The Baby Human: Geniuses in Diapers

The ability to communicate through language is exclusive to humans, and the developing baby has all the tools to make it happen. Babbling begins at approximately 5 to 7 months of age, when a baby's noises begin to sound like phonemes. Infants begin to produce recognizable words usually around 12 months, and within a few years strings words into sentences.

The capacity to learn, remember, and symbolize information, and to solve problems, exists at a simple level in young infants, who can perform cognitive tasks such as discriminating animate and inanimate beings or recognizing small numbers of objects. Observe the development of crucial cognitive abilities in the first few years.

The speed of motor development is rapid in early life, as many of the reflexes of the newborn alter or disappear within the first year. Abilities for physical movement change through childhood from the largely reflexive movement patterns of the young infant to the highly skilled voluntary movements characteristic of later childhood and adolescence. The ability to walk requires fine-tuned muscle control that is developed through these crucial years.