Describe The Importance Of Reflexes In Babies

New Born babies use their senses from the moment they are born, they can already recognise their mothers voice and smell and they have natural reflexes for example the Walking and standing reflex which

| * Usually born around 40 weeks gestation * Has swallowing and sucking reflex * Has rooting reflex * Has grasp reflex * Walking or standing reflex * Gaining about 5-7 ounces per week * Growth about 5cms by age 2 months

center for the child’s development. This gives the reason why a child has a strong sucking reflex that is

Reflexes are the infant’s most obvious organized patterns of behavior. A reflex is an unlearned, involuntary, automatic response to a particular form of stimulation. A wide variety of reflexes are seen in infants during the last four months of prenatal life and the first four months after birth. Reflexes also occur subcortically, which means “below the level of cortex of the brain.” (282 MD) Reflexive movements are therefore without direct involvement of the higher brain centers. Reflexes are an important role to infants, they are used for protection, nutrition, survival and development of voluntary movement. Reflexes are an interesting subject that I learned in my motor development class this semester as well as in this lifespan development class. I found it fascinating that we as humans use reflexes to survive and eventually they help us learn to function.

Newborn reflexes play an important role in the construction of the traction in the early stages of development because they are the first well established driving structures from which an infant may start to diversify themselves and create new schemes. Reflexive behavior is fixed; it does not allow for voluntary control to achieve a goal. However, from three months on babies begin to establish the first relationships between actions and feelings. They are very simple movements in appearance, but require the implementation of neural connections; they are a fundamental first step.

From the first day of their lives, infants are able to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. The visual cortex, which processes visual information, is immature at birth (Gross, 2012), thus resulting in poor vision early in life. Infants, before 2 months, have trouble tracking objects, but are able to discriminate between white and a number of other colors (Gross, 2012). Gross (2012) also reports that by age 4 months, infants are able to perceive depth. In terms of sound, infants are able to respond to sound consistently and accurately by age 4-5 months, and from birth infants are able to perceive speech sounds categorically (Gross, 2012). Touch is imperative to an infant’s growth and development. Neonatal reflexes and the ability to feel pain, begin at birth, and

Infantile reflexes include the tonic neck reflexes, grasping reflexes and many others. As the neocortex begins to mature, it inhibits these primitive reflexes, causing them to disappear in normal adults. However, in people with frontal or parietal lobe damage or tumours, these reflexes are reactivated. This raises the question: What kind of mechanisms does the neocortex employ to exert inhibitory control over such reflexes? Since the brain is so complex, a vast variety of possible mechanisms could exist and be utilised by the frontal and parietal lobes to suppress the reflexes. Perhaps, there could be neuronal projections to the reflex centres where inhibitory neurotransmitters such as GABA halt those reflexes. Another possibility could be

How many newborn reflexes are there? There are seven newborn reflexes they are all very important but, I'm going to be explaining one out of the seven. You might of heard of the sucking reflex. The newborn is born with the sucking reflex. This reflex is learned right after the newborn in the womb has learned the rooting reflex this will help the newborn be reading to learn the sucking reflex.

The sucking reflex causes the infant to suck anything that touches the roof of its mouth and that is extremely important because without the sucking reflex, the infant would not be able to feed properly. The reflex occurs in two phases in the case of eating, expression and milking. Expression is when the mother’s nipple touches the child’s palate and the child instinctively closes his or her lips and begin draw out milk. Milking is when the tongue leaves the areola allowing the child to swallow the milk. (Wikipedia) Other than eating, infants often suck their thumbs or their pacifier and the reason is for comfort or when they are tired. The sucking reflex usually stops when the infant is 3 months old but is often prolonged due to the use of the pacifier. The reflex stops because as the limbic system of the brain develops, the infant finds new ways pathways to handle their emotions and so the sucking of the thumb or pacifier is no longer

Newborn reflexes are: rooting, sucking, eye blink, withdrawal, Babinski, moro, palmar grasp, tonic neck, stepping reflex and escape. In the rooting reflex, the newborn moves it's head around, looking for the nipple. In the sucking reflex, the infant feeds by sucking on the nipple. The eye blink reflex protects infant from strong stimulation. In withdrawal, the infant avoids an unpleasant tactile stimulation. In Babinski, toes fan out and curl as the foot twists in. With the moro reflex, the infant thinks its being dropped and arches back and throws out their arms and legs then brings them towards their body. Palmar grasp gets the child prepared for voluntary grasping. If you put your finger in the infants hand, the infany will grasp it. With

At this time the infant uses natural reflexes that they were born with such as, sucking and rooting. In which they understand the environment purely on these actions.

Infants are born with a number if reflexes that help them to adjust outside of the womb

Infants gain control of the head and body over time, starting with raising the head and eventually walking. Infants bat at dangling objects with hands and feet, and eventually use their hands to grasp objects. Infants put objects in their mouths to learn about the item’s physical properties. Infants eventually use the thumb

The grasp appears at birth but only continues for another five or six months. This reflex occurs if a finger is placed on their open palm. The infant 's hand will close around the finger and trying to remove the finger causes the grip to tighten. Newborn infants have strong grasps and can almost be lifted up if both hands are grasping fingers! The moro reflex, also called the startle reflex, is likely to occur if the following happen: the infant 's head suddenly shifts in position, the temperature changes abruptly, they are startled by a sudden noise, or the sensation of falling takes place. Even the baby 's own cry may cause this reflex! The legs and head extend while the arms jerk up and out with the palms up and thumbs flexed. The step reflex is sparked when the sole of the foot touch a hard surface. The infant then lifts one foot, then the other, as if walking.

​Starting with the sensorimotor stage, which includes children from ages zero to two years of age, we will explore this stage more in depth by six different substages associated with it that covers a two year period among a child’s development. As children are in Substage 1: Modification of Reflexes (birth to 1 mo.) they modify their reflexes to make them more adaptive to the environment and their surroundings. Which means children in this stage are able to adapt to objects that are placed near or in front of them. If children in this stage are presented with the stacking cups toy, they may begin to start grasping the cups when handed