ABSTRACT
A great deal has been learnt about babies in recent years that can be of use to parents in understanding their child and their own role as parents. There are many different ways to think about the physical and mental development of a typical child in the first year of life. Babies are born with inbuilt abilities: reflex (involuntary) actions such as grasping, rooting, and sucking; senses such as vision and hearing; perceptions of the space around them; and a capacity for learning. The mental development of the typical baby proceeds in an orderly way; some things always precede others, leading psychologists to refer to stages. A baby's emotional development begins in the first few months of life, with responses becoming more immediate and appropriate to the situation. The big development in the second to third year of life is that of speech. When the different requirements are analysed, this is quite a complex achievement.
