We can't wait for baby's first real smile, that smile that establishes a connection and bond between us! Babies' faces seem unable to hide the mood or the nature of that mood. If they don't like certain purees or certain foods, they grimace and show their disgust.
Fear, on the other hand, can be read on their faces as soon as they are frightened or worried. The child is therefore equipped and programmed for the exchange with others, and the adult must be receptive to the signals he emits and must respond to them.
Parents can listen with their eyes as well as their ears: just pay attention. Your child's face can be the barometer of how he feels. If you don't just listen with your ears, you'll be surprised what your little one is actually communicating to you. His non-verbal language comes as much from his heart and soul as from his intellect.
No intelligence without ties
Shared laughter plays a big role in a child's need for affection. As several studies have demonstrated, the intellectual development of achild is very strongly linked to his emotional development and the climate that reigns in his environment: this serves as the basis for his intelligence. By feeling included in a reassuring relationship, he will find the assurance to set off to discover the world and its understanding. Thus, early interaction through a smile is part of the preverbal communications that are the essential condition for any form of child learning.
Innate smile: reflex or emotion?
We can't hide it, babies are born with an innate desire to communicate and interact with other humans, long before they give us the gift of a conscious smile. Indeed, by their gaze and their facial expressions, they attract and capture our attention. Baby's first smile, the real one, directed and conscious, is often considered the first gesture that makes your child a social being in its own right. It is often also the initiating gesture of communication with dad who finally sees in it a potential for exchange and voluntary sharing on the part of baby.
Smiling is an innate behavior, not an apprenticeship. According to Desmond Morris, author of "Babywatching" (Crown), innate smiles are part of an instinctive survival mechanism in newborn human beings, ensuring the safety and attachment of their loved ones since they would automatically please adults who fall under their spell.
It is from our reactions and responses totheir smiles, their grins and grimaces that baby associates with our smile something pleasant and that he associates with it a recognition on which he will build himself. When we smile at our child, the majority of child psychiatrists believe that we weave essential bonds of closeness. Emotions are used to communicate and bind people together.
The smile is not only communicative and authentic, but it transmits a feeling of well-being and allows the secretion of endorphins which flood the cortex with a sweet euphoria.
Did you know…
- When a newborn baby smiles in his sleep, it is said that baby smiles "to the angels". It is a smile of physical well-being reflex and without intention.
- Social smiling, when baby actually responds to your smile and their eyes squint, usually begins around 2 months of age.
- Baby's first bursts of laughter start between 4 and 8 months.
- So-called “social” laughter only appears from 10-12 months.
A few things to make baby laugh
- The tickles and the little guilis in the neck
- Hand games like “the little beast that goes up, up…”
- Clowning around: by grimaces and imitations
- Hide then reappear, or say hello five, ten times in a row… the repeats!
- Little belly kisses
- Surprises with funny facial expressions and sounds. Babieslove funny words like "boom", "oh oh" and "tadam"
- Take your child in your arms and gently roll over a few times.
- Blow on his navel
- Drop a few droplets of cool water on his feet
