Smiling and other expressions on the face help the baby communicate with those around him. The smile, after crying, is the first social behavior of the child.
Parents are unanimous in this regard: everyone remembers their baby’s first smile. But we have to go back to the womb to talk about the first time that children smile. The latest technological advances allow specialists to verify that babies, when they are in the womb, already have facial expressions, such as the smile, which is explained as a reflex act in their preparation for birth. The newborn maintains this habit by sleeping. This first form of smile or lip movement is related to the internal sensations and the activity of the central nervous system. It is an innate and spontaneous grimace caused by a feeling of well-being.
After the second week, babies react to the voice, which causes them to smile. From the second month on, the smile widens and is accompanied by a slight lip lift. Between the month of life and the second, the true smile awakens and can already be considered an authentic social expression. He soon perceives the reactions that this gesture provokes in others.
Once they are 4 or 5 months old, they go from smiling to laughing. The baby participates in his environment through hatches of happiness, which will manifest with slight babble. He will laugh at situations that, paradoxically, he did not like before, and even scared him: that Mom hides behind a napkin and appears, that they tickle her tummy, that Dad throws her through the air, etc. The baby’s own imagination and fantasy will also help him provoke a hilarious reaction: he will be amused by simply turning a common object like a spoon into a toy that flies like an airplane to his mouth.
After seven months…
Laughter is considered as a prolongation of the smile, although they are different emotional expressions due to their shape and the stimuli that provoke it. Laughing is a very intense emotion. It is essential for the emotional development of the child and essential to consolidate his relationship with his family. The laughter of satisfaction does not occur before seven or eight months. The baby is already laughing with joy and beginning to appreciate the first affective rewards for his efforts.
At one year of age, he begins to understand how the world around him works and there are many things that amuse him, especially everything unexpected or that comes out of the routine such as, for example, that Dad disguise himself or that some object falls to the ground. And what makes your baby smile?