Baby's sensory abilities: stages and how to hone them

Sensory abilities may be heard less frequently, when compared to the motor development of infants. This ability is a skill related to the function of the various senses in the body.

Indeed, from birth, a baby already has this sensory ability. So, what exactly is sensory development like in newborns up to 11 months of age? Find out more in the review below.

What are sensory abilities?

Sensory abilities in babies are skills that a baby has to use the senses that are in him. Includes the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, to touch.

Quoted from Collaborative for Children, with sensory abilities, your baby can recognize and explore the surrounding environment during their growth and development.

So you could say, sensory abilities are one of the important aspects of development for babies to have properly.

Your baby's sensory abilities will develop with age. In detail, there are 7 basic things about sensory skills to support infant development:

• Smell (smell)
• Sight (vision)
• Taste (taste)
• Hearing (hearing)
• Balance (balance)
• Touch (touch / tactile)
• Body awareness regarding muscles and joints (body awareness / propriocetioon)

Sensory abilities do not actually function alone, but are related tobaby's emotional intelligence, baby's cognitive development, as well as physical.

All the senses in the body must work together to support the baby's learning, movement and behavior.

The stage of development of the baby's sensory abilities

The development of sensory abilities is something that every baby cannot equalize. The reason is, each baby has a different time until then they can perform a certain ability.

But as an illustration, the following is the development of sensory skills of babies as they get older:

0-3 months of age

When the baby is 1 month old, your little one's vision development is at a distance of about 30 cm. At the age of 2 months of development, your little one begins to follow the movement of toys or other objects that move in front of his face.

In the 0-3 month age range too, he can see colors but it's quite limited. She has also started making eye contact with other people, especially at the age of 3 months of development.

At this age too, your little one is able to focus on an object or your face at a distance of 1-2 meters.

His sense of smell is also fairly developed. He understands a sweet smell, like the smell of breast milk (ASI). Likewise, the baby's sense of hearing has developed quite a lot.

This was evident when he seemed to be responding when he heard a sound that was familiar to him. This is because at the age of 1 month, babies are happy when they hear human voices. Entering the age of 8 weeks or 2 months, your little one also begins to sound by saying "ooh" and "aah".

Your baby has also felt the ability to touch, so they are happy when there is a skin-to-skin interaction with you.

His sense of taste has also functioned quite well, although it is still growing. This makes him feel the pleasure of the breast milk that you provide.

3-6 months of age

In the 3-6 month age range, the baby's sensory abilities are getting better at paying attention to objects and people around him. Right at the age of 4 months of development, your little one can focus on seeing objects and your face, even at a distance of 1-2 meters.

His smell was also getting sharper. This makes him more likely to be attracted to the smell of food, and exhibits a certain reaction when he inhales an unpleasant aroma.

Your little one will also begin to understand the sounds associated with an object. When your baby is 4 months old, your little one can also hear, babble on his own and begin to understand that tonality means different things.

At the end of a baby's developmental age of 6 months, he usually begins to imitate the sounds he just heard. Along with the introduction of complementary foods to breastmilk (complementary foods), the ability to taste food begins to open up to other flavors.

For example the salty taste of salt. His interest when he saw the food that other people ate also began to appear.

6-9 months of age

In terms of vision, your little one is starting to be able to exercise better eye control and coordination between eyes and hands. Entering the developmental age of a baby at 7 months, the baby's vision is the same as that of an adult.

In addition, he is also beginning to be able to associate smell with a taste as a form of the development of the baby's smell. On the other hand, your baby can also recognize the direction of the sound he hears coming from, and memorize the words he often hears.

Meanwhile, in touch skills, your little one can recognize the texture of food and any object that he touches. His sense of taste is also getting better and better, because he is interested in reaching out and tasting the food that is nearby.

9-12 months of age

At the age of 9-11 months, babies are better able to see objects at a considerable distance. This makes it easy for him to reach the object he wants.

In terms of smell, he begins to understand what scent or smell he likes, and shows reactions when inhaling unpleasant odors.

His hearing ability is also getting better, because he can recognize and react when he hears a song or sound. Your baby is still learning to reach an object, both near and far.

This is a form of the development of sensory abilities in terms of touch. Likewise in its ability to feel something, at the age of 9 months of development of babies to 12 months of age, your little one seems to enjoy a variety of food flavors more.

How to hone a baby's sensory abilities?

Source: Bebez Club

During their early life, babies tend to develop very rapidly. So that your little one's sensory abilities are well honed, you can help him develop these skills.

0-6 months of age

Some of the ways you can improve the sensory abilities of infants aged 0-6 months are as follows:

1. Often look into the baby's eyes

From the first time they are born, your baby will be delighted and will see you in the eye often. To encourage your baby's sensory abilities in terms of vision, you can help him by making frequent eye contact with your little one.

Not only that, don't forget to introduce a variety of colors from toys or playing cards for learning.

2. Invite the baby to talk

While looking into his eyes, also invite him to talk, sing, or read him stories. Apart from practicing vision, the sound he hears every time you say something will help him recognize your voice.

Not only training sensory abilities, this also trains language development for babies later.

3. Eat a variety of food sources

For babies who are still breastfed, you can eat a variety of different foods. This can give breast milk its distinct taste.

The difference in taste will train the baby's sensory ability to taste various flavors of food, although indirectly.

4. Give toys with different textures

Every time you hold a toy or object with a different texture, your ability to touch and feel various textures of the object will be trained.

5. Make direct contact

Meanwhile, to improve your sensory abilities in terms of touch, you can try more to make more skin-to-skin contact. You can hug the baby, breastfeed, bathe, and any other activity that touches his skin.

Age 6-11 months

Some of the ways to improve sensory abilities for babies aged 6-11 months that you can do are as follows:

1. Play peekaboo

Train your baby's sensory abilities in terms of vision by inviting him to play peek-a-boo. Alternatively, you can introduce new toys or objects that are safe as a new experience for the baby.

2. Give the baby a variety of new food flavors

Every time you give food or introduce new food, your little one's sense of smell and taste is getting better trained. This will help him learn to smell different types of food.

You can also offer finger food (finger food) which is easy to grip and allows him to become aware of the various tastes and textures of new foods.

3. Let the baby listen to music

Train your baby's sensory skills in hearing by inviting him to communicate in two directions and play music that is pleasing to him.

This is because one of the benefits of music is good for the baby's sensory development abilities. Not just for listening, music can also provide a different sensation.

4. Provide a toy that encourages the baby to control his fingers and hands

You can give him a toy that has a handle so you can grip it. That way, it can train the baby's sensory abilities in terms of touch using his fingers and hands.

This of course aims to train the child's taste and touch. If he is able to hold and pick up objects, also give him a toy that also trains his hands.

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