Can Babies Recognize Emotions?

Emotion in Voices

• According to an article from NPR, researchers at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at the University of London and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences studied infants to determine if they could differentiate between human voices and other sounds such as a bell ringing or a chicken clucking. They found that at 4 months of age, the babies were not able to recognize the differences. However, by the time the babies were 7 months old, their brains showed activity that told the scientists babies of that age could process the human voice differently than other sounds. Not only did they recognize which sounds were voices, the 7-month-olds responded differently to unfamiliar words spoken with happy or unhappy intonations. So sometime between 4 and 7 months of age, babies develop the ability to recognize emotion in spoken words.

Emotion in Faces

• Most young infants seem to be drawn to faces and enjoy looking at them, but the same researchers from the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at the University of London found that by the time they are 4 months old, babies can pick up on nonverbal cues, such as raised eyebrows and a smile. According to an article in "The Telegraph," the researchers found that a newborn especially attends to a face that meets him with a mutual gaze, or direct eye contact. The babies are using the same regions of the brain as adults do to recognize emotions in others, showing that this is a skill that develops very early in life, and is a foundation for other social development.

Smiling Together

• When you talk in a happy, loving tone and give your baby a smile, you are offering him a way to engage with you. Your smile will make him feel happy and he will likely offer you one in return. According to HealthyChildren.org, by the time he is 3 months old, he will have learned to interact with you using his smile, sometimes smiling to grab your attention and other times watching you closely, waiting for the first smile, which he will return enthusiastically. These fun exchanges of smiles may seem like no more than play, but they are actually helping your infant develop his social-emotional skills. By giving him eye contact and recognizing his cues, you are showing your baby he is important and that he can trust you.

Stay Positive

• During the first few months of life, your baby will be taking in all the sights and sounds, watching and listening to the people around him. This will help him develop the social skills he needs to recognize emotions and interact with others, so try to keep your interactions positive. If you are having a bad day or feeling unhappy, your baby will be able to pick up on those nonverbal cues or the tone of your voice and may respond unhappily as well. Researcher Dr. Jack Nitschke at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that when a mother looks at her baby, the area of her brain associated with emotional processing is activated, showing that just looking at your baby can perk up your mood. So smiling at your baby often can not only help him learn to recognize when you are happy; it can actually make you feel better as well.