why are senses so important in small babies?

Question

why are senses so important n small babie? i.e. survival and basic instinct. what toys help develop touch sight and hearing?

Answer 1

there are 5 here are some to help you get started taste texture (thats why they put thing in there mouth) touch .....

Answer 2

i'm glad you the question this way.
All humans have 5 major sense and a sixth sense which is instinct - until very recently instinct was seen to be the "ghost in the machine" , that is it does not have a physical manifestation like taste (tongue) , sight (eyes) etc. But research has shown that genes have coded information regarding the behaviour of ancestors , their reaction to certain stimuli and other survival information is passed on through parenting and learning - and also from information in the genetic code. This coded information is inherent in every living organism and is real. Its importance means that certain aspects of say your grandfathers behaviour can be evident in his grandchildren even though they may never have met.

As per toys , a bright rattle or multi-colored toy will help. Music in the form of classical or piano concerto. Or Muppets songs !

Answer 3

Sight -Newborns can't yet distingush colour so they love black and white patterns and then it progresses onto colour.
Smell - they love to know mum or main carer is nearby.
Touch - tactile toys are best. Find a wide range of textures - soft, hard, smooth, bumpy etc and guide their hands over it to help get the nerve endings in the brain sparking into action.
Taste - survival - if it tastes bad then spit it out! Natural reaction to avoid anything that might be bad for them.
Hearing - they learn about those closest to them from voice first (since vision so weak to begin with) The best toy you can get is your own voice and speak as much as possible. Sing! All babies love music and none more so that a song from mum, no matter how out of tune it might be! Helps with bonding if nothing else. Also, they enjoy the rhythm of nursery rhymes and the repitition of the lyrics so learning them is fun when they get to age of mumbling along. Keep sounds simple so they're not overloaded.

Only my own ideas - nothing scientific and prepared to be corrected!

Answer 4

Babies are little people. The standard list of five senses doesn't really give our bodies credit for all of the amazing things they can do. There are at least a dozen different things we can sense.

In order for us to have a sense, there needs to be a sensor. Each sensor is tuned to one specific sensation. For example, there are sensors in your eyes that can detect light. That is all that they can detect. To track down all of the different senses a person has, the easiest thing to do is to catalog all of the different sensors. Here is a reasonable list:

In your eyes, you have two different types of light sensors. One set of sensors, called the rods, senses light intensity and works well in low-light situations. The other type, called cones, can sense colors (and actually, there are three different types of cones for the three primary colors) and require fairly intense light to be activated. See this Question of the Day more more information.

In your inner ears, there are sound sensors.

Also in your ears are sensors that let you detect your orientation in the gravitational field -- they give you your sense of balance.

In your skin, there are at least five different types of nerve endings:
heat sensitive
cold sensitive
pain sensitive
itch sensitive
pressure sensitive
These cells give us the sense of touch, sense of pain, sense of temperature and sense of itch. How Sunburns and Sun Tans Work has some interesting information on the skin.

In your nose, there are chemical sensors that give you your sense of smell. Check out this Question of the Day.

On the tongue, there are chemical receptors that give us our sense of taste.

In your muscles and joints, there are sensors that tell you where the different parts of your body are and about the motion and tension of the muscles. These senses let us, for example, touch our index fingers together with our eyes shut.

In your bladder, there are sensors that indicate when it is time to urinate. Similarly, your large intestine has sensors that indicate when it is full.

There are also the senses of hunger and thirst. How Food Works contains some information on hunger.
Depending on how you want to count it, there are between 14 and 20 different senses listed here.
There are some people who do seem to have other senses. For example, there are many people who can sense impending weather changes. My mother could always sense when I was about to make a mess (the sense also known as "eyes in the back of the head"). And many people feel that they can sense when someone else is looking at them. No scientific proof for any of these senses, yet...

Answer 5

the senses are all a baby's got.. He is like a sponge soaking up from all around him. Sound is very important. Babies can tell their parents by their voices quite early. We had an amazing experience. We play a lot of classical music and I had a particular favourite I fall asleep to. My daughter when she was born, had a particular fondness for that track. I actually believe they can hear us from the Womb.

Answer 6

When your baby is born, to get through the birth canal, its head is only half developed, after birth, the grey matter, the large 85% of the craniun, develops into its adult size, a process that takes 12 years to complete. After it has grown for 12 years, it then starts to build up chemical links that allow abstract thought.

but at the very start, it is developed in the womb, to reconise sensations which are recorded in one half of the brain. Only one ear is used, and for the majority of us, it is the right ear. this stores information onto the left hemisphere of the brain, our subconscious.

after birth we start to develop the conscious part of our brain, and each of the five sences are given equal importance right upto the age we are forced to give hearing and vision preference in school (6)

The hearing is switched on, about a day or two after birth, to full stero, so the tiny new born will be getting information from both sides for the first time, but for another four months, will not have developed the eyesight needed to see beyond a few inches away from its face.

