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Show Baby Begins ' To Be Smart At Early Age By OLIVE ROBF.RT9 BARTON Will you believe that at 8 months or thereabouts, a baby will be able to recognize family names? Well, he can, so we're told. And now you can say "no, no" and he will know you don't want him to bang the bottle on the bed. He understands under-stands far more than we think he does. He just doesnt know how to let on that he knows. But please don't think that he la dumb. Language specialists fell us that at a year babiea actually know nearly a hundred words. One puts It at 84, but another Insists on a still larger vocabulary. It depends on the family, for one thing. Much talking, or other children near, enlarge en-large his chances for learning. Ke will talk earlier In a chatty family, fam-ily, too. And now, at a year, he begins to know what a command means. He already knows what he must not but now he gets the other a little better. Suppose he tears off his cap. If we say, "Put it on," he is just as likely aa not to try to get it on his head again. This is the first symptom symp-tom of direct and actual obedience as we know it Obedience consists of the do things as well as the don't orders. He likes his noise and his motion mo-tion mixed. He doesn't like any kind of racket very much that he can't see, except music and sounds he recognizes. He also gets embarrassed, em-barrassed, believe It or leave It when people laugh at him. Bad business, that is. It is the beginning begin-ning of that old devil we all have, hurt pride." From months on, this mite la going to be all eyes for praise and all ears for being made fun of. Watch it And now, with this picture of baby, we know that we have a real person to reckon with, not just a little puppet that moves to our strings. Perhaps you may want to know how fast his sight and hearing tie up with behavior. He begins to know face at 10 weeks. At three months he distinguishes dis-tinguishes pretty clearly the lamp from the stove and the hat from the bottle. Distinction Is budding. Another month or two and he'll reach for the things his eyes behold. be-hold. "Go get. Try hard," say the eyes. At six months his eyes have such an expression of intelligence, surely no one could call him a dummy. Eyes and ears are not only the keys to knowledge, but to feelings as well. At a year, baby is as full of impressions as a record. |