Prenatal stimulation The human fetus possesses rudimentary hearing from 20 weeks of gestation. This hearing will develop and mature during the remainder of gestation. The fetus is able to hear sounds outside the mother’s body, although he/she is able to hear low-frequency sounds much better than high-frequency sound

Babies begin to hear in the last few months of pregnancy. Thus, when an infant emerges into the world, they are well equipped for hearing system, although some evidence exists that an infant's sensory threshold is higher than that of an adult (i.e. a stimulus must be louder to be heard by a newborn).

However, if a newborn child does not display the following, it may be a sign of a hearing problem: 1.Does not startle, move, cry or react in any way to unexpected loud noises. 2. Does not awaken to loud noises. 3. Does not turn his/her head in the direction of a parent's voice. 4. Does not freely imitate sound.

1 - 3 Month During this period, babies love to hear their parents voices. Babies seem to respond best to the female voice, the one associated with comfort and food. Besides voices, infants enjoy listening to music and are fascinated by the routine sounds of life as well.

4-7 Month A baby's hearing is crucial to speech development. During this period, most babies begin to understand the fundamentals of communication through hearing and language.

When younger, a baby understands meaning through the tone of voice, but now the infant is beginning to pick out the components of speech Most infants at this age can hear and understand the different sounds a parent makes and the way words form sentences.

By the 7th month, most babies recognize and respond to their own name. They also make more attempts to imitate sounds and spend more of their time babbling during this period. This babbling are the baby's early attempts at speaking and should be encouraged as much as possible.

8-12 Month During this period, most infants make more and more recognizable sounds, such as "ga," "ba," and "da." These sounds tell that the baby's is listening to parents for quite some time. The baby also is hearing you and understanding what is asked for : "Where's Daddy?" and he or she looks his way, or "Go find the blue ball," and the baby crawls over to it.

By the end of the first year the baby responds well to simple requests from parents ("Wave bye-bye!").

1-2 Years No matter when child says his first words, it's a sure sign that he/she understands much of what is said to him/her well before that. He should be able to respond to commands. He/she becomes fully aware of the names of familiar objects and family members. This means that the baby's hearing is functioning well and helps in the development of language skills.

Babies during this period will also enjoy the other pleasures of hearing e.g. listening to children's songs and music, laughing and yelling with friends in the park, listening to a bedtime story …….etc.

At 2 years of age a child should: Be able to point out a part of his body when asked without seeing that person's lips move Be able to point to the right picture when asked (for example: Where is the cat? Where is the bird?) Be able to do simple tasks like give you one of his/her toys when asked, without seeing that person's lips move.