The current consensus is that infants are thinking all the time, busy trying to make sense of the world around them from the moment they emerge from the womb. "Babies are little experimenters," says Susan Hespos, Ph. D., a cognitive psychologist at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.
However, while they may not think like an older person, babies think from the time they are born. These first thoughts, called protothoughts, are based on sensations, as children this young are not capable of specifying everything they perceive with words or images.
Babies may enter the world with brains that appear unsophisticated, but they absorb and understand more than we realize. Babies notice, process, and file everything adults and children around them say and do. Most of their learning occurs through their senses.
The newborn shows several signs of consciousness, such as being awake and aware of him/herself and mother. The infant processes olfactory and painful inputs in the cortex, where consciousness is believed to be localized.
They will probably prefer looking at a human face to looking at an object. They will gaze deeply into your eyes if you hold them about 45cm away from your face. Most babies can recognise their parents by this age. 1 month old babies love the sound of your voice, but they will get startled if they hear a loud noise.
As a newborn, babies have no sense of themselves as individuals. Your baby thinks that the two of you are one and doesn't realize that the tiny hands and feet waving before them are their own.
Your baby is learning to recognize you through their senses. At birth, they are starting to recognize your voices, faces, and smells to figure out who is taking care of them. Since the maternal voice is audible in utero, an infant starts to recognize their mother's voice from the third trimester.
Babies can feel interest, distress, disgust, and happiness from birth, and can communicate these through facial expressions and body posture. Infants begin showing a spontaneous "social smile" around age 2 to 3 months, and begin to laugh spontaneously around age 4 months.
Babies develop imagination and creativity through play. Between birth and 12 months, babies will be fascinated by you, by themselves and by the world around them. Play ideas to develop baby imagination and creativity include peekaboo, books, treasure boxes, nature walks, messy play and more.
When your baby is a newborn, they think they are a part of you. As they grow, they'll start to work out that they're their own person and develop independence, with your support of course.
Researchers believe that these earliest smiles represent the pleasure of the baby recognizing an object (such as Mommy or Daddy) [2]. By two months, infants begin to develop the smile that communicates their emotional experience of pleasure and contentment.
When do memories start? Even in their first two months, your baby can recognize familiar faces and voices, especially those they see every day. Newborns can recognize their mothers' voice at birth, and breastfed babies can recognize their mother's smell.
As early as three months, babies learn to recognize their parents or primary caregivers. And there staring is their way to communicate. Babies can't quite interact yet for the first few months, so their staring is their way of communicating with you.
Do Babies Feel Love? In short, yes: Babies do feel love. Even though it will be quite a while before they're able to verbalize their feelings, they can and do understand emotional attachment. Affection, for example can be felt.
Are you wondering, what do babies dream about? Good question, but the answer is… nothing! The “character of the self” hasn't even made an appearance yet!
MYTH: Babies are scared of the dark.
FACT: Babies are not scared of the dark. They have nothing to base that fear on, since their imagination doesn't develop until around 2 years of age. In the womb it is dark (and noisy) and so, like other mammals, babies actually find the dark comforting, safe and calming.
They can see, but only see close things clearly. In the first 3 months your baby will be attracted by faces, bright lights and colours, stripes, dots and patterns, but not understand what they're seeing. They'll first recognise that eyes, nose and mouth make a face.
Infants are sensitive to emotion. "By the time newborns are just a few months old, they recognize the difference between a happy expression and a sad one," says Alison Gopnik, Ph. D., author of The Philosophical Baby. Around their first birthday, a child can even sense how other people feel.
If you're very sad, or suffering from depression, your baby experiences those feelings as well. Your emotional state affects your baby's development for a significant portion of their life.
Babies have a biological need for close physical affection. Nothing is more important to their emotional, physical and intellectual development than a comforting cuddle or a loving touch. What is certain is that babies who are cuddled, stroked and caressed are more likely to grow up to be loving social beings.
While infants vary in their sensitivity, research shows that babies do, indeed, sense and react to their parents' emotional cues. Generally speaking, they're picking up on what you're giving off.
When do babies recognize their father or mother? Babies can recognize their parents pretty early actually – as young as 4 days old. By making eye contact with your baby during feeding times, cuddle sessions and throughout the day, you're helping your child memorize your face and learn to trust you.
When your baby stares at your face or your toddler cries whenever you leave the room, your child is nonverbally telling you that they love you. Little signs like this prove that when it comes to kids and love, even little gestures are big expressions of affection.
1-3 Months
The first three months with your baby often seem the hardest. Sleep-deprived parents can feel overwhelmed, but that is normal and you will quickly learn how to read your baby's cues and personality. Don't worry about “spoiling” your baby at this stage.
Only between about 3 and 7 months of age do babies start to show a strong preference or attachment for mothers, fathers or members of their own family in general.