The development of your child's senses is a psychological and physical need

There are multiple stages by which the five sense of a child pass during its growth and development.

The mother's intervention in developing the child's senses is an inevitable necessity.

A child comes to this world while his mind is ready to receive more information than that it gets through its five senses: Hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch; So how can we develop these senses so as a child would grow natrually?

Distinction:

A newborn baby, who is just few days old, owns a wild wish to speak, play, and discover the outside world and what goes on therein. It tries to distinguish between this action or that, and sees the colors but it cannot distinguish them in the beginning because this sense develops bit by bit. It only sees contradictory colors such as the white and the black during the first months.

It enjoys hearing the voice of its mother while she is humming to put it into bed, and at this stage, it behaves on the basis of action and reaction, where it looks at the source of sound. In advanced stages, the child inclines to some voices and turn away from others, particularly the disturbing ones. However, paying attention to the source of voices or sounds and these reactions disappear two months after its birth, and in the fourth month there will be a real cooperation between the eye and the ear.

In regard to the senses of taste and smell, experts say: One week after the child's birth, it can recognize the smell of its mother because smell is one of the important senses which connects a child with its mother, as one of the studies showed that a child feels happy when it smells lemon.

On the other hand, a child at its birth can taste sweet, bitter, and sour food, but it prefers sweet food more than others.

As for the reactions of the sense of touch, it becomes clear where a child draws and stretches its hands when they touch weird stuff and fear the stretched hand to it by not touching it. In order to help it move and activate its senses, you should speak clearly with it, whisper in its ears, hum to it, stare at its eyes, touch its body and shoulders then pull it bit by bit, and help it grab the surrounding stuff.

In order to activate the child's attention, we should put colorful vases at each corner, especially those which make sounds because they help the child increase the scale of vision.

In the first months:

A child pays attention to everything that goes around it. Contradictory colors and lights draw its attention and strong voices proportionally wake it up. In this stage, it smiles involuntarily then it discovers that the thing which it uses to touch all things is its own hands. Moreover, it does not pay attention to toys except the colorful ones which draw its attention. In such an age, a child needs the activities of its mother which bring warmth and tenderness to it, play the basic role in activating and moving its senses. She incites the child to discover its hands and its abilities through presenting simple handy toys and observing its inclination toward them, leaving it using its fingers to touch toys and soft clothes. When its young fingers begin to touch things, we can put some simple handy toys in its hands and let it judge them itself by touching and grabbing them.

As for activating its sense of hearing at that age, you may use colorful toys with soft and attractive sounds; moreover the mother's speech and kindness plays a great role in activating that sense.

Doctors draw the attention that loud noise may harm the ear drumb of the child because its parts are so thin, therefore they recommend parents to protect their children from loud noise and give them moments of silence away from TV, telephone, and noise which their brethren make.

From the third to the sixth month:

A child tries to move everything by all means and in all directions, and searches for a place to put therein the things which fall from its hands but sometimes it looks astonishingly at its hands and considers its fingers, which it licks happily, an interesting toy, thus the importance of toys show up and they gain another meaning.

A child crawls on its stomach bit by bit, leans against its hands, raises its head to watch, and ponders over what is around it, therefore it is better to leave it on the ground after giving it a group of things and stuff that move and let it run after; by this we liberate its movements and develop its abilities. In order to help it look back and catch what surrounds it, let it make a circle with its body to strengthen its muscles. Thereby, we instill in it a feeling of joy in controlling its bodily organs.

Harmony between senses and movements:

In the fifth and sixth months, a child starts gradually to care with the give and take game, where it learns to open its hand and touch things to reach a better result. So, you give it a piece of candy to use its hand in recognizing and tasting it; thereby we reach a real harmony and cooperation between its senses and movements.

The game of hide-and-seek plays a great role in developing its senses because hiding and showing things suddenly make it learn the meaning of the beginning and the end. Moreover, it shall understand whether its father present or not and if it is not at home, it will see him soon.

In order to enable the child to distinguish between shapes and sizes, we have to offer it plastic bottles of different sizes and colors.

In this age, it is better to give it unbreakable mirror to help it know the dimensions of its body, so it discovers its movements and smiles.

Dependency:

A child shows a feeling of dependency between the sixth and the seventh months, and it tries to grab things and sit on them. A child continues to develop its sense of touch by touching things with its own hands and moves them from one hand to another and takes notes. Likewise, it loves to play with water, make noise on dinning table, and play on the floor. These movements test the child's energies and abilities to act and behave and its self-confidence increases everyday.

We should offer it the toys which enable it to use its body and make the necessary movements, however that is not that easy because it needs help and encouragement. A child is not hesitant to do what is told, so there is no need to force it to do something beyond its power, such as providing it with the means for early walk. We should prepare the surrounding environment with the means which incite movements such as the means of standing and the means which reinforce and enable its quick movements.

Finally, experts see that the way with which a child uses its senses in the first months of its life has a great effect on its development in the future. A mother can create the suitable environment to build the personality of the child upon which many hopes are built in the future because they are formed in the first years of its life and the following years are just branches which grew up through sound and healthy roots.