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A Baby’s Growth
1. To describe a baby's growth, the old saying “one thing leads to another” should really read, “one thing leads to an explosion.” The perfection of vision and the ability to hold his head up allow appreciation of visual space. The evolution of increasingly efficient reaching also lets the baby appreciate and participate in his three-dimensional world.
2. You may notice that your baby can grab toys with either hand. This is partly because the baby has learned to grasp an object even if it touches his hand lightly or his eyes are averted. By the end of the fourth month, he can probably alternate hands to grab the toys or transfer a toy from one hand to the other. He may even wave it briskly, then transfer it and repeat the waving, shuttling it back and forth between hands. In imitating the behavior of one hand with the other, the baby may be becoming aware that he can do the same thing with each arm and that each hand is distinct from the other. This awareness is important to his receiving information about space. The baby also begins to see himself act when he repeatedly reaches for and grasps things. He starts to distinguish himself from the outer world.
3. If you would like another sign of this growth process, try one of Gesell's measures of mental growth, the behavior of a baby before a mirror. According to Gesell, a baby will smile at his image at around twenty weeks of age. Hold your baby up to a mirror and watch him examine the faces there. He will probably attend most to his own image and perhaps smile at it. As his image returns the smile, he may become active and vocalize. He may also look back and forth between your image and you as if the duplication puzzles him. A baby who knows his mother's face cannot understand two of them. Calling softly to your baby, as he looks at your confusing double, complicates matters even further. His turning back to the real you shows that a baby four months old is likely to have the ability of preference in discrimination.
4. An early attachment to one object—a toy or a stuffed animal—is another index of discrimination, as well as self-development, for the baby's interests are going beyond himself. Most babies do not prefer one toy this early, but some will. After exploring each toy, your baby may start reaching and playing with one special one. In the months to come, the toy or anything else the baby identifies with himself by wearing or carrying may become a “lovey”. A “lovey” will be slept with, chewed, hugged, loved, and “talked to.” These “loveies” give the baby a way of coping with the necessary separations from the mother. A friendly and familiar toy bear may just make him easier on himself. Rather than feeling threatened, a mother should be flattered by her baby’s extension of affection elsewhere. A baby with the heart to find a “lovey” is showing early mental resourcefulness and flexibility.
练习：
1. Paragraph 1 ______________
2. Paragraph 2 ______________
3. Paragraph 3 ______________
4. Paragraph 4 ______________
A. Gesell's measure of the baby's mental growth
B. The baby learns to set himself apart from the outer world through playing with toys
C. The baby's confusion in front of a mirror
D. Significance of one development in a baby's life
E. The baby’s love for “Loveies” indicates early mental resourcefulness and flexibility
F. The functions of a “lovey”
5. The baby’s ability to sense the visual space owes to ______________.
6. In imitating the behavior of one hand with the other, the baby is able to ______________.
7. A baby will smile as his image at ______________.
8. The baby’s extension of affection should make the mother ______________.
A around twenty weeks of age
B. feel flattered
C. tell one hand from the other
D. the perfection of vision and the ability to hold his head up
E. has preference among his toys
F. explore his toys
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