Abstract. Human newborns were tested with an operant choice procedure to determine whether they would prefer their fathers' voices to that of another male. No preference was observed. Subsequent testing revealed that they could discriminate between the voices but that the voices lacked reinforcing value.
Consistent with prior reports, newborns showed a preference for their mother's but not their father's voice. The characteristics of voice stimuli that capture fetal attention and elicit a response are yet to be identified.
Babies can recognize voices as young as 1 week old. Make sure your voice is one of them!
But does it matter who is doing the singing? A new study by researchers at the University of Toronto finds that, when it comes to music, infants prefer to listen to familiar tunes – even if sung by an unfamiliar voice.
Infants preferred their mothers' voices over unfamiliar female voices when pre- sented 500. Hz low-pass filtered voice samples in a nonnutritive sucking operant choice proce- dure. Infants did not prefer their mothers' whispered voices, suggesting that they did not recog- nize them.
Talking to your baby is an important way to help him/her grow. It promotes communication and language development. It also supports social and emotional development. Even before your baby starts to talk, he/she communicates with you through facial expressions, body language and crying.
There are many reasons why babies may show a strong preference for one caregiver over another. Sometimes it's about proximity, routine, or familiarity. Sometimes it's linked to life events and developmental milestones. And other times, these preferences just come and go for no particular reason.
Your baby finds comfort in your arms
When an infant can be soothed by your voice or physical comfort, this is another way she shows she trusts you. Infants identify caretakers by sight, smell, and sound, and when any of these provide a level of comfort to a baby it is evidence of an established bond.
When your baby gazes into your eyes when they're in your arms, it's baby's way of expressing they're attracted to you, and want to get to know you even better. Babies will try to copy your facial expressions, test it out by sticking out your tongue when baby is gazing at you, they may well copy.
At some stage, most babies develop very strong attachments to their primary caregivers. Sometimes they share the love between both parents, but it's not uncommon for babies to just want to focus their attention on one parent only. This makes caring for them difficult, in all sorts of ways.
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.
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.
Kissing your baby has a lot of emotional benefits. When a mother shows her baby love by kisses, hugs and the like, it shows the baby that being sensitive to others needs and feelings is important. This in turn can help them relate as well as interact better with those around them.
Kisses and smiles
It increases the sense of safety and happiness, enabling complete emotional development. It has calming effects, which helps your baby rest and sleep. It stimulates affective development and helps them learn to express their emotions.
Babies can tell who has close relationships based on one clue: saliva. Sharing food and kissing are among the signals babies use to interpret their social world, according to a new study.
While infants vary in their sensitivity, research shows that babies do, indeed, sense and react to their parents' emotional cues.
The milestone of responding to one's own name usually occurs between 4 and 9 months, according to the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). Not all babies reach this milestone at the same time, of course, but most should be appearing to recognize their name with consistency between the ages of 7 and 9 months.
The phase can start as early as six to eight months and continues until around age two – when object permanence is fully established.
According to an old notion, first-born children are genetically predisposed to appear more like their father. It was thought that this was done so that the father would accept the child as his and provide for and care for them. Another argument is that this would prevent him from eating the baby.
Not worrying may be easier said than done, but truly, parental preference is a normal and healthy part of toddlerhood. It can pop up between ages one to three, as children become more independent and learn to express their opinions.
Not speaking with your children means their vocabularies will be smaller. Not conversing with your children also means that you're spending less time paying attention to and interacting with them. When that happens, it can be difficult to develop a strong bond with your baby.
Understanding What You Say
One very important sign that your baby is learning to talk is that he or she understands more and more of what you say. Words such as mommy, daddy, baby, shoe, ball, juice and cookie are probably understood now, or will be soon. A baby may now also understand names of family members or pets.
When your baby's only a few weeks old, his memories usually last for up to two days. A research investigation confirmed that by the time he reaches 5 months, he can remember photos of faces for as long as 14 days.
Say the no-kiss rule is only temporary.
Most babies' immune systems will be strong enough for kisses after 2 to 3 months. Until then, it's healthiest not to kiss the baby, painful though it may be. “The baby will need your kisses in a few months!” “Keep looking forward to the time when she's old enough to be snuggled!