“Hey, I know you!”
By Dr. Dana Erhard-Weiss
Eye gaze is one of the first milestones babies achieve, and it is an especially exciting one! It lets parents know that their baby finally “sees” them and that they’re important and recognized. When parents’ and babies’ eyes meet something very special happens – an emotional connection is established. Mutual gaze is a shared communicative experience between a parent and a baby that conveys information about a reciprocal interest and connection, and each participant’s state of mind and general feeling through gestures, facial expressions and smiles. Read more about Emotional Intelligence in babies during the first two years to learn more about emotional development.
Want to learn more about supporting your baby's development and growth? Click here to learn about your baby's particular stage of cognitive development.
The importance of eye gaze
The developmental importance of eye gaze is both emotional and intellectual- it has special significance in early attachment and bonding and plays an important part in the process of obtaining information about the world and emotions. When baby sees her parents’ eyes and face, she starts making associations: between food and feeder, between voices and persons, between a smile and what it means to be happy or loved, etc. This developmental milestone is significant in helping children develop capacities to be calm and regulated, engage and relate to others, and initiate and respond to different types of communication. Later on, when babies are able to follow the caregiver’s gaze, infants can share important information with parents. This is an essential skill required to enjoy mutual play with caregiver and objects and is a central skill to the development of language and vocabulary. In the simplest terms, when both caregiver and baby are looking at the same object and the parent names or describes the object, the connection between a sight and a word is established. Continue reading about the fascinating subject of baby's development in our article about the importance of talking to your baby.