Chapter 5 – Perceptual Development

Perceptual development is an aspect of cognitive development that allows a young human being to start interpreting and understanding sensory input. (Bee 116) For instance, as infant grows, they begin to be able to support their heads so that their eyes can scan their environment. In order to understand the perceptual development, there are two arguments that are made which are Empiricism and Nativism (Bee 117). According to empiricist beliefs, the naive child does not share the same perceptual world of an experienced adult. Empiricism is inherently development because, by whatever mechanism is postulated, human beings grow from perceptually immature to perceptually mature. This belief has been contradicted by nativists. They believe that human beings are not “created” mindless and that the knowledge that human processes cannot be achieved by learning alone in such a short span of time, such as childhood. The child and adult may share many perceptual capacities, and the two perceive the world in almost the same way (Bee 118). Newborns have amazing capabilities with their five senses, even though it’s not as active and progressive as adult, it’s still very amusing to learn what these little ones can do. Infant's perception involves using their senses to interpret their environment. This primarily involves their sight, but their hearing and physical milestones also play a part. At birth, infants haven't fully developed 20/20 vision and respond to contrast instead. As the months pass, babies will be able to follow objects better. At the same time, they will start responding to noises and voices and moving his body to let you know they feel excited, confused or happy (Gonzalez-Mena, 116).
In sight, they can distinguish light and dark areas, within few weeks they can distinguish colors but it still blurry. The infant can fixate on a moving object at a distance up to 12 inches and can approximately see 8 inches away. They are more interested in seeing a human face. Furthermore, newborns actually can hear while they were still inside the mother’s tummy as a fetus. They also are able to hear at birth and especially responsive to high-pitched familiar voices and sounds as well as recognizing the mother’s and father’s voice. For caregivers, they need to be aware of the unique preference of young children because the optimum noise level varies with each child. In the mean time, their sense of smell and taste are working too (Gonzalez-Mena 117-118).
Newborns can distinguish numerous smells and taste but they prefer pleasant taste and sweet taste (example: the mother’s breast milk). They are also able to distinguish mother’s scent from other scents. What parents have to be careful with this progress is to avoid making or introduce things that are not edible but smell delicious like small marker or pencil with a grape scent on the bottom because the children may think that it’s real and put in on their mouth. Parents should be careful not to condition infants to the taste of salt. Newborns have a well-developed sense of touch; their sensitivity to discomfort and pain usually increase after birth. Where and how an infant is touched depends on the culture, therefore caregiver must be alert to potential cultural and gender issues related to touch itself (Gonzalez-Mena 117-118). Perceptual development progresses from infancy throughout early childhood. The little one's senses develop so that they can use them for awareness of their surroundings as well as learning and growing normally in the early years of life. Perceptual development occurs without a huge effort from parents, but adult can watch for and promote it with activities that are fun for both of the child and the caregiver. When they do it, they will also be able to see if the baby is lagging behind on perceptual milestones (Kemler 279-280). According to Jean Piaget’s observations, the first signs of object