What Your Newborn Knows at Birth
Written By Kevin Markey
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They Mimic Mom and Dad
Some of the most compelling evidence of innate knowledge comes from the lab of Andrew Meltzoff, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, in Seattle. MeltzoffÂ's field of study is imitation, and his findings back in the 1970s began revolutionizing what we know about newborns. Prevailing opinion had maintained that infants couldn't begin to imitate facial expressions until they were 8 months old. And yet, Meltzoff and his team had found that when they stuck out their tongues and moved them from side to side, the newborns responded in kind.
Imitation is more than amusement for love-struck parents. It suggests profound neonatal comprehension. Think about all the information a baby must process before she can imitate an action. First, she must know that she has a tongue of her own. Then she needs to figure out where it is, that she has the power to move it, and finally, how to control it. Most significant, she has to recognize that her tongue is like the one protruding from the face in front of her. All this in people as young as 42 minutes old, according to the latest research.
Meltzoff believes that people are born knowing that they are like other people. "Babies can recognize compatible qualities with others. We think of that as the starting point from which all human development begins." Imitation, in other words, is the most powerful learning tool in an infant's kit. Everything a newborn will one day do, from using a spoon to consoling a friend, begins with watching and imitating what the people around him do.
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