Empty bottles, full diapers and sleepy little eyes easily deceive new parents who conclude that their newborn is an unresponsive, though adorable, model of social inertia. Even though the pace of growth and development proceeds in the newborn's brain at an amazing speed, little evidence exists to validate impending changes in your newborn's social behavior. Learn to how recognize these behaviors and how to promote her social development.
Smiling
The American Academy of Pediatrics indicates that random smiles and grimaces evolve into purposeful smiling behavior at the age of 2 months. Your newborn learns that smiling provides an additional mode of communicating with you and for expressing her needs. At 3 months, your newborn may actively seek your attention with smiles, coos and gurgles. Her efforts to engage you in these nonverbal dialogues strengthen your newborn's brain development and socialization skills. Newborns prefer smiling faces. Researchers report that when presented with smiling and fearful faces, newborns gazed longer at smiling faces than fearful ones.
Mirroring Facial Expressions
Newborns entertain their adult caregivers when they imitate or mirror facial expressions. MayoClinic.com indicates that your newborn may attempt to mirror your facial expressions by the age of 2 months. Surprisingly, a study published in the journal "Child Development" by Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore in 1983 reports that newborns ranging in age from 1 hour to 3 days old imitated facial expressions after seeing a video of a stranger who opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.
Seeking Direct Eye Contact
Research reveals that newborns prefer to look at faces of people who make direct eye contact, although sustained eye contact may initially overpower them. Your newborn may gaze into your eyes for longer periods of time as you learn to respond to her needs. Newborns look away to restore control and in response to fatigue or overstimulation. Experiment with increasing the distance between your newborn's face and your face or changing your facial expression when your baby diverts her gaze.
Communicating Needs
Newborns communicate needs related to hunger and pain through crying, whimpering, flailing their arms and legs and other bodily movements. New parents learn to recognize their newborn's "distress signals" quickly to provide an appropriate, loving response. Protracted incidents of crying typically peak 6 weeks following birth and gradually diminish. Your newborn gains confidence and trust when you provide consistent reassurance and promptly meet her needs. As the nervous system matures, the newborn develops coping skills that help her to accommodate daily frustrations.
