When a newborn begins to hear and see?

A baby’s senses are still developing when they are born. Although they can see and hear from birth, newborns’ senses develop gradually. When their baby will learn to identify sounds and follow objects with their eyes is a question that many parents have.

Engaging with their newborn in the early days can be facilitated by parents having an understanding of when and how their hearing and vision improve. While each baby’s sensory development is unique, there are common developmental milestones.

This article examines when babies usually start to hear and see better, giving parents a better idea of what to expect during the first few months of their lives.

Formation of hearing and vision before birth

Generally speaking, children start to hear when they are 17 weeks pregnant; however, they start to hear consciously and clearly around week 27.

The development of hearing is a long and intricate process. Around the fifth week, the foundations of the inner ear start to form. The middle ear structures are formed at 8 weeks, the outer ear (auricle) is formed already in the last 3 months, and the auricle’s cartilaginous tissue hardens shortly before birth.

Up until the halfway point of the gestation period, the labyrinth is still developing. By weeks 17 and 18, it starts to harden. The auditory ossicles continue to harden and nearly never stop until birth.

Around the sixteenth or seventeenth week of pregnancy, the baby starts to hear sounds for the first time, and these aren’t the sounds that you and I have been hearing up until this point. The baby’s brain does not yet analyze sounds because its cerebral cortex is still developing. However, it does pick up individual sounds from the outside world, such as the mother’s heartbeat, the peristalsis of her intestines, blood flow, and voice. Thus, sound waves cause vibrations that the fetus picks up on.

It is not until the end of the second trimester that the baby starts to fully catch sounds, that is, hear and analyze the sound. He can turn to face the sound since he is already inside his mother’s womb. However, the sounds seem muffled to him; this is made possible by the mother’s dense abdominal wall and amniotic fluid. The auditory systems must adjust to new environments after birth.

Everything is a little easier when you have vision. Starting in the second week of pregnancy, the visual tubercles, which are the ancestors of the eyes, start to develop. The development of the lenses starts in the fourth week of pregnancy, and by the middle of the pregnancy, the sclera and eyelids have formed.

Similar to the auditory recognition area, the visual center emerges in the brain by the start of the third trimester. The fetus starts to distinguish between light and dark, day and night, at this point. The baby’s eyes are formed by the time of birth, but they are unique in that every part of them is still immature.

Thus, even before he is born, the child starts to see and hear. However, this vision and hearing are qualitatively different.

A baby’s ability to hear starts in the womb and continues to grow after birth, with most babies being able to identify familiar voices in a matter of weeks. But vision takes a little longer to develop. Although newborns are born with blurry shapes and light perception, over the course of the first few months, their ability to focus on faces and objects sharpens, and by three or four months, they usually have clearer vision.

Features of hearing after birth

A child has excellent hearing from birth. In the first few minutes, if there are no diseases or abnormalities in the development of the hearing organs, he starts to realize what an incredibly loud world he has entered. Unexpected sounds can cause stress in a baby. Any loud noise can make you flinch reflexively.

For the first month, the baby hears nothing but empty words from you and your songs and fairy tales, and from grandma and grandpa cooing. He is still adjusting and is unable to distinguish between sounds that are familiar and those that are unfamiliar. However, the baby starts to listen for voices at one month old.

His first observation is intonation. The infant will experience intonations from the very first few weeks of life. It doesn’t matter what the mother will say precisely at that moment—a fairy tale or mathematical formulas delivered in a heartfelt tone—it just doesn’t matter.

When a baby reaches three months old, their auditory and speech centers synchronize, enabling them to respond to familiar sounds with a friendly splash of hands or "cooing" voice. By the time they are six months old, infants can identify the source of sounds, turn to face them, and react when their name is called.

Learn some gentle songs and poems by the time the baby is six months old if you want to truly win their approval. The baby will be able to recognize them at five or six months.

What the baby sees?

A newborn baby’s visual perception of the world is that of a collection of dim spots with varying sizes and no clear boundaries. In the early weeks of life, vision is not clear. Thus, it makes no sense to place colorful toys and a mobile above a newborn’s crib—at least not until the baby is a month old.