Give him something to look at when he's in his cot or pram - park the pram under a leafy tree. So a toy like a muscial mobile over the cot is very good. Placed just out of the childs vision, in bright primary colours (red blue yellow) it will attract the baby by its movement, and stimulate it the child to want to touch it, and this helps the baby co-ordinate its first movements.

The first teddy bear should not be made of fur, and be washable, as most babys use thier mouth a lot, to sample things. The texture should be different on different areas of the toy, to stimulate touch.

You can play games with your baby from the first days and weeks, you dont need toys.

Dance and sway to music - try rocking and patting as well, in time to the beat. It will help him develop his hearing and co-ordination.

as will singing and whispering in his ear - and make funny noises and faces at him.

Play peek-a-boo - put your hands in front of your face, then take them away quickly and say 'peek-a-boo'. He won't understand or anticipate the sequence at first, but at about eight to ten weeks he'll start to remember what happens, and will smile and gurgle with delight. You are developing his memory for visual and audio stimulation.

Play with different textures - have a box of different fabrics, such as towelling, velvet, cotton wool, a clean feather and so on. Stroke them against your baby's hands and arms, and see his responses.

Have fun in the water - the bath is a great place to play. it encourages him/her to enjoy washing, and afterwards give the baby a relaxing massage - with oil or fine talcum powder.

For the first three mounths they will have just primitive reflexes -voluntary reflexes develop after this, and the therefore you - the mother and Father are the most important people for developing the baby, they learn to recognise you, by sound, smell and vision.

Your peditirician will have checked the 7 reflexes - Your baby is born with these reflexes, some of which disappear within a few days or weeks.

Startle reflex - makes your baby throw his arms out and arch his back when startled or shocked.
Rooting reflex - if you gently touch your baby on the side of his mouth, he'll turn towards the source. This helps him find the nipple during feeding.
Grasping reflex - your baby's hands clench into a fist and can 'hold' small objects. His toes will curl inwards to if you stroke his inner sole; if you stroke on the outer sole, they will splay out.
Sucking reflex - your baby will suck anything that's placed in his mouth.
Walking or stepping reflex - if you hold your baby upright, one foot 'steps' in front of the other as if he's going to walk.
Crawling reflex - when placed on his tummy, your baby will bend his legs underneath his body.

Answer 7

because this is how they learn about there enviroment and the people around it.when a babay is born they have what is called primitive reflexes these are what come naturally to all babies they lose these at around 3 months and are replaced by voluntary reflexes but have the same function which is to help the baby learn about its enviroment.the primitive reflexes(senses) are important as they indicate the health of the nervous system (hense the check by pedatrition before you leave hospital),if these persist beyond the expected time this could indicate a delay in development.there are 7 reflexes swallowing and sucking this helps them to feed,roting this helps them find the feed source ic nipple or bottle,grasp this helps them 2 learn holding,stepping,the asymmetric tonic neck,the startle,the falling reflex.small babies dont need toys but human contact.lota of physical contact while keeping eye contact,massage after bathing,talking lovingly and giving them opportunity to respond,encourage lying on the florr to kick about in summer with no nappy on but towel underneath,bright contasting colours somewhere in there enviroment,lots of different household noises like music hoover washing machine etc,contact with other children and adults apart form people who live in the same house as you,spend lots of quality time with the main carers in the baby's life to ensure bonding and forming a solid relationship.light rattles and toys strung over pram this will help focussing and co-ordination.to promote language never speak to a baby in go go gag gag form speak to them as you would an adult like what you doing tell us a story etc.hope this is enough.xx

Answer 8

Because it is the only way in which they learn. Their main way of learning to begin with is by feeling things. That's why a you will often see them with their foot in their mouth, or something which is cute! (*Giggles stupidly*) And they like to taste things to learn too, hence the reason they alway have something in their mouths i.e, thumb, feet, toys.

Bright, colourful toys that have simple shapes to begin with and as they get older, increase/change the shapes, like animals or numbers, and other things i.e, cars, people, etc. Toys that make queeky sounds will increase their alertness. babies are pretty good at learning via feeling, its like instinct or curiosity.

:)

Answer 9

all baby's toys are learning toys in some way or another the only main function the have to learn with is touch to start with, a soft teddy a colour full toy a noisy toy all thees can be used as a learning toy, even a cuddly blanket,

Answer 10

its cuz at 1st they can only see about 10 inches, and they have no idea what the world around them is! plus putting things in ur mouth as a baby is a great way to learn! ever noticed that puppies mouth people? its not cuz they're not old enuf 2 kno not 2 bite cuz they're not biting u, its to learn the world around them as the mouth is very sensitive. same with human babies! plus babies at 1st can't hold things very well, so as soon as they grab something it goes straight in the mouth...2 hand and one mouth..kinda hard for a toy to get away from.

Answer 11

They can only start learning through their senses, hearing and sight being the most important.