What can infants discriminate shortly after birth?

Infants have a remarkable ability to discriminate sounds shortly after birth. Research indicates that newborns are particularly sensitive to the frequency and pitch of sounds, allowing them to distinguish between different auditory stimuli. This sensitivity helps them recognize their caregiver's voice and respond to environmental sounds, which is crucial for their development and learning.

While it is true that infants can start to perceive colors as their vision develops, this ability is not fully established immediately after birth. Newborns primarily see high-contrast patterns, and their color vision continues to develop over the first few months of life. Shapes and sizes, as well as textures, are also aspects of visual perception that take time to fully develop in infants, making sounds the most immediately discriminable characteristic right after birth.