Skip to main content

Who's that cute baby?

Luke is endlessly fascinated by his own reflection. When I hold him up to a mirror, he kicks and squeals, and then he tucks his head down onto my chest and cuddles and is shy. It is quite clear that he doesn't know that the reflection is of himself yet, I forget when he gets that idea... Perhaps if there were a developmental psychologist reading the blog, she could post a comment =)

So I shouldn't have been surprised this morning as he was crawling around the floor when he caught a glimpse of himself in the stainless steel garbage can and stopped to play with the cute baby. Our garbage can is round, and not shiny clean anymore, but he still recognized another person and was still interested in talking, waving his hands up and down, and so forth. I let this go on until he tried to kiss the other baby =) he probably played for about 5 minutes. What fun!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Around 12-18 months most babies start to figure out that that is their own reflection. 21-24 month old babies reliably do so.

You test this by putting a red dot or sticker on hisnose when they aren't looking and then show him his reflection; if the baby touches his own nose, then he knows that is his reflection. If he is amused that that cute baby in the mirror has a red nose and tries to grab the reflection, then he has developed this skill of self-recognition.

Once self-recognition is in place it sets the ground work for socialization, as well as a set of emotions that involved the self (e.g., pride, shame, guilt).

Chimps and dolphins seem to have self-recognition... I wonder if they feel guilty at times...

Love,
Your handy neighborhood developmental psychologist
November 7, 2007 at 12:02 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan
Post a Comment
Read more

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman
Post a Comment
Read more

Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe
Post a Comment
Read more