Puppies and kittens (and many other mammals) are famously born with their eyes closed. But that isn’t true for humans. In fact, human newborns come into the world with all five primary senses present. They can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. These senses arise at various stages during fetal development. As a result, your baby will be ready to use those senses as soon as they are born. But that doesn’t mean these newborn senses are fully developed. Most senses continue to grow stronger and more acute as your newborn ages.
Many senses continue to develop all the way through to puberty–and beyond. Parents, then, often have the task of helping their baby’s senses develop. True, this will likely happen eventually on its own, but parental involvement can speed sense development and, as a result, improve cognitive health.
That’s because sensory development and neural and cognitive development often go hand in hand. This development typically happens naturally at its own pace–and there’s nothing that parents need to do to “speed it up” somehow.
However, parental involvement in sensory development can help strengthen the emotional bonds between babies and their parents. Exploring sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell with your baby can be a fun, enjoyable part of parenting, and watching your infant become more confident in their senses can be incredibly gratifying.
Newborn Senses
Newborns have the same basic five senses as adults: vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. And, just like adults, they experience the world through these senses. However, not all of these senses are fully developed at birth. They often continue to develop through life. Here’s how your newborn’s senses function in those first few months:
Sight: Your infant’s eyesight is present, but not fully developed, at birth. There’s a myth that you are born with fully grown eyes–but this isn’t true. In fact, your infant’s eyes are only about one half of their mature size. In general, your baby’s eyes will grow rapidly for the first two years of their life. They will then slowly grow until puberty, when a second growth spurt will get them to full size. As a result of this, your baby’s eyesight is somewhat limited. Most babies can only see in focus in the space 8-10 inches in front of them–everything else looks blurry. In other words, babies are quite nearsighted. But their vision will improve quickly as they age.
Hearing: Your baby’s hearing is generally going to be fully functional by the time they are born. That said, it’s important to note that deafness can occur in babies–somewhere between two and three out of every thousand babies are born deaf or with a hearing impairment. That’s well below 1%, but a large enough number to make early screenings routine. This is especially because babies may often give no outward signs of hearing problems. Early detection can help improve treatments and outcomes.
Taste: Your baby’s sense of taste (much like their sense of smell) is highly developed by the time they are born. (In fact, taste buds will often develop by the eighth week of gestation.) In general, baby’s taste buds are initially geared towards sweet flavors. They often dislike anything bitter. And, of course, they have a significant preference for their mother’s milk or for formula, as these provide a significant sense of nourishment. Your infant’s sense of taste will continue to develop as they age.
Smell: While parents may expect newborn senses to be muted during those first few months, it turns out that babies often have a very good sense of smell. In some ways, smell may be their most developed sense. And if there’s one thing babies love, it’s the smell of their parents. (And, of course, the smell of food.) Your infant will be particularly comforted by the smell of their parents and they will be particularly good at using smell to help direct them towards food.
Touch: Your infant’s sense of touch is particularly important because it’s one of the first ways you can build bonds and connections with your baby. But that doesn’t mean there’s no adjustment period. To an infant, the sudden freedom to move limbs can be disorienting. That’s why they enjoy swaddling and being held close. In general, touch from a parent can provide a great deal of comfort for your infant, as well as a great way to provide reassurance and support.
Many of these sensations will be completely new to your baby. As a result, they can find strong stimulations quite startling or disorienting. For example, bright lights or loud sounds can startle your baby and even cause discomfort. The same is true of their other senses. At the same time, all that newness means there are so many fun sensations to explore!
How to Stimulate Sensory Development
As your baby’s senses develop, they may require some practice to grow proficient in using them. Luckily, this is something that parents can help with. Helping your baby explore their new senses has significant benefits to their cognitive development and emotional wellbeing. Some common ways to stimulate sensory development include the following:
Smell: Offering your baby new things to smell can help them develop this sense. There is no shortage of these smells around your house: everything from chopped herbs to candy and chocolate to leaves, flowers, and grass. However, try to avoid artificial smells and fragrances, such as those found in cleaning products, soaps, and other sources. At first, stick to smells that will be gentle or easy on their sense of smell. As your baby gets more practice, you can introduce more smells.
Hearing: Your infant will already be familiar with some sounds, such as their parents’ voices. However, it’s worth taking the time to expose them to some new sounds, too: this can be the sounds of nature or soft music–or even you speaking softly to them. It’s important to avoid overly loud noises, however, as such noises can be uncomfortable for your baby.
Taste: Once it is safe to do so, you can expose your child to new flavors and foods. Providing your baby with a variety of flavors of baby food, for example, can help them experience all kinds of different flavors. You can talk to your pediatrician about when your child should start eating a larger variety of foods–and what they should avoid.
Sight: Because your baby’s vision is at first somewhat limited, they won’t be great at making out objects farther than 10 inches away for a number of months. So engage them with colorful shapes and objects that are big and flashy. For example, show them a red ball, then a green ball. Or you can install a colorful mobile above their bed. Moving these objects close enough for your baby to focus on them can help. Babies also love to look at familiar faces–so moving your face into that 8-10 zone of focus can bring a great deal of joy to your newborn. Avoid television, if possible, as even sedate programs may be a little too intense for infants.
Touch: For babies, touch is an incredibly important sense. You can help develop that sense by using soft touching and close contact. This type of human-to-human touch is incredibly important for developing your baby’s emotional bonds with you. Additionally, to help them experience other forms of the touch sense, you can also expose them to the touch of other objects around them. For example, you can cuddle them up in a soft blanket or roll a ball around under their feet.
Stimulating their senses may come naturally–but it’s also worth thinking about in a conscious way to ensure you’re giving their senses a lot of practice!
Senses Are Important!
This sensory development is important for two significant reasons. First newborn sense development–sight, smell, and so on–are important aspects of your baby’s cognitive development. As these senses are used, the parts of the brain that process those senses develop as well.
For example, as your baby listens to all these new sounds, their brain will gain experience interpreting those sounds. This is an important part of your baby’s cognitive development. By the same token, if your baby’s senses are not developing normally, it could be a sign of cognitive issues (or vice versa).
The second reason that these senses are important is because they are absolutely critical to forming strong bonds between parents and newborns. By working through these senses together, your baby will come to trust you and know you. So engaging with these senses is a normal and important step in your baby’s development.
Fun Ways to Engage Your Newborn’s Senses
So, how do you engage your newborn’s senses? Thankfully, engaging your newborn’s senses is relatively easy. Everything is new and exciting to a newborn! Which means that it’s easy to work many of these activities into your normal routines. General examples include the following:
Touch your newborn with new materials, such as blankets of various textures, paper, or other textured objects.
Sing to your baby. Soft signing can help them practice their sense of hearing.
Give your baby something new to smell often. Try cooking different foods (even if your baby can’t eat the food, they can still smell the food).
Make time to explore some fun and interesting shapes (and colors) with your baby.
Let your baby focus on feeding time. Don’t try to distract them while they nurse. This will give them time to focus on the flavors, tastes, and smells that they are experiencing.
Fill your house with enriching elements and objects–things that are colorful or textured or interesting.
Play games with your baby. This can include peek-a-boo, bubble blowing, and more.
Parents can find many interesting and unique ways to engage their newborn’s senses. It’s usually fun and helps you spend some quality time with your new baby!
Helping Your Baby Grow
Helping your baby explore their senses is an important part of helping them grow up. If you have questions about how your baby experiences the world–and what you can do to help develop their five senses–make sure to talk about it with your baby’s pediatrician during your baby’s next wellness visit.
If you want to book an appointment for your infant, you can contact our Chicago or Northbrook offices today!