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It's a beautiful summer day. Dad and his 10-week-old son Ryan are
relaxing on a blanket outside. Dad leans over Ryan and smiles and
coos happily as his baby looks up at him. Baby smiles and dad is
thrilled. Suddenly, the family dog bounds into this perfect world,
disturbing the moment and knocking over a glass of lemonade. Not
pleased, dad immediately turns to the dog, shouts at him, and
shoos him away. As he turns back to his baby, an expression of
anger is still on his face. Ryan looks at his dad's face and
begins to cry. Dad immediately senses his baby’s reaction. He
scoops him up, cuddles him and soothes away his tears.
What happened there? Was Ryan’s smile a real expression of
contentment or was he simply mirroring his dad’s facial
expression? Was Ryan’s response to his dad’s anger a real
emotional reaction? What do babies feel and when do they start to
feel it?
 Infants
are emotional beings right from birth. In fact, emotions are
biologically based, and are built into children’s brains, and help
them connect to caregivers (National Scientific Council on the
Developing Child, 2004). Human beings are truly born to feel!
But when do children begin to feel emotions and what do they feel?
Right from birth infants experience several basic or primary
emotions. During the first six months of life, as the infant makes
cognitive gains, these basic emotions develop into more
sophisticated emotions. Thus, over time, a young child’s
repertoire of emotions continues to grow (Lewis, 2000).
The primary emotions and their development during the first six
months of life are mapped in the chart below. At birth there are
several basic emotions that infants experience. But over the
course of the first six months of life, infants begin to
experience more complex emotions. And with each passing year their
emotional repertoire grows. For instance, two to three year old
children begin to experience embarrassment, pride, shame and guilt
(Lewis, 2000).
Infants can’t talk about their emotions—at least not yet! So, to
find out about young children’s emotions, researchers created
experiments that examined how babies respond to the emotional
expressions they see and hear in other people. Would the babies
react to another person’s emotions? Would they copy the emotions
they saw?
Humans are born to feel and infant expressions reflect inner
emotions or feelings. Infants also watch and respond to our
emotions. Spend lots of time interacting with your baby, learning
what she is trying to tell you about how she feels. |
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-
 Smile,
laugh, talk, sing and read together every day.
- Play face-to-face games, like peek-a-boo, with your infant.
Keep your face about 8 to 18 inches from your baby’s face.
- Your baby is reading your face. Be aware that your angry or sad face will
affect how your baby reacts.
- Pay attention to your baby’s emotional expressions and respond to them.
- When you respond to your baby’s emotional needs, he learns that he can count
on you and he learns to connect with you.
- Watch and learn how your baby’s emotions develop over time.
You and your baby are discovering more about each other
every day and it’s an exciting adventure. Have fun… it will
show on your face! |
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References:
Haviland, J. M., & Lelwica, M. (1987). The induced
affect response: 10-week-old infants' responses to three emotion
expressions. Developmental Psychology, 23(1), 97-104.
Lewis, M. (2000). The emergence of human emotions.
In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions
(2nd ed., pp. 265-280). New York: Guilford Press.
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2004).
Children's emotional development is built into the architecture of
their brain (working paper no. 2): Retrieved October 4, 2005
from http://www.developingchild.net/pubs/wp/Childrens Emotional
Development Architecture Brains.pdf |
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