ABSTRACT
‘Learning’ in infancy depends very largely on the simultaneous use of as many of the senses as possible. We learn to see, hear, taste and touch through a long series of sensory experiences which each in turn leave their patterns on the cortex in the form of nerve circuits which can be reactivated and associated with new patterns as they are set up. The baby’s surroundings are important for his development even at an early age, and what he sees and is able to grasp and manipulate is of course largely provided by adults, normally his parents—particularly in the months before he has learnt to move himself from place to place by crawling, shuffling or walking. Some children never crawl at all, but raise themselves from a sitting position to a standing one and then walk. Unconscious recognition of general properties and relationships at perceptual level begins in the child’s first association of human beings with the feeding situation.
