Further Reading

Your baby developed the palmar grasp reflex before they were born, and they will still curl their fingers around an object that is placed in their hand. However, they are beginning to gain control of the movement of their hands, so although they will still often hold them in a closed fist position, you might see that they are starting to hold their hands open, or slightly open more frequently.

Your baby’s brain began to develop soon after conception and will continue to do so into adulthood. Around the third week after conception, your baby’s brain will have started to develop, with cells dividing to make neurons and glia, which are the building blocks of the brain and nervous system.^[1]

It's well known that babies begin life with an interest in, and preference for, social stimulation.^[1] Your baby finds other people fascinating and, even before they can talk, are able to interact and communicate with you and others. Such interest and interaction depend on early forms of social cognition.  

Capturing attention

Your baby has been listening to you speak since before they were born and has been moving their mouth and developing control of their movements and their breathing for a little while now. They continue to communicate by crying, but as they watch you and listen to you speak they will begin to engage in turn-taking with sounds that sound more like speech.  

The sense of touch was the first sense to develop before your baby was born, and your baby will use touch to seek food through their sucking and rooting reflexes, to explore and make sense of the world and for comfort.^[1] 

The Moro reflex (so called because it was first described by physician Ernst Moro in 1918)

is one of our primitive reflexes – these are responses to stimuli that we develop before we are born. The reflexes are controlled by the primitive part of our brain and, as your baby develops and more connections are made in their brain, these reflexes become integrated, and you will see their judgement of danger manifest itself in different reactions.^[1]   

Your baby’s visual system began to develop before birth and they will have been able to respond to light when in the womb. However, there is little visual stimulation before birth, so your baby’s vision when they are born is quite poor. They will be drawn to colours and patterns with high contrast and be interested in faces.^[1] Your baby will blink when there is a bright light and will turn their head and eyes towards a diffused light source, such as light coming through a curtain.^[2] 

When you stroke your baby’s cheek near to their mouth they will turn their head towards the side that you have stroked and open their mouth searching for a breast or bottle – this is the rooting reflex. It's is a primitive reflex, and one that begins before your baby is born and continues for months after birth. It emerges around 24 to 28 weeks after conception.^[1]  

When your baby is born, their vision is not yet fully developed; they don't see things in the same way that adults do, and what they see is blurred. Your baby focuses at around 20 to 30cm and will have a preference for looking at faces and high contrast images.  

Your baby has been listening to the sounds and voices around them since before they were born – their ears were fully developed at around 30 weeks' gestation and before this time they heard some sounds from vibrations of their skull.^[1] Your baby will recognise the voices that they have heard frequently before birth and researchers have found that newborn babies show a preference for their mother’s voice.