Babies are born with all five senses: hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell. However, some are more developed than others at first. While sight takes longer to develop, others like hearing, touch, taste, and smell are keen from day one. Babies already have an acute sense of hearing in the womb. Think of the five senses as the essential tools your baby will use to learn about her environment. The more you understand your baby’s five senses, the more you will appreciate her cognitive development. Here are some fun facts you might not have known.

Hearing

A baby’s hearing starts developing in the womb. Around 23 weeks, babies can hear sounds from inside the womb. At 35 weeks, all parts of the ear are completely formed. After birth, her hearing will continue to develop.

Babies are tuned into high-pitched, human voices. A baby immediately recognizes her mother’s voice since she’s heard it in the womb for nine months. She’ll start looking for the source of the sounds she hears at four months. At six months, she’ll try to imitate the sounds she hears. Around her first birthday, she will hit a new milestone in saying single words like “ma-ma” and “da-da.” Fun fact: her hearing will continue to develop until age 12.

Sight

Unlike a baby’s hearing, her sight is much less developed. During her first three months, she’ll experience blurry vision. It’s not that her eyes aren’t physically capable of seeing; it’s that her brain isn’t ready to process so much visual information yet. Her vision will become much clearer as she ages and her brain develops. She can start to see differences in color at one month old. At three months, she’ll develop depth perception. Her clarity and depth perception are close to full development at eight months. She might see subtle color changes later on.

Touch

Touch is vital in how your baby bonds and communicates with you. It’s another sense that develops in the womb as early as the seventh or eighth week of pregnancy. As a newborn, she’s very tuned into her sense of touch. Your touch will soothe and relax her and enhance her growth and comfort. Your baby’s skin is sensitive, but her mouth, cheeks, face, hands, abdomen, and the soles of her feet are the most sensitive. Skin-to-skin contact is an important part of bonding and communication. The grasping reflex with her hand allows her to respond to touch. Touch extends to a baby’s mouth, so she loves putting things in hers. It helps her explore. Your baby enjoys the gentle stroking of her skin. Fun fact: Close contact with the baby benefits parents as well. Holding her close releases oxytocin, also known as the love hormone.

Taste

A baby’s sense of taste starts developing in the womb. At nine weeks, she already has the tiniest taste buds and a fully formed mouth and tongue. She’ll taste her first flavors inside the womb through the amniotic fluid. As a newborn, her sense of taste is highly developed. She highly prefers sweet over sour, salty, and bitter flavors. Her sense of taste will improve as she grows older. Your baby will often favor foods she was exposed to inside the womb. Your baby’s taste preferences are not genetic. Baby can detect a difference in breast milk taste depending on what you eat. This can also positively affect her taste buds, introducing her to various foods before she can eat them as solids.

Smell

Her sense of smell is closely connected to her sense of taste. This is because she tastes the foods you eat through the amniotic fluid and smells them. Like taste, her sense of smell is also highly developed as a newborn. Smell is processed by the memory-controlling part of the brain, which is why there are strong associations between particular scents and experiences. Smelling the same scent later on may trigger a memory. Making up for her still-developing sense of sight, she recognizes you by your scent. The smell of your breast milk is appealing to her. You release higher oxytocin levels when you and your baby smell each other during cuddle time. Stronger aromas can interfere with her sense of taste, so be sure to avoid strong perfumes while breastfeeding.