Newborns are born aware of their environment from the moment of birth. This suggests that babies' visual and auditory systems are intact and fully functional at birth. This assignment will begin by outlining the role and function of significant parts of a child's visual and auditory systems. I will begin by discussing the visual system and how children are limited by the development of their visual system. I will then continue to outline the auditory system and its limitations. I will draw on evidence to explain the characteristics of preferred stimuli, both auditory and visual, in order to demonstrate which stimuli would be most suitable in a nursery setting. The visual system of newborns develops over a prolonged period but develops significantly within the first months of life. A newborn baby has limited vision in the first weeks of life due to underdevelopment of the retina, optic nerve, lateral geniculate nucleus and this visual cortex. The retina contains rods and cones. These rods and cones are what distinguish between light and darkness. The rods provide black and white vision while the cones are responsible for seeing colors and finer details. In newborns, the fovea, the central part of the retina, does not contain many cones. Since the eye is no longer able to see, in the first 2-3 months of life the cones move faster towards the fovea and allow the newborn to see more clearly. The lack of maturity in this area at birth suggests that the visual field of newborns is blurry and rather colorless (Hainline, 1998). The optic nerves communicate information from the retina to the brain for decoding. The optic nerves, although lacking the myelin sheath, all form in the womb before b...... middle of paper....... Newborns also have the ability to discriminate between languages ​​at an early age, so it is It is clear that if you are part of a bilingual nursery, the languages ​​used are used on a regular basis. This will prevent children from losing the ability to hear differences in speech, which occurs as they get older. It can also be noted that from an early age children become sophisticated in understanding their native language. Atkinson (2000), cited in Slater and Oates (2005) p.102. Bahrick (2001) cited in Slater and Oates (2005) p.117.Furnald (1985), cited in Slater and Oates (2005)p.113.Hainline (1998), cited in Slater and Oates (2005) p.97. Singh et al (2002), cited in Slater and Oates (2005)p.113.Slater, A., Oates, J. (2005) 'Sensation to perception', in Oates, J., Slater, A. (eds) Psychological Development in Early Childhood, Oxford, Blackwell/ The Open University