A young woman who lives in your apartment building recently had her first child. She has visited with you on several occasions and knows that you are a student taking a course in life-span development. She worries that her baby sleeps "almost all the time" and doesn't seem to look at her when she feeds, rocks, or talks to the child. She is very concerned about her baby's vision and hearing. Your friend is also concerned about the baby's nutritional needs, because she has been told many conflicting stories about bottle-feeding and breast-feeding.

Discuss with your friend babies' normal sleep patterns. Prepare an outline to leave with her that she can use to record her baby's sleep patterns. What nutritional advice can you give her? Plan a strategy to discuss the development of the baby's senses.

On another visit with your young neighbor she tells you that her baby seems to "thrash about" at things and doesn't seem coordinated. She is very concerned that this may not be normal. Try to direct the conversation to the development of motor skills as well as sensory and perceptual development, addressing issues of intermodal perception and perceptual-motor coupling and unification. What strategies might you suggest to your friend for helping her infant develop competently?