Are Babies Prewired For Survival
INTRO Are babies prewired for survival? This is a question that has been researched and debated in the psychological world for decades. Standing on the side of nature in the ever going battle of nature vs. nurture, we will discover that babies possess cognitive skill, biological abilities, and physical characteristics that not only allow them to live but to survive in the world as we know it. Answering such questions as: Are newborns able to swim and why do newborns smile back at their parents or react to their mothers’ voice? Babies are born with exactly what it takes to live and communicate their various needs.
Beginning with cognitive skill, babies have an innate ability to not only make facial expressions of their desires but also their needs of sustenance. But how is this possible? Using the study of Infant Intersubjectivity, researchers have discovered that “the infants need for communication animates the initial ‘self-other’ awareness and reception of motives and emotions in the intersubjective messages that underlie all languages.” “Human sense” as (Donaldson 1978) called it (Infant Intersubjectivity: Research, Theory, and Clinical Applications. Colwyn Trevarthen and Kenneth J. Aitken. Article first published online: 7 OCT 2003). Just by watching infants and newborns one can easily see the way these miniature people communicate. By observing the different tones in a cry, the facial expressions changes and or the rhythmic movements used to ask for or repel contact; these are all profound forms of infant communication. When I personally think of this form of communication the term body language come to mind. We are observing and essentially talking to infants through an intrinsic form of body language and the babes self-other awareness.
Next, when thinking about the idea of self-other awareness in infants we only need to examine a few things. When you smile at a baby and they smile back, or even when you play peek-a-boo with an infant to watch their face
Beginning with cognitive skill, babies have an innate ability to not only make facial expressions of their desires but also their needs of sustenance. But how is this possible? Using the study of Infant Intersubjectivity, researchers have discovered that “the infants need for communication animates the initial ‘self-other’ awareness and reception of motives and emotions in the intersubjective messages that underlie all languages.” “Human sense” as (Donaldson 1978) called it (Infant Intersubjectivity: Research, Theory, and Clinical Applications. Colwyn Trevarthen and Kenneth J. Aitken. Article first published online: 7 OCT 2003). Just by watching infants and newborns one can easily see the way these miniature people communicate. By observing the different tones in a cry, the facial expressions changes and or the rhythmic movements used to ask for or repel contact; these are all profound forms of infant communication. When I personally think of this form of communication the term body language come to mind. We are observing and essentially talking to infants through an intrinsic form of body language and the babes self-other awareness.
Next, when thinking about the idea of self-other awareness in infants we only need to examine a few things. When you smile at a baby and they smile back, or even when you play peek-a-boo with an infant to watch their face
References: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1469-7610.00701/abstract;jsessionid=F5BDCE7E9FE5CCB25A2E9FBF4755177E.f03t03 Infant Intersubjectivity: Research, Theory, and Clinical Applications. Colwyn Trevarthen and Kenneth J. Aitken. Article first published online: 7 OCT 2003 http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development Piaget Stages of Development. ©2005-2015 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661303001918 On being the object of attention: implications for self–other consciousness. Vasudevi Reddy. TRENDS ON COGNITIVE SCIENCES .Volume 7, Issue 9, September 2003, Pages 397–402 http://www.journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=43493&fileId=S0954579497001387 . Development and Psychopathology. volume / Issue 04 / December 1997, pp 653-677. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ (About DOI), Published online: 08 September 2000 .