Nursery World - Listen here

You can tune the ears of babies and toddlers to picking out sounds and matching them to what they are seeing and doing, as Jennie Lindon explains The impressive sensory skills of human babies are now far better recognised by researchers. If all is going well, babies are alert with all their senses from the very beginning. They are definitely hearing sounds as well as making them.

The impressive sensory skills of human babies are now far better recognised by researchers. If all is going well, babies are alert with all their senses from the very beginning. They are definitely hearing sounds as well as making them.

0-12 months

* Newborn babies have already used their hearing skills before birth. They show that they recognise and prefer some patterns of sounds, such as a story or song that they heard in the womb on a regular basis before birth.

* Very young infants have sharp hearing, similar to our own, but they have their work cut out to understand what all the sounds mean.

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