A reflex is an involuntary response to a stimulus. People are born with several different reflexes. There are reflexes for just about everything in your body. Most reflexes are active after birth. Examples of theses are, how a baby eats and their desire to get from point A to point B. I am just going to focus just on the reflexes of one- three month olds infants. This study I observed a six week old baby, named Lucy. Her mother gave permission for Lucy to be observed and tested for six different reflexes.
The first reflex I performed on Lucy was to test her rooting reflex. This reflex is the happens after someone strokes a baby’s cheek or around the mouth. The baby should then start to make a sucking motion toward the stimulus. This reflex …show more content…
The stepping reflex becomes present at birth. Since babies cannot support their own weight, infants should be held under the arms when performing this reflex. The feet are placed flat and the babies begin stepping by placing one foot in front of the other this reflex imitates walking. The infant’s mother told me that Lucy began her stepping at about four weeks of age. She also, exhibits this reflex when she is very hungry. Lucy performed this reflex slower than usual, her mother attributed this to the fact she had just …show more content…
This reflex is shown when a baby is looking to the side, one arm and the head are looking one way and the other limbs are curled up. It is similar to a position in fencing. Lucy did this reflex slightly, though her arms were not fully extended but, she turned her head toward the stimulus.
The last reflex I had Lucy test was the Babinski reflex. In this reflex, when an object rubs up the baby’s foot, the toes should fan out and then curl back in. This only happens in young infants though. A normal infant would have fanned out his or her toes. However, Lucy did not. She pulled her foot back in and curled her toes inward. This was repeated every time the finger touched her right foot. Her left foot however, fanned out when I touched it. It was slow and only fanned a little though.
Over all, Lucy showed to be a very happy and healthy baby. Her quick response time to each of the reflex test’s shows she is a very healthy physically and cognitively. I believe she will develop and mature at a normal rate. Over this entire project gave me a better understanding of the cognitive development of reflexes in one-three moth old
The first reflex I performed on Lucy was to test her rooting reflex. This reflex is the happens after someone strokes a baby’s cheek or around the mouth. The baby should then start to make a sucking motion toward the stimulus. This reflex …show more content…
The stepping reflex becomes present at birth. Since babies cannot support their own weight, infants should be held under the arms when performing this reflex. The feet are placed flat and the babies begin stepping by placing one foot in front of the other this reflex imitates walking. The infant’s mother told me that Lucy began her stepping at about four weeks of age. She also, exhibits this reflex when she is very hungry. Lucy performed this reflex slower than usual, her mother attributed this to the fact she had just …show more content…
This reflex is shown when a baby is looking to the side, one arm and the head are looking one way and the other limbs are curled up. It is similar to a position in fencing. Lucy did this reflex slightly, though her arms were not fully extended but, she turned her head toward the stimulus.
The last reflex I had Lucy test was the Babinski reflex. In this reflex, when an object rubs up the baby’s foot, the toes should fan out and then curl back in. This only happens in young infants though. A normal infant would have fanned out his or her toes. However, Lucy did not. She pulled her foot back in and curled her toes inward. This was repeated every time the finger touched her right foot. Her left foot however, fanned out when I touched it. It was slow and only fanned a little though.
Over all, Lucy showed to be a very happy and healthy baby. Her quick response time to each of the reflex test’s shows she is a very healthy physically and cognitively. I believe she will develop and mature at a normal rate. Over this entire project gave me a better understanding of the cognitive development of reflexes in one-three moth old