Facial Expressions and Bonding with Your Baby

by Kevin Delp | More from this Blogger

22 Aug 2007 03:09 AM

Everything is new to a baby. Every single aspect of life is a new and wonderful experience that is soaked up like a sponge. Their little mind will record every little detail that they perceive, and add it to their growing personal reference library of life experience. Not many people know, however, that newborns are unable to focus their eyes. It sometimes takes months for a baby's eyes to become used to focusing, and thus months for the baby to be able to recognize their daddy's face. You may have noticed, that your baby will respond to your voice much more quickly than they can respond to your face.

One thing you can do to help facilitate your child's focusing is to greatly exaggerate your facial expressions. Imagine for a moment looking through a video camera whose lens is somewhat out of focus. You might still be able to make out shapes, outlines, and shadows. Keeping this in mind, you can help your child to learn to focus on your face and on other things by getting his attention with your voice, so that baby turns toward you. Once baby is looking in your direction, talk to baby while you raise and lower your eyebrows. Open and close your mouth very wide. Shake your head back and forth. Do anything that will draw baby's eyes towards the outlines, shapes, and features of your face.

As with anything worthwhile, it takes time for progress to be made, but baby will grow. It might seem like baby hasn't let you sleep for years, but it's only been a little while. Before you know it, baby will develop the ability to focus, and will beam a smile when you walk into the room. It will make your heart melt, and all your hard work will have been worth it. Good luck, Dad.

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