Journal Entry #3: Grabbing

• Newborn- A baby is born with the grasping reflex. For the first eight weeks this is instinctual and involuntary. Usually, a baby's hands will be clenched in a fist. An example of this is when i was holding my newborn baby cousin and she would curl her tiny fingers around mine.
• 3 Months- At this age, a baby begins to notice things that he/she likes and tries to hold or pick them up. They start to develope hand eye coordination and can do things such as bat toys over and over. An example of this is when a child that I was babysitting had a mobile over his play pen and when he would lie down, he would often reach for the mobile and try to grab it.
• 4 Months- By this time a baby can pick up large objects, such as blocks, but they do not yet have the ability to pick up small objects like peas. Before something like that can happen, they have to develope better finger dexterity. An example of this is when my cousin could pick up her favorite toy, which was a large finding nemo.
• 9 to 12 Months- Child begins to pick up objects with little effort. Their thumb and forefinger is more developed which allows them to pick up small objects. With this increased coordination, they may begin to use utensils when eating. At this time, a child also starts to have a preference for being left or right handed (caregiver wont be able to tell untill the ages of 2 to 3). An example of this was when I was at the beach and I would sometimes get my cousins their lunch and they were now able to pick up all of their food, even if it was small finger foods such as cherios.

Journal Entry #2: Eyesight

• From birth- A baby can focus no further than eight to fifteen inches away. They can detect light, shapes, and movement, but anything beyond that is pretty blury. A baby can see color from birth, but they have difficulty ditinguishing similar tones.
• 1-2 Months- A baby can consistantly focus both eyes and they can now track moving objects.
• 4 Months- Starts to develop depth perception.
• 5 Months- At this age, a baby gets better at spotting very small items, and tracking moving objects. They also begin working on more subtle differences in pastels.
• 8 Months- The baby's clarity and depth perception is almost adult like at this point. They are also close to their final eye color, but there may be some subtle changes later on.

Entry #1: Head and Neak Control

I have made many observations on newborns (ages 0-12 months) using head and neck control. For example, when my baby cousin was about 1 month old, I held him and I had to make sure that I was giving him the support that he needed to keep his head and neck up. I also had to be sure that I was still supporting his head and neck when I was handing him to another person. Another observation that I made was when once a week, I would babysit twins with my mom. The twins were about seven months old when i started babysitting for them and by this time they had mastered sitting up and were often attempting to crawl. Another experience that I had with this was when I was at the beach with another one of my cousins. My cousin was about four months old at this time. I observed that he was able to lift his head when laying on his stomach and keep it up. He was able to do this because his neck mucsles were getting stronger as he grew.