- The document discusses infant smiling and its development in early infancy, noting that smiling is one of the first social behaviors displayed by infants and plays an important role in social interactions. - It presents research suggesting that infant smiling progresses from reflexive smiles in the first month to more socially engaged smiles between 1-4 months that are tied to caregivers and reflect the infant's growing cognitive engagement with the world. - The author describes a proposed study to examine the relationship between sleeping and waking smiles in infants and the origins of social smiles by observing infant facial expressions in different contexts at home and in a lab over a period of 4 weeks.

1. Development of Smiling in Early Infancy Tim Dummer Early Social Learning lab Dalhousie University

2. The Emotional World Emotions in social interactions Body-oriented gestures {e.g., ‘thumbs up’} Language {e.g., “I’m ok”} Facial expressions {e.g., ‘smile’}

3. The Power of Emotional Facial Expressions Provides rich supply of info. to infer others’ emotional states and intentions Mediates our own emotions, thoughts, and behaviours Producing emotional expressions increases intensity of felt emotion (Coan, Allen & Harmon-Jones, 2001) Viewing emotional expressions induces same emotion in viewer (Wild, Erb & Bartels, 2001)

4. Consider this face How do you feel? How does this child feel?

5. Now, consider this face How do you feel? How does this child feel?

6. “Baby vs. The Mango ” The use of emotional expressions is especially ‘handy’ for the preverbal infant How does this infant feel about the mango? How does the infant express that?

7. “What a Wonderful (and interesting) World” Infants are born into a social world And ready to attract and absorb information from this social world HOW? Smiling One of the first social behaviors readily displayed by infants ( Sroufe & Waters, 1976 )

8. Babies Smile Too (and often)

9. Baby’s First Relationship

10. In What Contexts do Smiles Generally Appear? Reflexive Not stimulated, during sleep Elicited Stimulated, when awake

11. What Kinds of Smiles do Babies Show? Simple smiles Mastery smiles Social smiles Emotional relevance?? Social relevance??

12. Developmental Progression of Smiles in Infancy (<= I month) Neonatal - 1 month 1 month Most common during REM sleep Light touch and kinesthetic stimulation Voices Dynamic visual Vigorous touch stimulation More tied to caregiver Sroufe & Waters, 1976

13. Developmental Progression of Smiles in Infancy (1 - 4 months) 1-2 months 2-4 months Moving / nodding face Growing contingencies Stationary faces mostly Infants’ own participation Reflects infant’s growing cognitive engagement with world Sroufe & Waters, 1976

14. How would you categorize this Smile (and laughter)? One issue in the literature on infant smiling is that social smiles sometimes occur in non-social contexts and vice versa

15. Research Questions and Hypotheses What is the relationship between sleeping and waking smiles? What is the origin of social smiles?

16. Study Design W/in group longitudinal 3 contexts: Sleeping Awake social Awake nonsocial Infants’ facial expressions video recorded at home and at lab (type, frequency, duration)

17. In Search of the Elusive and Rare 4-week-old (need 40!!) IWK Prenatal Clinic Build relationship by providing talks Other prenatal clinics Pregnant mom yoga / exercise classes, Lamaze classes etc. Newspaper + posting ads / brochures Contacts

18. Any Questions / Suggestions? Two studies (at least): “From Babies to Babies” This research is funded by NSERC Acknowledgements: Kevin and Bronwyn Duffy Dr. Alison Thomson Shannon MacGillivray Chris Moore Early Social Learning lab