As we saw in 'Life before birth' (Nursery World, 20 May), during the final three months of intra-uterine life, babies are learning about their mother's voice, her language and some of the other sounds from the social world outside the womb. But the moment an infant is born, he is surrounded by two contrasting worlds: the animate, social world of people and other creatures, and the inanimate, physical world of objects and space.
People have faces, voices and a special gait, as well as thinking minds and intentions. By contrast, objects have features that obey physical laws but have no minds of their own.
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