The infant, who is only one month old, is already able to identify some big objects that are 40 centimeters away from his face. However, the infant is still unable to fix his gaze on it. The child’s weak eye muscles prevent him from maintaining a stationary gaze.

Contrary to popular belief, an infant’s vision is neither inverted nor black and white during the first month of life. Children’s farsightedness causes them to see everything in space normally, but in a hazy manner. The image is formed outside the retina rather than on it due to the small eyeballs.

A newborn baby has a developed visual reflex; he will twitch, close his eyes, and possibly cry if you shine a flashlight in his face. The baby’s development of color vision starts at three weeks old, when he will start to see fuzzy spots that almost seem to be colored. This indicates that the infant does not yet know his mother; rather, he only uses tactile senses and a familiar scent to identify the person who is closest to him. This does not imply that the infant can see or distinguish her from other people.

One month later, the baby can look at a stationary object for brief periods of time, but this is still a new skill for him. At two months old, the baby starts to focus on objects for longer periods of time, and happily, he can now recognize and differentiate his mother’s face from other faces. The capacity to identify the color red appears at the same age.

When the object of interest moves smoothly, the baby who is three months old succeeds in following it with his eyes. The baby perceives and distinguishes colors with the addition of yellow.

By the end of the fifth month of life, the infant can identify family members, detect colors up to and including green and blue, and investigate objects up to a meter away from him. By six months of age, the child has developed a focused, intelligent gaze and volumetric, stereoscopic vision. Beginning at the age of seven months, the infant begins to consciously assess objects, gauge their distance from one another, and shift his focus from close objects to faraway ones and vice versa.

How to help the baby develop senses?

After birth, the infant’s daily auditory and visual perception of the world will therefore improve. At this point, a loving parent’s job is to assist their child in making the adaptation processes more comfortable.

You should talk to your baby more frequently and expose him to a range of sounds, including high-, mid-, and low-frequency sounds, to help him develop his hearing. Play some music for the baby, ideally some classical music. While you should try to reduce the child’s exposure to loud and sharp noises, you also shouldn’t leave them in total silence.

Sing him lullabies and engage in conversation with the infant while engaging in developmental activities like bathing, massages, and daily gymnastics. You can also read aloud to him poems and songs. The infant will initially only pick up on subtleties in intonation, but with time, they will learn to listen to words as well.

It should be mentioned that the development of speech skills is facilitated by the ability to listen and hear, as most babies attempt to coo and repeat sound combinations by the time they are 3–4 months old.

An ample supply of natural sunlight in the baby’s room is essential for the development of vision. The development of the visual organs is slowed down by twilight.

Rattles and toys should be hung 40–60 centimeters away from the child’s face. The mother should be able to approach the crib in the room from both the left and the right. The infant will then see the world from two perspectives.

Toys such as rattles should be selected in colors that the baby can already see: red for two months, red and yellow for three months, and all colors for six months. Mirrors and artificial lighting sources should not be placed close to the crib in the nursery.

Starting at 1.5 months, you can show the infant geometric shapes in black and white that the mother has drawn on paper or downloaded from the Internet. When teaching a three-month-old baby, use vivid, colorful materials and illustrations.

You must call the baby’s attention to birds, animals, cars, and people when you stroll in the open air. The infant will swiftly pick up the confidence to follow moving objects in this manner.

Observing their behavior closely is the most important thing parents can do to help their children develop their senses. It is crucial to take the child to the right specialist if worrying symptoms are identified.

Although newborns’ senses develop gradually, they start their journey with hearing and seeing the moment they are born. Babies can hear sounds during the first few weeks of life, especially sounds familiar from the womb, such as their mother’s voice. Although their vision is still blurry, they can also react to light and focus on objects that are very close to them.

They become more perceptive over the coming weeks, and they begin to respond more forcefully to noises in their environment. They are also able to see better and follow moving objects as their eyesight gets better. They can identify familiar faces and react to sounds by the time they are a few months old, which aids in their socialization.

Babies’ ability to explore and comprehend their surroundings is greatly influenced by their early hearing and vision development. Though every child develops at a slightly different rate, over time, their senses become more acute, providing them with new opportunities to engage with their environment and family.

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