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Infant is a formal term for the word baby, the youngest category of child. The term "infant" derives from the Latin word in-fans, meaning "unable to speak." "Infant" is also a legal term with the meaning of minor; that is, any child under the age of legal adulthood. A human infant less than a month old is a newborn infant or a neonate. The term "newborn" includes premature infants and postmature infants, as well as full term newborns.
During the first 24 months the average child makes considerable gains in height and weight, begins teething, develops sensory discrimination, and begins to walk and talk.Sensory acuity develops rapidly during the first three months of life. Research shows that newborns are capable of visual and auditory discrimination. By two days after birth infants can discriminate odors. Infants react to loud noises, and they probably possess taste discrimination. Within three months they can distinguish color and form; they show a preference for complex and novel stimuli as opposed to simple and familiar stimuli.
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