prefers high-pitched human voices. A study published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science showed that newborns recognize their mother's voice. The study measured the frequency of sucking on a neutral nipple. Within 20 minutes, the baby learned to suck at a rate that would keep a recording of her mother's voice playing. This fact shows that, at birth, the child has the sufficient cognitive capacity to hear, recognize and respond to his mother's voice.
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Touch
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The sense of touch also develops long before birth. Fetuses commonly suck on their hands as early as 24 weeks after conception. Both the hands and the mouth contain large numbers of nerves. Each infant comes into this world with her own preference to touch. Some newborns love being held and stroked, while others prefer the less-stimulating sensation of swaddling. However, before and immediately after birth, the baby lacks the motor control needed to explore with the sense of touch. By six months, the baby actively grabs objects and feels them with both her hands and mouth. As the baby's coordination develops, so does her ability to explore and interact with her world.
Taste and Smell
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No one knows when the sense of taste and smell begin. Amniotic fluid blocks any testing of these senses before birth. Newborn infants discriminate between different tastes applied to a nipple. At birth, all babies prefer a sweet taste to salt, bitter or acidic. Babies and children retain this preference. As the child develops, the sense remains the same, but the child learns to accept other flavor combinations. Newborns react to smells without preference, indicating that the sense of smell already functions at birth. But as the child learns to explore his world, he learns to associate specific smells with situations. By the age of six months, the child recognizes and prefers the scent of his mother to all others.
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References
- University of North Carolina Greensboro: Perceptual Development
- Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development: Visual Perception and Early Brain Development
- Mesa Community College: Sensory and Perceptual Development
- University of North Carolina: Of Human Bonding: Newborns Prefer their Mothers' Voices
- the University of Maryland Medical Center: Infant - newborn development - Overview
- National Institute of Health: Development of Fetal Hearing
Resources
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