Little Cameron can walk—and life is suddenly very different. At 11 months old he can travel just about
anywhere very quickly. The problem is, he's often quicker than
his mother so it's a challenge keeping Cameron safe while he explores
his world.
Today Cameron has discovered the pretty red tassels dangling from the
edge of the tablecloth. He can't see what's on top of the table, and
doesn't realize if he pulls on one of the tassels a vase of flowers will
come tumbling down. Across the room, his mother looks with fear and
surprise as she realizes her son's plan. As Cameron begins to reach for
a tassel he looks back at his mother. The look on his mother's face tells
Cameron what he needs to know. He stops reaching
for the tassel and moves away from
the table. His mother, having vaulted across the room, quickly removes
the tablecloth and its enticing tassels.
It's in your face.
Cameron used what researchers call "social referencing" to
decide what to do. In other words, he "read'" his mother's
face, recognized the fearful expression and understood he should not
pull the tassel. Cameron, like other babies close to 12 months old, can
interpret the emotions he sees on his mother's face. Amazingly, he knows
what certain facial expressions and tones of voice mean—from "don't
do that" to "it's OK to play with that." By watching
adult's facial expressions and listening to their tone of voice, babies
as young as 10 months old can use emotional information to decide what
to do (Walden & Ogan, 1988).
As adults, we do this all the time to obtain feedback from the world
around us, but it's fascinating to learn how early this skill develops.
By 12 months, research has shown that babies use visual information
from the faces of their caregivers to make sense of situations that
are new or unclear (Sorce, Emde, Campos,
& Klinnert, 1985). For example, your child might check
the expression on your face and the emotion it shows before deciding
to pick up a new toy.
Recognizing visual cues.
To see if babies would use social referencing to make decisions, researchers
had to create a situation that would be new and unclear to young children.
In one experiment, researchers created a "visual cliff"—a
glass-covered space that had a "deep end" and seemed unsafe to cross.
As they crawled over the glass to get a toy, the babies reached the
"deep end" and weren't sure whether they should keep going. At this
point, the babies looked at their mothers—and the researchers studied
what the babies did (Sorce, Emde, Campos, &
Klinnert, 1985).
The mothers and their babies were divided into two groups. Mothers in
the first group encouraged their babies to come towards the toy at the
other end. As each child approached the visual cliff, the mother smiled,
created a happy face and encouraged her baby to cross the table using
only her facial expressions.
The second group of mothers also placed the toy at the deep end of
the cliff, but as their babies moved closer to the "edge" these mothers
showed a fearful face,
again without talking or using their hands to add to the communication.
Here's what happened.
When the mothers posed a fearful expression not one of the 17 babies
ventured across the deep side. But almost all the babies who saw their
mother's happy face - 14 out of 19 - crossed to the deep end. These
babies recognized their mother's expression and decided what to do based
on what they "read" in their mother's face.
Babies also use social referencing to make decisions about new objects.
For instance, one study looked at whether babies would play with certain
new toys depending on how their mothers reacted to them. The results
were clear--1 year olds were less likely to play with a new toy if their
mother reacted negatively to it, and more likely to play with a toy
if their mother expressed positive emotions about it
(Hornik,
Risenhoover & Gunnar, 1987).
Another study looked at when social referencing begins and how it develops
over the first 2 years (Walden & Ogan,
1988). They found that babies used social referencing consistently
by 10-13 months. Babies from 6-9 months old looked at their mothers
in unclear situations, but they seemed more concerned about whether
their mother was nearby-and they didn't pay much attention to their
emotional expressions. The older babies (14-22 months old) used social
referencing at times, but at other times they didn't. The researchers
thought that these children could tell when their parents' emotions
were real and when they were pretending in the experiment.
Helpful Parenting Tips
So, what does this mean to you and your baby? It means
that your 1- year old is watching your face and learning from your expressions
all of the time. Your baby is developing the important skill of reading
faces and emotions—and you are the first and most important teacher
around. With this in mind, you can:
Have fun interacting face-to-face with your baby. Let your baby
see—and learn about—a wide range of emotional expressions.
Since your baby is "reading" the emotions you express,
try to provide clear examples of these emotions. Sometimes our faces
may say one thing while our voices or actions say another.
Your face tells your child a lot about how you feel. Share the things
you enjoy with your baby along with communicating what to avoid.
Use positive emotions to introduce new things to your baby—like
new people, new pets, and new toys.
Social referencing is something we do every day, whether we are aware
of it or not. It's an important skill that helps us all our lives—and
it begins very early in life. You are teaching your child many important
things as you go through the day—especially about emotions. Your
baby learns by watching you.
References:
Hornik, R.,
Risenhoover, N., & Gunnar, M. (1987). The effects of maternal
positive, neutral, and negative affective communications on infant
responses to new toys. Child Development, 58, 937-944.
Sorce, J. F.,
Ernde, R. N., Campos,
J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its
effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds.
Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 195-200.
Walden, T. A., &
Ogan, T. A. (1988). The development of social referencing.
Child Development, 59(5), 1230-1240.
Cameron used what researchers call "social referencing" to
decide what to do. In other words, he "read'" his mother's
face, recognized the fearful expression and understood he should not
pull the tassel. Cameron, like other babies close to 12 months old, can
interpret the emotions he sees on his mother's face. Amazingly, he knows
what certain facial expressions and tones of voice mean—from "don't
do that" to "it's OK to play with that." By watching
adult's facial expressions and listening to their tone of voice, babies
as young as 10 months old can use emotional information to decide what
to do 
