Which statement about sensory development is accurate?

• A. Only sight is functional at birth.
• B. All senses function at birth and help infants learn about their environment.
• C. Senses do not contribute to learning in infancy.
• D. Hearing is not functional at birth.

Answer: (B)

From birth, several senses are functional enough to help a newborn learn about the world. Hearing is active right away, so babies can respond to voices and sounds. Smell and taste are also present, guiding feeding and helping with bonding to caregivers. Touch is important for comfort and for exploring textures and boundaries, while vision is less mature but still usable at close range to begin recognizing faces and objects. Together, these sensory experiences fuel early learning by helping infants perceive, categorize, and respond to their environment. The other statements either downplay the role of senses in learning or claim a single sense is responsible, which isn’t accurate since multiple senses contribute from the start.