ABSTRACT
Babies start by being interested mainly in people; they go on to develop a selective awareness of objects which are manipulated for them by people, and which therefore move in time with, and in response to, their own movements; eventually they come to show an interest in an object for its own sake, so that the toy begins to come into its own. This progression runs parallel to the baby’s increasing activity, and her greater ability to control her movements so that they work more efficiently for her. By the time she is three or four months old, her eyes are becoming better at focusing, and the two eyes are working in conjunction more successfully: this means that they will be better able to find and stay with something which she enjoys looking at, and that they will be capable of following a moving object without drifting off or overshooting. Along with the ability to fixate and hold with the eyes go reaching and grasping movements: these were already, in a very primitive form, beginning to accompany the baby’s eye movements when she was little more than one week old; but by five-six months the reaching has become more purposeful, therefore more effective, and hence far more rewarding. The baby’s hands themselves become more actively receptive to things that she might hold and look at. Before the age of two months, her hands remain closed for the greater part of her waking time, and the grasp reflex that she was born with tends to keep them closed, in that the touch of her own fingers on her palm reactivates her gripping; as her neurological structures mature and the grasp reflex weakens, her hands open out for more of the time, ready to take hold of the toys she is beginning to reach for.
